Well, the RP9 finally arrived today and I picked it up on my Lunch Hour. Comes in a nice Remington cardboard box with a foam insert fitted to the gun with holes for the 2 magazines and a cable lock. 2 extra grip inserts, but the installed one feels/points just fine so I will probably leave it on.
First impressions. The gun is well made as far as machine marks go, the inside of the slide is pretty smooth except for one tool path on the back beside the striker, there is a step visible where it stopped and a narrower one finished the cut. Just barely noticeable, the wonders of modern CNC machining. Bbl is smooth with barely visible machining grooves at the rear section. Very nice. Captive flat wire recoil spring assembly, easy to retract the slide. The frame is of course plastic, nicely molded. One area that needs improvement is the texturing on the grip, not nearly aggressive enough, feels like when wet it would slip around pretty easy.
The serial numbered part is a stamped steel chassis secured inside the plastic lower by a single pin up front, looks like the rear sits under a shelf in the frame. Punch out the pin and it should lift free. Probably done so a compact model would just entail a different mold for the lower and a shortened slide and bbl instead of needing new innards. Maybe even sell a retrofit kit "2 guns in 1" without needing an FFL transfer.
Here's where some design choices are iffy. First, the ejector. Stamped sheet metal, it is secured to the internal chassis by a single pin at the extreme rear, which leaves it free to pivot upward far enough to hit the rear of the slide cover during reassembly and keep it from sliding fully on. It is also very long and thin, looks like it would bend or break easily, especially if it keeps hitting the slide during reassembly!
The second is a fully cocked striker. The Glock and a ton of similar designs only cock the striker about halfway when the trigger is forward. Pulling the trigger, like on a DA revolver, shoves the trigger bar against the striker pushing it back to the fully cocked position then releases it to fire. This results in a fairly long trigger pull to get it to fire. The RP9, OTOH, has a separate sear at the rear that catches the striker when cycled and holds it at the full cock position. Very much like a single action hammer fired auto, the trigger bar when pulled catches the sear and pulls it down to release the striker. Very short, light pull compared to a Glock for example, but still tons of overtravel and a bit of takeup. It is actually a decent trigger pull, although the reset is inaudible, long, and barely felt which some folks will dislike. Me, I can't hear the damn thing with muffs on (or ears ringing after firing without) and fully release the trigger on each shot, so not an issue for me. Just have to be careful when holstering a chambered gun as it is an easier shorter pull from safe to bang.
And as expected the right side slide release is not operating, pushing it down just flexes the thin steel piece inside. Left side of course works because that thumbpiece is the one actually engaging the slide. Moving to a slightly thicker and/or hardening this part would make it operable.
Magazine appears well made, holds 18 rds and comes with two. PSA has spares for $14.99 right now, may have to pick up a few if it works well. What I don't like about it is a distinct lack of feed lips. It is a double stack mag tapering to a single feed at the top. I like a magazine to have curled over lips that positively retain the top round, this looks like it just tapers to a smaller width than the cartridge. May never be an issue but not what I prefer. May also be the cause of a few reported instances of slamming a mag into a locked open gun tossing a round overboard!
Now for the only real "issue" so far, the takedown. It won't. Instructions say lock open slide, rotate takedown lever, run slide forward, pull trigger and hold (to release striker and lower sear below the path of the slide) and pull slide forward off the frame. Did all that, doesn't happen. What I found is if you hold the takedown lever to it's farthest position with your thumb against a bit of spring pressure, as you pull the trigger, about half the time it comes free. Rotate it there after the trigger is pulled, no go. Dunno what's going on there, all it does is expose a flat section to allow the bbl to slide over it when in the disassemble position, rotates the full width to block the bbl when in the normal position. If it is not aligned right unless it is pushed further I have no idea why it wouldn't release after a trigger pull, the sear is visibly clear of the slide so that is not holding it. It may get better once it breaks in, may not. Just annoying and something QC should have noticed at the factory.
One major plus is these are +P rated, even says it on the caliber stamping on the bbl. The manual OTOH, warns it is only safe to use the ammo type marked on the bbl and using +P is probably going to cause property damage, personal injury, and likely death. HUH???
If it functions it's well worth the $237 out the door it cost me.