What's everybody's take on these? Buddy bought one awhile back and I finally got to look it over today. Seems like a decent gun but he hasn't shot it very much. His is a stainless finish with a matching compensator, he paid $1400 NIB for it and it looks like they are bringing a little more than that on GB.

I have an original coonan and it is a tack driver.
Love it, and would not hesitate to buy again

My brother had an early gun and it was "NOT a Keeper"

Jammed frequently (Rimmed .357 was designed for wheel gun, not a semi-automatic pistol feeding from a stacked rounds magazine).

The Front Sight came off in his shooting his first 100 rounds.

In THEORY it's a cool concept.  However the execution (at least on his early 80's version) sucked.

I shot the shorter "Cadet" model some years back.
Half a box of ammo and my hand had the shakes for the next half hour.

Lets face it the 357 magnum is probably the most unpleasant cartridge recoil wise to shoot.
I rather fire a .44 magnum all day.

The early IMI .357 Deagles I owned and shot back in the day were reliable, quite accurate and, due to their size and weight, dampened felt-recoil considerably. No mag hiccups whatsoever.

However, because of their size and weight, to me they were only range toys, never EDC candidates, ... although I did shoot one quite a bit in the old Bowling Pin Matches that were popular back then. Eventually I sold them to fund the purchase of more 10mm pistols as I was getting heavily into that cartridge.

The .357 Magnum, when fired from the 5" 1911-platform, should not  - in theory -  be any worse than shooting the full-power 10mm AUTO from a Delta Elite (or similar 5" 1911), as far as felt recoil goes.

But hiccups are hiccups, and it needs to be functionally reliable.

Will they shoot .38s?

My buddies gun came with an extra spring for .38s but he's never tried any. He's more of a collector so he never really shoots any of his guns much.

I had a B model for awhile.  It always functioned fine, but accuracy is a bit mediocre.  The LAR Grizzly is a better built gun and has several caliber swapping options.

Tony

P.S. I have shot 38 specials from a Grizzly with a light spring.

Dup'd it somehow

If a guy is heavily invested in 357 Mag, it makes sence.

If not, 10mm is a better option.

Reliable feeding made for semi auto, and a little more oomph on the top end.

I watched a guy shoot his Coonan once at the local range. The slide velocity was what I would best describe as "violent". I thought to myself "that gun will shoot itself apart before too long."

For the record, I own & shoot a DE .357mag with magna-porting. Love this thing. Runs 100%.

I'm all for eclectic calibers in a 1911 but the .357mag doesn't seem to be a good fit, IMO.

I know my buddy said the muzzle blast with the comp was violent at the indoor range and that the guy next to him wasn't impressed.

I had the opportunity to rent one at an indoor range several years back.  The ammo was CCI Blazer Brass .357 with the 158gr JHP, which is fairly warm stuff.

+very nice trigger, and I am a trigger snob, maybe about three pounds, with little takeup, very crisp release, short reset
+lots of fun to shoot, recoil stout but manageable
+enormous white fireball on every shot will impress your friends, intimidate your enemies, and make the ladies swoon
+groups at 10 yards were nice and small

-grip is unavoidably very large, very long from front to back, I had no problem with it but individuals with average or smaller adult male hands may have some difficulty here
-failed to go into battery three or four times in 50 rounds, I mean the slide just halted 1/2" or 1/4" short of going into battery
-those nice small groups were 6" or 7" below point of aim at 10 yards
-the magazine held eight but could not be seated in the gun with the slide closed if it held more than seven rounds

Granted, it was a range rental gun, filthy and bone dry.  Maybe it would have been reliable with proper maintenance and lubrication.  And maybe I was holding it wrong, but I shot a USP 40 at the same range on the same day and POI was perfectly, exactly, POA.  Your mileage, of course, may vary.

Sometime back there was word that Conan Arms was looking into making their automatics in 10mm. After looking at the specs for the 357 Mag and the 10mm Magnum, I sent them an email suggesting that they look at making them inn10mm Mag.
I received an email back that their engineers were looking into that. That’s the last I’ve heard, and it’s been a couple of years.

Have a grizzly too.  I concur, but the coonan has still been an awesome gun

i had a first gen one. i have traded in and out of a lot of guns, but that and the sw-460 xframe are the few that i have rag-rets selling/trading...