Some articles ive read, including those by Masaad Ayoob, have stated that this pistol in .40 far outshoots any Glock of the same caliber. Wilhelm Bubits was the designer of the new Steyr line of pistols. He used to work for Glock and was cop at one point. He writes of the new design that the Steyr is much safer to fire in .40 than the Glock of the same caliber due to cutcorner design on the part of Glock when converting theyre existing 9mm to the beefier load. Since the Steyr started out as a .40 and then was ramped down to 9mm it has a much stronger lock up system and a well supported chamber as evident by the almost non-existant expansion of brass after firing full power loads. He also writes that some ammo manufacturers have beefed up their .40 brass just so it has a better chance of surviving when fired in a Glock chamber. Also the Steyr trigger rated at 5lb and 1/8 travel is a significant improvement to Glocks mushy long pull. With a lower barrel axis than Glock the felt recoil is much less. This is a double action pistol. He goes on and on comparing Glock to the Steyr and in every one of the comparisons Steyr comes out the better of the two. You can read the article at www.sightm1911.com/lib/review/steyr40.htm
I was wondering if anyone has had range experience with this model before i make a purchase.
edited to make the link active.

I have owned one.  I had to sell it when I was short of funds.

After some initial teething problems, I really learned to like this pistol.  Mine was a Steyr M-40.

When I bought the pistol and took it out to shoot for the first time, I had a lot of malfunctions where the slide would not return fully to battery after firing.  The slide would seem to "hang up" about 1mm prior to being fully closed on the new round.  After 500 rounds, the problem was still happening about once every third of fourth magazine.  I also had one of the earlier ones that had the trigger that would cause a variable pull weight from time to time--a design defect.  GSI, the importer in Georgia, put out a non-safety related recall on them to have the trigger group replaced.  I sent it off to do that, plus have the issue of the slide not going into battery looked at.  When I got the gun back, it appeared that the gunsmith had polished the breech face.  From that point foward the pistol was flawless.

I do like this pistol MUCH more than Glocks, as I am one of those who feels a Glock is akin to holding a 2x4, and am convinced that Gaston Glock must have used a 2x4 as a reference point when designing the pistols horrible ergonomics.  The Glock would be perfect IMHO if the ergonomics were not so bad.  The Steyr seemed the answer, and it became my favorite pistol.

It should be noted that GSI is no longer providing warranty service on this pistol as Steyr-Mannlicher has failed to renew their contracts with any US business for not only importation, but warranty service.  Multiple letters from GSI have gone unanswered.  So, if you want to have your pistol serviced, then GSI will do it, but for a fee.