Tisas PX-9 Gen 3 Duty Comp
- Graham Baates
- Jul 18
- 5 min read
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Not long ago we gave you a first-look at the Tisas PX-9 Gen 3 Duty Comp with much excitement as the PX-9 Gen 3 Duty had become a favorite and even ranked among the best striker-fire triggers encountered thus far, especially for the price.
What Is It? The PX-9 Duty Comp builds upon the PX-9 Gen 3 platform from Tisas with some updates. To be brief; this pistol adds some competition and range-performance tweaks to an already solid 9mm platform of a carry-sized slide and duty-sized frame.
What's New? The chunk-ported barrel and slide are of course the most obvious of the changes over the PX-9 Gen 3 Duty, but other updates include an aluminum trigger for better feel, new magazine well design, 4-option magazine release button, and an enlarged take-down lever to serve as a thumb rest or "gas pedal".
Who's it for? This is a fun one. The capacity and performance are fit for duty, but updated feature set point toward something one might want to take to a match. With a current retail price under $500 it's also a beginner-friendly gun. It seems that once again Tisas USA is bringing to market something everyone can enjoy and most can afford. With 27 different possible grip configurations and four different magazine release button height possibilities the PX-9 Duty Comp is also likely to work with most human hands.
Take a Look at the Tisas PX-9 Gen 3 Duty Comp in the tabletop video below. Rumble Link
Specifications:
Length: 7.27"
Height: 5.26"
Width: 1.33"
Weight: 27.7oz
Sight Radius: 6.31"
Barrel Length: 4.11" *(more on this at the end of the article)
Capacity: 18+1 / 20+1 (Sig 226-pattern magazines)
MSRP: $522.99
Online prices as of time article was written
Click links for current pricing
This being my fifth exposure to the PX-9 series of pistols I was farily confident I knew what to expect on the range, but the chunk port was new, and to avoid previous experiences biasing my opinion I of course had to apply the GBGuns range protocol including:
Cold Shots: Truly my first shots through the Tisas PX-9 Duty Comp.
Full Magazine +1: Suprisingly some modern guns still struggle with this. It's a test of how much play is in the magazine as well as how the slide cycles with pressure. This is also when I do my best to learn the trigger.
What's For Dinnerâ„¢: A test to see what ammunition the gun will eat. Does the gun feed the round from slide lock, will it cycle and feed another round of the same type, does the slide lock to the rear on empty, and is there any notable point of impact change with different loads.
For this gun the following ammunition was used:
Priced and linked where found at the time this article was written
90gr Underwood Xtreme Defender $27.85 / 20 at Widener's
95gr Magtech JSP $21.85 / 50 at Widener's
100gr Blazer Reduced Recoil $17.89 / 50 at Palmetto State Armory
115gr Sig 365 JHP $19.99 / 20 direct from Sig
115gr Hornady American Gunner $22.85 / 25 from Widener's
124gr Federal Premium HST $39.95 / 50 from Widener's
124gr PMC SFX JHP $24.85 / 50 from Widener's
135gr Hornady Critical Duty $29.85 / 25 from Widener's
147gr Winchester Defense JHP $25.85 / 50 at Widener's
165gr AMMO, Inc. /stelTH/ $21.25 / 50 at Target Sports
Standard range ammunition was PMC Bronze 115gr FMJ $249.99 / 1000 at True Shot
Sights & Trigger Control: on a 6" spinner target at a distance of 12 yards. We got this from Titan Great Outdoors and use it to gauge how learnable the trigger is and usable the sights are for forced, timed, precise shots.
Practical Accuracy: Five shots from a distance of seven yards at a one inch target. This isn't so much about printing a tight group as it is a culmination of the shooting experience and time for to collect thoughts prior to making a conclusion.
After Shots: Final impressions and reflections from the range session.
See the process yourself from my very first shot as I explore the Tisas PX-9 Duty Comp in the Shooting Impressions video below. Rumble Link
On the Range the Tisas PX-9 Duty Comp performed excellent as expected. I had some initial challenges hitting a 12" plate from 25 yards. That turned out to be the sights, or me, hitting slightly low and left as verified in the rest of the video. As for the port: It sure feels like it helps flatten muzzle flip, but the PX-9 Gen 3 platform was already a smooth shooter, so it's hard for me to say there's a dramatic difference. I'd like to shoot them side by side with AccuShoot to get some hard numbers.
I like the new magazine well as it doesn't add to the back end of the gun. The pre-installed medium magazine release button is maybe a little large for my hands, so I may reduce to the smaller button in the future. The enlarged take-dopwn lever serving as a thumb rest was a welcome improvement. I did not feel an appreciable difference with the trigger, but for this and other finer details I'll need to shoot the two guns side by side.
About that back bore: Few things are gained without compromise of some sort. That remains true with porting a barrel. The classic approach is to simply cut holes in the barrel to allow the expanding gasses to exert directional force on the barrel. The problem/risk with that is that parts of the bullet jacket, especially plated bullets like Blazer Brass can be shaved off as the bullet passes the cut in the barrel. When this happens there is a chance for those shavings to be ejected out of the port and of course the bullet now has an imbalance causing potential accuracy issues.
The alternative is to back bore the barrel as Tisas has done with the PX-9 Duty Comp. By making the bore diameter slightly larger from the port onwards there is no risk that a stabilized bullet would scrape the cut in the barrel. The downfall here is that the rifling is shorter than the barrel length. This of this like adding a muzzle device to a rifle, but that muzzle device being a part of the barrel. There is less rifling, but safety is increased and concern about ammunition choice eliminated. Some question if this costs velocity, but I'm certain no more velocity is lost than the chunk-style port costs anyways.
You may think that an added-on compensator would be the solution, but in handguns where the barrel needs to move this added weight can reduce reliability. Additionally the pressure is at it's lowest at the muzzle, so I highly suspect that most end-of-barrel compensators get their "compensating" effect simply by adding weight where it has the most leverage, possibly no better than the classic influencer trick of simply mounting a heavy flashlight under the gun.
