Know anything about Coonan Magnums?

[DAL]

Purely out of curiosity, since I have no absolutely no plan to buy one, has anyone heard anything about Coonan Magnum pistols? I guess they have a 1911-style pistol that shoots .357 magnum revolver cartridges, which sounds like an interesting concept, if it works.
DAL

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Reading "Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal," by Ayn Rand, should be required of every politician and in every high school.

 

[lowrider]

DAL-You are correct-the Coonan is simply a 1911 streched a little to accept 357 Mag. ammo. It is an interesting gun to play with, a lot of fun to shoot. You can shoot full power loads, and the recoil is much less than a revolver. The Desert Eagle is another semi-auto 357, but very large, the Coonan is not much bigger than a standard 1911. Mine has been pretty reliable with full power loads, as lighter loads might not cycle the action. Mine likes 158 gr Hornady XTP at 1400fps. While the gun could be carried, I never have.
BTW, Coonan makes a smaller version called the Cadet, which I assume is meant to be carried. They also sell a 38 special conversion kit, which consists of a magazine and lighter recoil spring.
The quality of my gun is very good, and the trigger is excellent. Hope this answers your questions.

 

[Paladin]

DAL,
I had a Coonan .357 about five years ago. I had a trigger job put on it by the factory and put in an adjustable sight and an ambidextrous safety myself. I did carry it off-duty for a time and generally really liked the gun. It was well made, accurate, used several M1911 parts and the company was very good in their customer service and support. The only minus was that it was somewhat ammunition sensitive. In that I mean that it did not jam or such but had the disconcerting habit of partially ripping the case head off Winchester 125 grain hollow points. I think this was more to do with the Winchester brass than anything else and I fired several hundred rounds of different types with nary a hitch, other than the Winchester load. I highly recommend the Federal 125 grain hollowpoint for any .357, especially the Coonan. However, the Winchester was our duty issued ammunition and I have a personal rule of thumb: "If it don't shoot everything, everytime and put it where I was aiming, I don't keep it". Thus it was traded away. A real shame, closest thing to a concealable carbine I can think of.

Take care and God bless,
Paladin

 

[G. Kennedy]

I once owned a Coonan Model B .357, Stainless Steel with wood grips and fixed sights. It was accurate, reliable, had a good trigger. I didn't hold on to it because everything I read and even the folks I talked to at Coonan said it should work without changing the recoil spring for bullet weights down to 125grains. With mine you couldn't go any lower than 145grain Silvertips without changing the spring. At that time they came from the factory with a 22lb. spring. I had to go down to a 16lb. spring for it to work reliably with lighter bullets. I just didn't want to play the change the springs game to shoot different loads so I didn't hold on to it.

If it matters to anyone out there the last time I knew you could get a couple of the Kramer holsters for a Coonan since Kramer himself owns a couple of them.......

 

[BMWGS80]

I have used a Coonan .357 for five years now. I have a complete duty rig and shoulder rig for it. I als o have a Milt Sparks style six pack mag carrier. My load of choice is Rem Golden Sabers or Winchester Silver tips.
The gun has had no less than 5000 rounds through it with no problems once I found the right factory loads. The only thing that will make me trade it off is when Coonan finally gets the .41 Mag in production. I will then convert to all .41 mag pistols.

Cheers,

ts