SITES RESOLVER M9

SITES RESOLVER M9

The SITES "Resolver" pistol was born at the beginning of the '80s as a simple and fast to use self-defence weapon for the italian civilian market. Being at that time the .30-Luger (.7'65mm-Parabellum) the highest caliber allowed in Italy for civilian pistol users, this gun, engineered by ROBERTO TEPPA (the same engineer of the SITES M4 "SPECTRE" submachinegun), was initially available only in .9x17mm, or 9mm-Kurtz (380-ACP). You can see that model at:
http://www.securityarms.com/20010315/galleryfiles/1500/1590.htm

Being shortly thereafter allowed almost ALL the other commonly used pistol calibers for civilian use, except the .9x19mm-Parabellum (that is still forbidden for civilians in Italy) and the .45-ACP (it became legal in the year 2000, before that date .45 pistols in Italy chambered and fired an hybrid cartridge called .45-HP, or the .9mm-Steyr), the SITES firm, that was by then almost going belly up, in a last ditch attempt tried to launch on the market a re-engineered version of the .380 SITES "Resolver", which had been unlucky in catching customers, for the newest calibers available to italian civilians. There was, furthermore, a .9x19mm-Parabellum version for Military/LE market and for export.

The SITES M9 "Resolver" was a longer and slightly larger version of the  SITES M380 "Resolver", with a 15-rounds capacity magazine for both the newly available rounds. It featured a locked breech design with internal hammer, furthermore it had no external safeties, such as the previous M380 model: it was thought that a simple "automatic safety", that is disengaged at the pull of the trigger but that's enough to prevent accidental discherges, would have resulted in appealing the less expert customers, those that, when using a weapon, just know that they have to "pull out the gun, point it at the target, and pull the trigger".

It wasn't so. If the previous SITES M380 "Resolver" was unsuccessful mainly due to the TAXES that the italian government puts on the firearms' prices, that most of the times are DOUBLED (this was as a measure to prevent excessive spread of firearms, now thought it's no longer so even if the taxes on the firearms' prices are still pretty high), the M9 versions were unsuccessful for other reasons.

#1: The .9x19mm-Parabellum version, due to the lack of the external safety, failed to lure the export and Military/LE market that the manufacturers were aiming at.

#2: The .9x21mm-IMI had some customers, but the bad fame that it rapidly gained between them made the ultimate unluck of the weapon. In fact the M9 pistol was designed over the M380, it was nothing more than an ENLARGED VERSION of the M380, and so were the components. Its structure and its components sounded (and ultimately WERE) too weak for the .9x19mm-Parabellum and .9x21mm-IMI rounds, furthermore the recoil was too high, and the barrel rifling was inclined to wear out after some thousands rounds were fired.

In conclusion, SITES ultimately discarded the "Resolver" series of pistol, and it's a mess, because the M380 was as good as, to say, a Beretta "Cheetah", and it would have had more luch with some add-ons, and the M9 could have been improved. SITES survived manufacturing the M4 SPECTRE submachinegun, another creation of ROBERTO TEPPA aimed to the Military/LE and counterterror - Special Forces market, and at the end thet even tried to appeal the civilian customers offering on the civilian market a semiauto-only version of the M4 "Spectre" pistol with no foregrip and with a carbine-size barrel (known in the USA as the SITES "SPECTRE-HC" and chambered for both .45-ACP and .9x19mm-Parabellum, known in Italy as the SITES "RANGER" and chambered for the .45-HP only); when this turned out to be luckless too, SITES quitted the firearms market, and ROBERTO TEPPA gave his resignations.

Now, ROBERTO TEPPA is working for the swiss manufacturing firm of THOR, that has an italian subsidiary called MODULO MASTERPIECE. Those manufacturers have improved the original "Resolver" project, as shown at the last EXA expo, and they're ready to throw it again on the market, producing the .9x19mm version in Switzerland and the .380-ACP and .9x21mm-IMI versions in Italy. See them at:
http://www.securityarms.com/20010315/galleryfiles/2500/2533.htm

SITES Resolver M9 in 9x21mm-IMI (Domestic version for Italy)

SITES Resolver M9 in 9x19mm-Parabellum (for Export)

Photo and information from: PIERANGELO TENDAS

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