Who has experiences with the Stoeger Cougar?

[buckeye .45]

Everytime I see these advertised at my favorite gun-store, it seems to me that it is a lot of gun for the money. My understanding is that Stoeger bought all the stuff from Beretta to make them, and moved the manufacturing to Turkey.

Are parts, sights, magazines, and holsters interchangeable between the Beretta model, and the Stoeger models? That would be a big advantage if they were.

I am particularly looking for anyone's experience with the 9mm or .45 models. I think I might need to have one on the list, but I want to see what info others can provide on them first.

[DefensiveCarry.com]

[JBPDXOR]

I own a Cougar 9mm and have shot over 2500 rounds of the cheapest ammo I can buy. I have never had any FTF, FTE, Shove pipe, or a n y t h i n g.

Why did I buy this gun? It just fit my hand compared to everything else. I wanted a DA/SA with a exposed hammer. I spent a lot of time investigating the Stoeger Cougar. I found out the Cougar was NATO certified. Built with the same CNC machines that Beretta used to make the original Cougar back in the 1990's. Stoeger was bought and brought into the Beretta family so Stoeger could obtain a large handgun contract with the Cougar 8000. Beretta quality at a lower cost and very similar to the PX4 which Beretta closed down the production of the Cougar to make way for the PX4 in a composite frame.

To answer some of your questions, ....most everything is different.
I bought my magazines( 15rd and 10rd )from Midwest and Beretta for $19.95 each
Some generic holsters can hold the Cougar.
I do not know about the parts but like everything else these days, nope?
Now I am seeing Stoeger is advertising, so I would think Beretta will start to stock/re-stock parts.
Yes, you will be contacting Beretta for your Stoeger parts.

Well all of that is well and good but is it a quality handgun? Hell yes, and why ? It weighs 32oz empty and this helps with re-coil.
I like an all metal gun. I like the ease of cleaning. I like the how grip fits and holds in my hands. I like the design of the barrel not tilting but rather rotating. I like the way the rear/front site aligns and a slight gap on either side of the of the rear site with the front site. ( I went to Jo Ann's fabric and bought some glow in the dark paint and painted the white dots)
I like the manual safety because I use it when loading and un-loading to give me the extra safety margin.
The rotating barrel, I guess helps with reducing the snap of a 9mm(I only had a 586 38/357 to compare it).
So, I need to say that I am able to hit the objects which I am aiming and able to shot a total of 16 rounds .
Look at the size and the Cougar fits the "compact size", it is the hand grip which is a little larger and longer that makes this gun just a little harder to conceal, 5.5" high.
One of the first things I did was to order the "D" spring to help reduce trigger pull and Yes, it did help. Other people have stated that the trigger pull is just smooth as butter.

One of the things I like is how high my hand sits up against the back strap. This helps with felt re-coil as well as front site alignment.
I do a fair amount of dry fire ( oh a tip here: I use old ear plugs and place them between the hammer and the slide to help reduce firing pin damage and I always use a snap cap).
I am finding that I am able to be at a natural site alignment instantly and accurately with the Cougar. The front sight is on target and in alignment, so I do not have to make an adjustment.
I clean my guns after every shoot and I use a lot of grease on the slide, barrel, locking block, re-coil spring. I use Tetra Gun grease and oil. The grease for the rotating block and barrel plus the slide. The Tetra Oil for the trigger & hammer. Yup, I have to wipe the gun off several times. Cougar likes to be a little wet.
Now I may do the lubing differently, if I lived in the desert but here in the NW, we Rust.

Yes, everyone who has shot my Cougar loves it and are looking to buy one in the future. The 45 has a large hand grip, so you would need to hold one for a few minutes and get the true feeling if it to big for your hand or not.

Now let's talk about how I wear the Cougar. I have a sheep skin fanny pack$20, a cheap shoulder holster$20, and a wal mart air pistol $7.00 fabric holster that hold a spare magazine and has a locking strap. I use a $4 cell phone fabric holder to hold either 2 magazines or 1 mag and a tactic flashlight as well as a knife and it has a magnetic cover. I recently bought a pistol bag in the event I shoot IDPSA$5. Now my everyday care is a quality leather holster I bought from Littebearholsters.com and Dave Galloway.
This holster is a complete package I had Dave build for me. A 1.5" wide dark brown shark skin belt $95 and a IWB/OWB leather holster trimmed with dark brown shark skin belt loops and re-enforcement for retaining the throat of the holster $115.
I can wear this holster IWB, OWB, between the pants and my belt, and I even made a spring steel bracket to mount the beltloops so I could turn this holster into a "tuckable" holster as well. ( I am going to order some tuckable kydex belt loops soon).

After all that, what I am saying is that I bought some of the cheapest items and also invested some good money into the belt and holster where it makes a difference.

Am I happy, you damn better believe it. AND I spent less than $600 for all the above.

JBPDXOR

[Hieny]

I own a new Stoeger Cougar 8040 from Gander Mt. It's a great gun for all the reasons that JBPDXOR states!! The only thing with mine is I have fired Relods and factory ammo and have not had any hangfires, stovepipes, or anything that would question it's reliability. I had a friend make me a IWB holster similiar to Crossbreed's and it works real well as he molded the Kydex to the gun itself. I don't know about the accessories for it as Stoeger has none but Beretta does. Not sure if all are compatible yet! Will look for some things. The only thing is I wish it had a Picatinny rail or similiar for lights or Lasers. O Well, can't have everything!!

[atctimmy]

I have shot one a few times and they seem solid. They do seem like a lot of gun for the money. I'm just not a big fan of the da/sa type trigger or I probably would have bought one. That's not to say that the Stoeger has a bad trigger, I just don't like that type of trigger.

[buckeye .45]

JBPDXOR, thank you for that awesome write up, it makes me want one even more now. They really do seem like excellent deals.

Hieny, there is at least one model that has a rail system, as they show one on the Stoeger website with a WML attached.

Timmy, I tend to appreciate all of the trigger styles, the safety location/type isn't my forte, but I think still think I would like one in my collection.

[Devilsclaw]

I have one in 9mm Luger. Great gun for the money. Mine likes to run wet. If it gets very dirty, it will malfunction like crazy, but if kept clean and lubed as it should be, it runs fine. Accuracy is about normal for a pistol of this type. I had hoped the rotary barrel would improve accuracy and maybe reduce recoil, but if it does, I cannot notice. Beretta mags work, available from CDNN for about $20 for the 15 rounders. It was my first "wonder-nine" and it is really fun to just shoot and shoot without having to reload.

The frame finish is great, but the slide finish is kinda cheap "Brownell's Gun Kote" out of a spray can looking stuff. If they would have just parkerized it, like the Berettas, it would have looked much better, but it is still ok.

Having said all that, I just don't ever get too excited about the Stoeger. I think it's a great gun, but maybe just a little boring I guess. I just don't find myself taking it out much. I should I guess, but always take some others instead. The grip feels good, but I still prefer a 1911, so that's what I usually shoot. But for a "working" gun, or bang for you buck, the Cougar is a fine one.

[livetohunt22]

awesome gun handles great shoot nice even my wife likes it. i would recommend this handgun to anyone

[Eagleks]

First, Beretta bought out Stoeger. So, it's still a Beretta gun, made from Beretta tools, and they just put it under the Stoeger name.

Own a Beretta Cougar, and we've compared it to the Stoeger Cougar. They are exactly the same, except for the finish, as least as far as I can tell. The Beretta seems a little more "polished".

No problems with it ever. It's a very good quality gun, that's been ignored... due to the decocker mostly, by many.

[twr]

Just ran 300 rounds of tula through my new 8000l. Have to say im pretty happy, specially with the "quality" of ammo I was using. Ran flawless

[Doodle]

I had a 8045 years ago, I remember that trigger being the heaviest thing in the world. In sa mode it was somewhere in the 16 pound range. Other wise good gun I just couldn't shoot it for crap (very early in my pistol shooting resume). Between that trigger and anticipation, rounds would fall quite low if I tried to shoot fast at all.

[bballj14]

Very reliable and take down is a breeze, I couldn't hit anything with it tho.

[Toorop]

I handled one over at my local gun shop and it felt nice. The price is reasonable and I believe it is made with the same standards as the Beretta was when they manufactured it. I would recommend it.

[Skip56]

They are actually made by Berrata, same equipment, engineering, etc. only difference is it is made in Turkey instead of Italy. I was at my local gun store looking for a Berrata 45. and they recommended the Stoeger, more or less the same gun but about $100 cheaper. I love mine and think it was a very good buy. Got it for $450. Shoots great, no problems. I wouldn't trade it.

[JR_Kaye]

By a happy accident, I acquired the 9mm Cougar about 6 months ago. It is possibly the easiest shooting pistol I have ever owned. As reliable as they come and as stated in some replies in this thread, can shoot pretty much any ammo (no matter how low cost) and come back for more. The only modification I have made is to add a Houge 2 finger sleeve to the grip. I found the handle to be just a touch small for me but this cured it and the buddy who sold it to me, after shooting it with the sleeve added, instantly regretted selling it. I would highly recommend this pistol to anyone.

As far as accessories, they are a bit tough to find. I have an Uncle Mike's Size 15 holster that works ok but is a bit tight, however, a Tagua IWH leather holster is ideal and carries it perfectly. I removed the steel clip and simply use the slots for a close to the body carry on the outside. Spare magazines were a bit tricky and rather than pay the 40 bucks on the after market sites, I got on Beretta's mailing list and only paid 20 plus shipping each. This did take a couple months though, waiting for them to become available.

[kiabeoton1]

i picked one up a while back and they are great