Reviewed: EAA Corp Girsan MC14T Solution Tip Up .380

This review didn't begin as a review. It began as an earnest search for a handgun that could be used by a family member who has poor hand strength coupled with arthritis. Living alone in an area where crime is increasing has made our family member nervous and, as many do, they decided it was past time to purchase a handgun. We found the EAA Corp MC14T Solution .380 to be a good fit ... and in the course of this process, a gun review just sort of appeared. Here it is.

According to the EAA Corp website, when engineering this pistol, Girsan reportedly focused on ease of use and high capacity for a carry gun. With a double stack magazine capacity of 13 and a weight of 1.4 pounds empty, the pistol could be well suited as a carry gun. When I measured the Girsan Solution I tested, the length from the muzzle to the rear of the hammer/beavertail grip was just under 7.5 inches. The height of the grip is 4.5 inches.

This gun is made in Giresun, Turkey and appears very well made. Parts are fitted and the gun is very comfortable to handle. I began familiarizing myself with the gun after reading the manual a few times, and the first thing that struck me was how easy it is to operate. I suspect that is its best selling point (although the MSRP coming in just under $500, and retailing for even less than that, is surely a very close second).

The tip-up feature is, in my opinion, a big draw for those having a tough time racking a slide. I was surprised how easy the lever, located on the right side of the pistol, was to operate. A short push downward with my trigger finger popped the barrel right up to gobble the first .380 round. Those with less finger strength can easily reach over with their thumb and pop the barrel up.

Grasping the slide to rack it is more difficult than, say, a Glock or 1911, simply because there is not much to grab. Still, it is not too difficult if that is what the owner would want to do. Either way, the first round goes into the chamber and shooters are ready to go with either a double action pull or by cocking the hammer and sending the first round downrange with a lighter pull.

Speaking of trigger pull, I found the double action pull averaged 8.3 pounds of effort while the single action pull averaged 4.2 pounds of effort. This is not at all bad. The pull itself was smooth without any grating, and the trigger on the gun I tested breaks cleanly and crisply. 

The sights are white three dot sights which are easy enough to line up. When shooting I decided to purchase some of the target rounds that most people would probably use to familiarize themselves with the gun. First, I used some Sellier and Bellot FMJ 92 grain--which have jammed in other .380 pistols, such as a few of the GLOCKs we have. In the Girsan they fired flawlessly. Next up was some Aguila FMJ 95 grain cartridges which also had no hiccups or jams. The third ammo I put through the Girsan was some Fiocchi 95 FMJ grain. As with the other brands, these were also without any fault whatsoever.

For kicks and to determine how jacketed hollowpoints (JHP) would load and group, I used some 88 grain reloads that were sitting on the shelf. I put those downrange and found the cycling and functioning of the rounds to be quite good. None of the ammunition that I have seems to cause any issues in this gun and that was right out of the box.

After shooting to familiarize myself with the gun, I set up some ShootNC targets at 22 yards and fired several groups of 5 shots with each type of ammo. Here are the results. 

If you shoot long enough you get surprised by results at times. My surprise this time was that the jacketed hollowpoints, which were the lightest bullets, shot the most accurately. There are likely more than a few reasons why this may have happened, but the end result is that this gun does very well with self-defense loads.

I asked my wife to shoot the gun to get her unbiased impression. She loves the gun. She said it fired flawlessly, was easy to use and load and she loved how the felt recoil was very manageable. My wife thought the grip on the gun was good, not too narrow and not too fat. The two things she commented on that were not overwhelmingly positive was that the gun was not, in her opinion, a great size for a woman to conceal carry, but it would make a great self defense truck gun or a house gun.

The second comment she made was that although the gun was easy to use, even for weaker hands, the double stack magazine was a bit tough to load fully. A universal speed loader would help with this, and I will be getting one for this gun as well as a second magazine, since it only comes with one magazine.

Some other notable features include a firing pin block safety, meaning you have to pull the trigger for the gun to go off. It has an ambidextrous safety. It has an accessory rail too. The barrel and slide are steel with an aluminum frame. There is a cool accessory that can be purchased for those not wanting to store their gun loaded. It is called a loading baseplate tool, which basically stores the round you will put in the tip up barrel at the exterior and bottom of your magazine. Loading that round is as easy as putting the gun on safe, tipping up the barrel, sliding the base of the magazine over the barrel stripping off the one round.

The gun is available in five different finishes, all of which come with a limited lifetime warranty and one magazine. Overall the gun gets rave reviews from my family. Everyone who fired it liked it, and the apparent quality, fitting of parts, ease of use and reliability is a big reason why this gun will be sought after by a lot of people, particularly those wanting a reliable pistol for a good price point. MSRP $498; EAACorp.com