In June, I was invited up to Hebron, Kentucky to tour Anderson Manufacturing’s facilities. Despite being impressed with the company, I’ve not written a word about that visit..until today.

The Andersons asked that I not do a manufacturing piece because it might “hint” that Anderson was preparing to roll out an entirely new (for them) product.

So I didn’t write about this family-owned business that has grown into a manufacturing team with more than 175 people and has full AR-product lines; from components to entire guns.

Yes, they were previewing off their newest product. In today’s new section, Anderson formally takes the wraps of their new Kiger 9c pistol.

Yes, it’s a pistol. No, it’s not an AR-style pistol. They already do that. The Kiger 9c is an honest-to-goodness striker-fired polymer handgun.

Known for making high-quality components for other AR-manufacturers, the Andersons branched out to offer their own broad line of long guns. But their R&D team has quietly been working on their own striker-fired polymer pistol. And the work’s been underway for quite a while.

As it was explained to me, “we didn’t want to let anyone see it until we were certain it was ready.”

Anderson’s Kiger 9C is the latest entry into the striker-fired polymer handgun marketplace. It resembles a number of the other polymer handguns, but impressed with its out-of-the-box accuracy.

Having seen, and shot the Kiger 9C, I would agree that the pistol is ready for market. Like other Anderson products, it’s well-thought out and stresses function over flash.

That having been said, there’s not too-much you can say about a striker-fired polymer pistol the hasn’t been said for some time. It’s not tutti-fruitti colored, doesn’t have 3,452 adjustable backstraps, and the model I shot didn’t have optic cuts. That doesn’t mean later models won’t -it means they concentrated on the basic job at hand: making an accurate, affordable, reliable pistol. With an MSRP of $429 and the ability to accept “most” Glock 19 Gen3 aftermarket parts, it’s certain to be an immediate entry in to the tuner market.

Looking at the Kiger 9C, there are features very reminiscent of the Glock pistol. As we’re often reminded, Glock began the polymer handgun business.

Unlike the current iterations of Glocks, the Kiger is not exactly what you’d refer to as smoothed or rounded. In fact, during our range time gun writer/SWAT officer/all-round shooter Jeremy Stafford remarked “it’s blocky, but I actually like the way it feels.”

Apparently he did. He’s a fine shot with virtually any gun, but he quickly obliterated the bulls-eye on his sighting target, then moved on to put some pretty impressive holes in the rest of them.

In the hands of an accomplished shooter like Jeremy Stafford (top) Anderson’s Kiger 9C is more than capable of impressive accuracy (bottom).

While I’m nothing like as accomplished a shooter as Jeremy, I had very little problem getting used to the Kiger 9C I was running. With an aggressive texturing and 1911ish grip angle it points very well, and features a mag well that’s easy to hit for quick reloads. It also has what we all agreed was a “very nice” trigger- it broke cleanly, reset obviously and lacked the creep that makes some pistols more closely resemble revolvers.

Laying on its case (top), the angularity of the Kiger 9C is noticeable, as is the aggressive gripping surface. When you get a grip on the pistol, you don’t notice the angularity so much as you appreciate the ease of maintaining a solid grip when shooting it (below)

The new Kiger 9C wasn’t rushed to market. In fact, the timeline for the visit to Hebron slipped a couple of times because the Anderson folks weren’t sure the gun was ready to be announced.

It’s a crowded marketplace, but this newest introduction is worth a look. Anderson has just offered out another piece of evidence that makes the case that it’s a great time to be a shooter. Today, solid- and affordable- guns are the rule, not the exception.

We’ll keep you posted.

—Jim Shepherd