I love it when someone in the gun industry takes risks. It’s super easy to release a double-stack, polymer-frame, striker-fired 9mm pistol and call it a success. Doing something different, something unique, and something downright cool, like the Dragon from Rideout Arsenal, is what truly stands out.
The Rideout Arsenal Dragon
The Dragon pistol plants itself squarely in the premium, competition-ready segment of the market. Priced at $5,200.00, this pistol is clearly designed for the serious competitor or gun enthusiast who demands innovation and precision. The Dragon positions itself as a high-performance sports car rather than a Toyota sedan made for daily carry.
Before we dig into the Dragon, I feel it’s my responsibility to let you know that the Dragon is not yet available. In fact, it’s up for pre-order, with a promised lead time of six to nine months. With that said, I advise against pre-ordering any gun; there are too many tales of pre-orders and companies failing to deliver, both inside and outside the gun world. Bren Ten owners still remember.
What Is The Dragon?
At its core, it’s a $5,200 competition pistol. Yep, five thousand two hundred dollars. It’s not cheap, but it’s unlike any other handgun on the market. The main claim to fame is that the barrel is positioned in line with the wrist, a bit like the Chiappa Rhino, but in a semi-auto platform. If you looked at a side profile, the barrel isn’t where you’d assume.
The barrel sits in the same slot you’d normally expect to see a recoil spring. It sits that low, and it’s a fixed barrel. The idea is to lower the bore axis as much as possible to reduce muzzle rise and direct recoil straight back into the wrist. The overall goal is for shooters to have faster follow-up shots by reducing recoil and their need to track their sights.
The Dragon uses a lever-delayed blowback design for operation. This keeps recoil low and minimizes the amount of slide travel necessary to operate the pistol. Off the top of my head, the only other lever-delayed blowback pistol I’m aware of is the PSA Rock. A lever-delayed system uses a lever to delay the opening of the breech until the pressure drops to a safe level.
The lever-delayed system allows the bolt carrier to move rearward without allowing the bolt to move. The bolt is absorbing the force of the fired cartridge and wants to move, but the lever delay system transfers that force to the bolt carrier. This creates the delay that allows pressure to drop, enabling the bolt to safely retract, eject the spent case, and load another cartridge.
Like most delayed blowback systems, it’s not a locked breech design, but the delay system prevents the excessive recoil of a direct blowback system from being an issue. The low bore axis and lever-delayed system should make it a fairly light-recoiling weapon.
Beyond the Lever
The Dragon offers a few benefits inherent to its design. The unique layout of the pistol means the slide ends in front of the ejection port. This means you have less mass traveling rearward, which also reduces recoil.
The lack of a traditional reciprocating slide reduces the room needed to mount an optic, right? Well, kind of. Instead of mounting the optic to the slide, it’s mounted to a small section at the rear of the gun. This small section doesn’t reciprocate, which keeps your optic stationary. This makes it easier to track the red dot while shooting, as you aren’t struggling to track the dot moving with the slide.
I do believe this feature puts the Dragon into the Open or, at the very least, Limited category for the competition circuit. Don’t expect to carry the Dragon into a Limited Optics division. The gun uses the RMR cut for optics.
Interestingly enough, the Dragon uses Echelon magazines, which allow for 17- or 20-round capacities. The frame features integrated thumb rests (aka gas pedals) for recoil control.
A Fire Breather
The Dragon competition pistol is a beastly gun that looks amazing. It’s tough not to be impressed by the design. In this era, it’s impressive when someone isn’t just producing another Glock clone. I hope the Dragon succeeds. I want to see neat designs excel in this market, so other unique designs will be encouraged.
I’m not the pre-order type, but if the Dragon lives up to the hype, I’m going to absolutely dominate a local Steel Challenge match in the future.
