Two Staccato P Duo Pistols Tested: Is Light Always Right?

A pair of beautiful Staccato P Duo 9mm semiauto pistols go head-to-head. The only difference? Five ounces. Does it make a difference?

May 31, 2023 By Jeremy Stafford

We’ve all heard the old wives’ tales about how lightweight, aluminum versions of steel duty guns are more difficult to manage. It’s the age-old compromise of portability versus shootability. I recently reviewed two Staccato P Duos to see if the old stories held true with modern materials and shooting techniques.

Two Staccato P Duo Pistols Tested Jeremy Stafford — (Muzzle Flash Media photo)

Let’s start with the tale of the tape. Both pistols are 2011-style pistols, meaning the grip module is polymer and houses a magazine of 16 to 24 rounds, depending on what the shooter wants. Both are single-action, recoil-operated, swinging link semiauto pistols with 4.4-inch bull barrels housed in their all-steel slides. Both are 8 inches long and 1.3 inches wide, putting them in the “duty-sized” pistol category, at least for me. Both also have very good triggers, which is important when making direct comparisons between pistols. Where the difference lies in these pistols is the metal frame that houses the firing components and the dustcover. On one pistol, it’s aluminum, and on the other, it’s steel. They look identical, but one weighs 28 ounces, and one weighs 33 ounces. Neither one is a super-lightweight, but does shaving 5 ounces off a pistol make any sort of practical difference? That’s what I wanted to know.

Staccato P Duo Pistol Steel Frame — (Muzzle Flash Media photo)

I started by inspecting, cleaning, and lubricating both pistols. Look, I know that it’s become popular for reviewers to get pistols to fail by running them dry and dirty, but there’s time for that silliness down the road. For this test, I wanted both pistols starting on firm footing.

Staccato knows a thing or two about building solid pistols, so there wasn’t any manufacturing debris or metal chips in either gun. Disassembly was simple, and the Dawson Precision Tool-Less guide rod used in both guns is a thing of genius. For those not familiar, the tool-less guide rod allows the shooter to disassemble the pistol without using a bent paper clip to hold the gun open like on most other bull-barrel, 1911-style pistols. It utilizes an internal lever that folds up from the guide rod body to hold everything in place, allowing for easy disassembly in the field. The Dawson Precision Tool-Less guide rod eliminates my biggest gripe about bull barrel, 1911-style pistols and has helped to change my mind about the fitness of bull barrel 1911s for duty use.

Staccato P Duo Pistol Aluminum Frame (Muzzle Flash Media photo)

For the test, I wanted to make it as simple as possible. Since it’s impossible to remove subjectivity completely, I decided to embrace it. I compared actual carry of the two pistols, recoil between the two pistols, then a comparison of split times between the pistols. I thought about shooting both pistols against a marked straight line to measure the actual recoil of both pistols, but it didn’t really work out like I had intended, so I went with split times.

Two Staccato P Duo Pistols Aluminum and Steel Frame — Though subtle, the two pistols’ weight differences affected the author’s comfort level after all-day carry. Just 5 ounces is all it takes. (Muzzle Flash Media photo)

There is a 5-ounce difference between the pistols, and while that might not seem like that much of a difference, it was. After carrying each of the pistols all day, every day for several days at a time, I can honestly tell you that the 5 ounces makes a difference over the course of a workday. I have multiple 6mm to 9mm bulges in my spine that cause not only pain in my back but also weakness and numbness in my leg. That 5 ounces made a noticeable difference in my ability to move about relatively pain-free after the first 7 to 9 hours of carry. Test one goes to the aluminum-framed Staccato.