The Cougar Compact is a medium-size pistol, roughly the size of a Glock 19, with an aluminum alloy frame and a slide coated with the durable matte black Bruniton finish. Weighing in at 32 ounces, the pistol is chunky but feels good in the hand. The grip is just long enough for me to get my entire hand on it comfortably. The pistol has an ambidextrous safety/decocker that was harder to put on than to disengage and simple three-dot sights.

Stoeger cougar compact right side
Stoeger’s Cougar Compact is a medium size pistol, roughly the size of a Glock 19. Built on a Bruniton-finished aluminum alloy frame, the pistol weighs 32 ounces.

The safety can be left on (it isn’t spring loaded) and drops the hammer all the way down. The hammer has a half-cock notch, which does shorten the trigger pull slightly. The trigger pull was smooth with no stacking and felt lighter than it was, possibly because of the wide, smooth trigger.

The pistol is provided with two 13-round magazines with aluminum base pads with modest finger extensions on them. I like aluminum magazine base plates better than plastic, as it’s a lot harder to break them when you drop them on concrete during mag changes. While I can get my full hand on the pistol, the frame is just short enough that if I wasn’t careful I could pinch my hand with the base pad when seating a new magazine.

Cougars feature rotary barrels that turn about 30 degrees counterclockwise to unlock. Between the frame and the barrel is a block with a tab, and that tab indexes in a curved slot in the underside of the barrel. As the barrel moves back under recoil the tab forces the barrel to rotate. It’s just that simple.

The Cougar Compact is a traditional DA/SA with a safety that drops the hammer. The hammer has a half-cock notch that slightly shortens the trigger pull.

The front and back of the frame are vertically serrated to aid in gripping, and while the serrations are better than nothing (but not as good as checkering), I really think horizontal serrations would be more functional. Shooters have issues keeping a pistol in their hand during recoil, when it wants to pull up, and vertical serrations don’t prevent that. The front of the Cougar’s trigger guard is horizontally serrated for just that reason.

My only other complaint is that due to its profile the slide is a little hard to rack except by using the gripping both sides of the safety, which thankfully had smooth edges.

I took a couple volunteers with me to the range, and I brought along the Cougar and an expensive custom 1911. While my buddies marveled at the 1911, they spent much more time shooting the Cougar Compact. So did I. Why? Because it was fun.

The double-action trigger pull was smooth and felt relatively light, the pistol feels good in the hand, and even with full-power factory ammo the felt recoil and muzzle rise were surprisingly mild. With some of the soft

The Cougar Compact’s backstrap features vertical serrations; the author thinks horizontal serrations would be more functional.

The Cougar Compact’s backstrap features vertical serrations; the author thinks horizontal serrations would be more functional.
handloaded match ammo we had on hand (150-grain plated Berry bullets at 875 fps) the Cougar felt like shooting a .22, and it was the gun everybody was waiting in line to hammer the falling steel plates with, not the custom 1911. That says it all.

Fast Specs
Type: DA/SA semiauto
Caliber: 9mm
Capacity: 13+1
Barrel: 3.6 in.
OAL/Width/Height: 7.0/1.5/4.9 in.
Weight: 32 oz.
Finish: matte black
Sights: 3-dot
Trigger: 10 lb. DA, 6 lb. SA
Price: Approx. Rs. 60,000/-

Accuracy
Smallest group: 2.4 in.
Largest group: 3.0 in.
Avg. of all ammo tested: 2.7 in.
Accuracy results are the averages of four five-shot groups at 25 yards from a sandbag rest.

I have owned it for seven years and it has cycled through at least 10,000 rounds without any problems. It will shoot under a half inch at 50 yards with good glass and CCI Std Velocity, SK Std Plus or Wolf MT ammo. It also has superb open sights. I think they are the best open sights provided on any currently manufactured rifle in the world.

If you are willing to spring for a few more dollars and want a rifle better stocked for scope shooting, then get a CZ American. I own two of them one has a Brookes trigger kit on it (15ozs) and I use it for shooting in our local silhouette matches one of which is a 100 yard prone match that allows bi-pods. The other one has the stock factory trigger adjusted to its lightest setting (3 lbs 2 ozs) and I use it for CMP Sporter Match competition (3 lb trigger required by rules).

Danny Creasy

The very first thing Mike brought up were four rules, that if followed strictly, will keep you and others safe so you can have a good time unloading a few rounds.

1. Always treat every firearm as if it were loaded. No ifs, ands, or buts. Even if you know the gun is unloaded, still handle it as if it were loaded.

2. Always keep the firearm pointed in a safe direction, a direction where a negligent discharge would cause minimum property damage and zero physical injury. According to Mike, even the most experienced gun handlers break this rule all the time. They’ll take a gun and start pointing it all over the place while exclaiming, “Ah, sweet bro, this gun is kickass.”

“They don’t even know they’re doing it,” says Mike, “which makes it even more dangerous.”

The safest direction to point a gun is always downrange (as long as there aren’t any people downrange!).

3. Always keep your trigger finger off the trigger and outside the trigger guard until you have made a conscious decision to shoot.

4. Always be sure of your target, backstop, and beyond. You want to be aware of what’s in your line of fire. This isn’t usually a concern if you go to a professional gun range. They make sure that people and property stay out of the path of the guns firing downrange. Where this becomes a concern is when you go shoot with your buddy out on his property.

“Ask your friend what exactly is beyond the target and backstop you’re shooting at, especially when you’re shooting into a wooded area. Don’t just settle for, ‘Oh, don’t worry. There’s nothing back there.’ Ask specifically if there are any houses, property, etc beyond your backstop. Err on the side of being overly cautious,”

Alright, let’s get down to business. How do you hold a handgun?

For beginners, Mike says a two-handed grip is a must.

1. The gun hand (your dominant hand) should grip the gun high on the back strap (the back strap is the back of the grip on the gun). This gives you more leverage against the weapon which will help you control recoil when you fire the gun.

How to Grip Handgun

Mike showing how to hold the gun high on the gun’s grip with your gun hand.

2. Place your support hand (your non-dominant hand) so that it is pressed firmly against the exposed portion of the grip not covered by the gun hand. All four fingers of your support hand should be under the trigger guard with the index finger pressed hard underneath it. Here’s Mike demonstrating for us:

How to Grip Handgun

Fingers of support hand directly under the trigger guard. Notice Mike’s trigger finger is on the outside of the trigger guard. Safety first!

Like you did with your gun hand, you should place your support hand as high as possible on the grip with the thumb pointing forward, roughly below where the slide meets the frame. Look at the back of your hands. There should be a distinct fit, like the fit of a puzzle, with your gun and support hand, like so:

Notice how your hands fit together. Just like a puzzle.

Assume the Extended Shooting Position

Stand with your feet and hips shoulder width apart. Bend your knees slightly. Mike calls it an “athletic stance.” It allows you to fire the weapon with stability and mobility. Raise the weapon toward your target. Here’s Mike showing us how it’s done:

How to take a Stance for Shooting

How to Aim a Handgun

Use your dominant eye. You want to aim with your dominant eye. To figure out which of your eyes is the dominant one, perform a quick eye test by forming a one inch circle with your thumb and index finger. Hold the circle at arm’s length. Look at a distant object and look through your circle so that the object appears in the center of it. Keeping both eyes open, bring your circle toward your face slowly. Your hand will naturally gravitate toward one eye. That’s your dominant eye.

Align your sights. Your handgun has a front sight and a rear sight notch. Aim at your target and align the top of the front sight so that it lines up with the top of the rear sight. There should also be equal amounts of empty space on both sides of the front sight.

Proper sight alignment

Set your sight picture. The sight picture is the pattern of your gun’s sights in relation to your target. When you’re aiming a gun, you’re looking at three objects: the front sight, the rear sight, and your target. However, it’s not possible to focus simultaneously on all three objects. One of the objects will inevitably be blurry when you’re aiming. When you have a correct sight picture, your front and rear sight appears sharp and clear and your target appears to be a bit blurry. Like so:

Correct sight picture. The sights are in focus and the target is blurry.

According to Mike, the further away your target is, the greater the need for a clear focus on the front sight.

Trigger Management (aka Pulling the Trigger)

To fire a gun, we often use the popular phrase “pull the trigger.” However, to fire a gun properly, you don’t actually want to pull the trigger, but rather press it in a controlled fashion so you don’t disrupt your sights. Here’s a brief and very basic rundown on proper trigger control when firing a gun.

1. Press, don’t pull. Instead of pulling the trigger, press (or like my dad likes to say “squeeze”) the trigger straight to the rear. Apply constant, increasing reward pressure on the trigger until the weapon fires. Ensure that you’re only applying pressure to the front of the trigger and not the sides.

2. Take the slack out of the trigger. Squeeze the trigger to the point you start feeling resistance.

3. Surprise yourself. Keep pressing the trigger straight to the rear until the gun fires. Don’t anticipate when the gun will fire. You sort of want to surprise yourself as to when the gun actually discharges.

And there you go. Now you can go fire a gun at the gun range and look like you know what you’re doing. However, none of the information in this article can replace the instruction and supervision of a professional instructor. If you’ve never fired a gun before, we strongly suggest you visit a firing range and talk to an instructor who will walk you through the process.