The IWI Masada Slim hadn’t been in the country for very long when we got one into our grubby paws, and it was definitely worth the wait. With its 13+1 capacity, the Masada Slim strikes that perfect balance between the smallest micro-compacts and the higher capacity models we’ve seen this year with the Hellcat Pro and Sig P365X Macro.
Another modular, chassis-style pistol, the Masada Slim has a removable trigger unit that is considered the actual firearm, and it can be swapped out to different frames when new variants are available. And like the Taurus GX4 XL, the Masada Slim has a slide cut that allows for directly mounting Shield-pattern red-dots without the need for an adapter plate. This keeps everything relatively low profile and assists with easier co-witnessing with iron sights.
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There’s plenty of relief in the polymer frame to provide a high and very comfortable grip on the pistol. The comfort of the Masada Slim’s grip and its natural pointability were big selling points for our evaluators. Another plus in its favor was the flat-faced trigger that had a better-than-average pull and break. It broke right at 4.5 pounds of pressure and delivered a positive reset with minimal travel.
As expected from IWI, reliability was perfect and offhand accuracy was exceptional for a pistol with such a short sight radius. The Masada Slim is just easy to shoot well and it was even a favorite of a female shooter who is new to the sport and tried it out. She liked the short trigger reach and thought the Masada Slim was easier to control than others she tried.
The Masada Slim doesn’t have every modern feature like an accessory rail or ambidextrous controls. However, it does have front and rear slide serrations for confident, manual slide engagement and the magazine base plates have a lip at the bottom to let the user rip out the magazines manually in case of a hang-up. Beyond that, the Masada Slim makes up for the lack of any specific features with its performance and its strong value given its relatively low price of $450.
