Is the Laugo Alien a rugged an unstoppable HiLux or a fastidious Maserati? I would like to use it as a go-to competition pistol for matches like Finnish Brutality and Desert Brutality, but first I need to know that it can take some knocks and still run. So, let’s do some horrible stuff to it and find out!
First up, a mud test…
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as i thought, range toy nothing more.
If this is a “range toy”, would you count an AK as only a recreational plinker and a Glock as a decorative paperweight? https://youtu.be/DX73uXs3xGU https://youtu.be/RNw179rHxkQ
If your standard is 100% reliability on the mud test, the weapon you’re looking for is a club.
I’m thinking more tool than toy as I’m sure quite a few sponsored pro shooters would. I also agree with Backbencher and think if it was really being tested for said competitions he should have started with one in the chamber already and while we’re at it with the red dot also as I’m sure that is how it will be used. This was strictly for the cringe factor.
Most of Ian’s videos don’t make my heart hurt. This one did.
Ian nooo! That is a $6000 gun
BANG! The late Ian McCollum. Well, I guess you need to hump a Jerry Can of water down range with the gun
Bravo! If you’d had a round in the chamber when it went into the mud, it would have worked from the get go – or put a hole in your bowl, one of the two.
I have to admit this is the first time I’ve been disappointed by the conclusions of a mud test — Ian dunked the thing in a mud bucket and it completely failed to function, until he basically washed it off, and then very carefully applied mud where it wouldn’t much matter. Then, after a while, he was able to get it to function.
And he gives it 90%? Basically, an A?
It’s hard to look at that as an unbiased assessment.
I really don’t see the point of mud tests .
You’ve just self-identified as someone who has never carried a firearm on duty, in the real world.
If anything, I think Ian isn’t being sufficiently “hard” with his mud testing; real-world things that happen include your pistol being in an unflapped, open chest holster and then you having to crawl through well-churned mud, filling the mechanism with crap and then having it more-or-less dry out before you can clean it. I’ve seen that exact scenario happen with both the M1911A1 and the M9; neither pistol did particularly well, although the M9 did a lot worse. You want really fscked-up? Try blood as the wetting agent for said mud/dirt–I got one of our medic’s pistols back after she had to deal with the results of an IED strike, and that thing was so screwed up by the corrosive effects of the blood as to make it virtually a write-off. Combined with the fine dust that was already there from driving all day in the “moon dust”, that blood congealed the whole pistol into a mass of concreted crap that required going over to the aviation shop and sticking it into an ultrasonic cleaner for about 48 hours. I was told by the aviation bubba’s that the most filthy parts they had would usually come clean after about 6 hours, so there’s that ugly little anecdote for ya…
Blood and moondust? You’ve got a problem on your hands, especially after it dries nice and hard.
This is the first time the comments on Ian’s own page have seemed less ‘fair’ than the comments on YouTube. I scrolled through the usual 100+ on there, and ‘range toy’ and other complaints about the seen product were not visible.
It might be that Ian’s YouTube status means bad things are algorithmed to the bottom. It might mean this is the only venue where fair comment is seen. Or it could be that this is the fud bucket for Ian’s product.
Ouch. I would recommending deleting this video, Ian. Either the test was valid or it isn’t. If it was valid, it was a fail. If not valid, it is unfairly defaming the pistol. Frankly, imo you only do this test in proper context for fun when you are comparing products. Of course if the manufacture had said “go for it”, they are idiots and you should not be covering for them.
This is a very expensive pistol designed for competition use, not police or military use. Who cares if it functions after being dunked in mud?
Who made you do this? Are you being forced against your will!?
Strange comments. Few tests are pass/fail. How well does a 747 handle one or two engines out during takeoff? How well do recipes handle skim milk vs whole fat milk, or hamburger vs sausage?
What Ian wanted to know was, could he crawl through mud with this and have reasonable expectations it would still work? Or put another way, how much gunk could it handle? He didn’t try the 100% test, slide locked open and unplugged barrel, which might have been the most realistic for a soldier. But it handled more mud than a typical 1911 probably would. If Ian thinks it’s good enough for Finnish Brutality, it’s his scores on the line, his call.
From experience? “Most realistic” for a soldier would be “Holstered pistol, soldier low-crawling through mud and/or doing a stream crossing…”. In most cases, you’re not going to be having the slide locked open while in the mud or water. Plugged barrel…? Mmmmm… Maybe, kinda-sorta? If you’ve got a closed-end holster? Maybe?
Absolute worst case would be a chest holster like the US Army M7 chest holster, with its unflapped open design and open muzzle-end. That particular holster tends to act as a pump for mud when you’re low-crawling through liquid mud. I’ve seen M1911A1 pistols literally filled with mud, to include the magazine. Cleaning meant high-pressure water and some detail-stripping–Things like the plunger tube for the slidelock detent were filled with dirt and non-functional until disassembled.
You can color me in as “not a fan” for open holsters like the M7 in a military application, unless it’s somehow under your uniform–Which, as I recall, may be against some convention, somewhere. I recall some slight controversy when our proven-idiot JAG officers got wind of people taking concealed pistols into meetings with the locals in Iraq, and I can’t remember what the hell happened with the final decision or what it was based on. The controversy came out of the same set of idiots who’d red-lined match ammo for snipers because it was open-tipped, thinking that meant “expanding”.
I understand Hi Point makes a very mud-resistant 9mm pistol for a fraction of the price of a Laugo.
In fact, it is a direct recoil pistol. Usually, such devices are quite reliable with “coarse” dirt.
Let’s see what happens to the dust…
Although, I really don’t see much point in such exorcisms for a “sporting” pistol.
It is much more interesting to find out how the device will behave during continuous shooting without cleaning.
Especially with “dirty” ammunition.
And, especially, with +P ammo, especially in the iron case.
Seems like a fair test to me. If you had dropped this on a real shoot in to all that mud you would have had to have done a strip to clean out the barrel, (or risk it blowing up in your face) so wiping 80% of the crap off anyway
“…risk it blowing up in your face…”(C)
To “blow up” your pistol, you need more than liquid mud. 🙂
https://youtu.be/2JV8PY4_b80
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3V8mK5FadI
PS Wow, what an irony…
I’m a geologist. In my view this is a flawed test because it was conducted in a desert environment where clay is a minor constituent of the surface sediments. The major constituent of “mud” is clay and silt size particles.
I suggest a proper test would be to drop it in a puddle instead of a bucket, pick it up, shake it in the water and then fire. That is a better simulation of what someone should do in a combat situation. Stir up the puddle, let it settle for 5-10 minutes before dropping it into the puddle. If the puddle won’t last that long the test is completely specious.
I experienced significant angst watching the video with that much sand in the action.
And please! Before you submit the pistol to any more abuse, do a slow motion video of it operating.
I’m gonna reiterate it, again: A realistic mud test would not be to simply drop the pistol into a puddle or some mud, somewhere. That’s way less traumatic than what usually happens in the real world.
You want realism? I’d suggest taking the pistol, putting it in the holster you’re likely to be carrying it in, attaching a rope to it, and then dragging the whole thing across a suitable body of water in the environment you’re likely to be fighting in. Said “body of water” might be a “pristine” alpine stream filled with fine glacial tilth, or it might be that dirt road that successive columns of tanks has churned up into a waist-deep morass of pudding-consistency fine mud. To really test the combined holster/pistol combo, you’d drag it back and forth a couple of times, simulating what would happen were you to have to low-crawl through the crap with it on your chest or hip…
Frankly, if anything? Ian is being incredibly gentle with the weapons that I’ve seen him mud-testing. Y’all just haven’t lived when it comes to cleaning a weapon out until you’ve been handed something that has been fished out of a desert wadi a week after it was lost in a flash-flood, and then found again with a mine detector and excavated out of two feet of congealed former mud that has returned to a state of “caliche”…
You’ll know you’re right fscked when you’re blithely informed that they had to resort to getting out the jackhammers with spade bits from the air compressor trailer to get said weapon out of its tomb.
Oh my God (I watched the video). I feel bad for the pistol but nice test Ian. Thank you.
Actually pretty impressive, if you had a round chambered on the first test, it’s possible that it would’ve fired and cleared the gunk out itself.