Did a Glock Clone Beat the Glock?

(A Glock 19 5th Gen (top), and a Shadow Systems MR920 (bottom). The

Having now owned a Shadow Systems MR 920 for over three thousand rounds, I feel like I can finally have an opinion on it.

I picked up the MR 920 on Gunbroker out of curiosity. I’d been seeing them at my local sporting goods store, and for a long time I considered them to be Glock clones made to look a little fancier to justify a price hike. I saw a decent deal on one, and decided it was time to buy.

I wanted to do a side-by-side comparison with my similar sized Glock 19 Gen 5, which I’ve owned and greatly enjoyed since the Gen 5 came into existence. The MR 920 is as close-to-form as a Glock clone can get, so in order to make a fair comparison, I mounted a Streamlight TLR-1HL and a Holosun green dot on each. This put the weight in the same places on each gun, and made their capabilities the same.

Being the Glock fanboy that I am, I was hoping for it to be a clear winner between the two. It was not.

The guns are close enough in capability for the difference to be negligible. I consider the accuracy, functionality, and ease of use between the two to be the same. Where the MR 920 shines is how it feels to shoot. Its grip is somewhat smaller than the Glock, even with the largest backstrap. This starts to wear on my arthritic hands a little faster than the Glock, but I don’t consider that if I’m shooting less than 500 rounds in a training session. The Shadow has a mild and well-placed stippling which feels “polite” compared to a lot of aftermarket stippling. It loses no functionality compared to more aggressive stippling and doesn’t tear my hands up under hard use. I prefer the Shadow’s stippling over many others, and I don’t know how to describe it other than “smoother, but more grippy.”

The recoil on the MR 920 is no better or worse, but the way the gun allows me to interact with it lets me handle it better. For example, Shadow Systems thought to place a small thumb shelf in front of the trigger guard. The shelf stays out of the way, while being just large enough to let my thumb to absorb some of the muzzle flip without thought or any change in grip, allowing me to keep the green dot on the target for follow up shots.

On a small side note, to mount an RMR pattern optic, there is a small aluminum bar placed between the front of the optic and the slide, which isn’t super convenient to install, but keeps the optic tight against the slide. I have yet to see any loosening of the optic on the slide with a small amount of blue Loctite on the mounting screws. The zero has held true since I’ve owned the gun.

I don’t know yet if I would trust the MR 920 to carry for a defense pistol, and I don’t have anything preventing me from using it as such other than my relatively low round count. So far, the pistol has served me well in practice USPSA stages, and I haven’t had a single failure.

The price point of the MR 920 is right in the same realm as a Glock, making it affordable for most, but it comes stock with some thoughtful modifications. Most of these modifications were based on market feedback for the Glock, giving many customers exactly what they’d been asking for from Glock for years. This lands the MR 920 in the “premium” case at most gun stores, and makes it feel more premium while handling and shooting it.

My opinion may not be worth much to you, but if I were to take myself back in time and walk into a store with enough money to buy either, I would buy the Shadow Systems again without hesitation.