Is This the BEST Roller-Delayed PDW?

Hot on the scene is the new Springfield Armory Kuna 9mm pistol! This roller-delayed, little wonder looks to make its mark on the firearm scene as a strong contender as a PDW (personal defense weapon).

The gold standard for a roller-delayed gas system is the Heckler& Koch MP5, or the nearest semi-auto equivalent that is available in the United States, the H&K SP5.

Does the new Springfield Armory Kuna 9mm have what it takes to dethrone the it? Let’s run through the gauntlet to see!

Build Quality & Features: Affordable yet Uncompromising

Springfield Armory does a lot of things well in the build-out of this roller-delayed pistol. For starters, their barrel is cold radial hammer forged, which simply produces a better barrel: greater accuracy for a longer duration of your ownership. There is also the monolithic, forged upper receiver that eliminates the stacking of tolerances in other multi-piece upper receivers.

• Cartridge: 9mm
• Barrel: 6″ Cold Radial Hammer Forged, Melonite®, 1:10
• Sights: Hybrid Flip-Up
• Upper Receiver: Monolithic Forged 7075 T6 Aluminum, Type III Hardcoat Anodized
• Lower Receiver: Injection Molded Glass-Filled Polymer
• Gas System: Roller-Delayed
• Handguard: Integral, M-Lok®
• Pistol Brace: Strike Industries FSA
• Trigger: Flat Aluminum

Where To Buy

Moving through the rest of the spec list, you simply see a lot of modern touches in the Kuna’s design. A Picatinny receiver end plate makes for easy mounting of braces, and stocks – if you go the SBR route. There are also a bevy of ambidextrous features and even a standardized AR pattern pistol grip giving you an abundance of options.

• Muzzle Device: Multi-Port Muzzle Brake
• Receiver End Plate: Picatinny
• Charging Handle: Ambidextrous, Non-Reciprocating
• Safety Switch: Ambidextrous
• Trigger Guard: Integral to Receiver
• Grip: AR-Pattern w/ Adaptive Grip Texture
• Magazines: (2) 30-Round
• Weight: 5 lbs 5 oz
• Length: 15.5″ – 24.5″

At the time of this announcement, Springfield Armory has 2 versions of the Kuna 9mm: one with and without a brace. The Strike Industries FSA Brace equipped version we’re checking out today has an MSRP of $1,149 making it an astounding $2,240 cheaper than an H&K SP5.

Performance & Reliability: Does it have What it Takes?

To test the Kuna, I headed to Josh Froelich’s F5 Range in Minnesota. While there, I put a healthy varying diet of ammo that included full metal jacket (FMJ) range ammo as well as some defensive hollow-points (HP). Roughly 500 rounds in a single range session while shooting both suppressed and un-suppressed.

With some different grain weights and bullet profiles, the Kuna chewed through this meal no problem. On a different range day, I fired some fistfuls of mystery ammo out of a 9mm range bucket of mine and it devoured that ammo as well. The Kuna is not a picky eater and ran flawlessly during testing.

Accuracy & Silencers: Can It Hit its Mark?

Being the Kuna is a compact, defensive firearm, we definitely wanted to test it with a silencer. The can deployed for this review was one from JK Armament which could attach to the Kuna’s standardized 1/2″ x 28 TPI threaded muzzle.

During live fire, I spent all of my time within 50 yards or less on steel. With the Kuna 9mm pistol un-suppressed, it was incredibly accurate. I could mag dump onto silhouette steel never missing a single round. Attempting more challenging feats like hitting 5″ steel gongs at 50 yards or less proved not to be difficult at all either. For a PDW, this thing had point-and-hit accuracy. I was calling my shots all day long.

Adding the JK 105 CCX silencer had no point-of-impact shift or change in the accuracy of the Kuna. The advanced roller-delayed gas system still cycled perfectly, eating ammo, and yeeting cases across the range as one would expect.

Close Quarters: How Good is it in Tight Spaces?

As a PDW, the Kuna is incredibly compact (surprise, surprise). So, I opted to add a Strike Industries Bikini Hand Stop to keep my hand on the very small forearm area and to not accidentally extend to far touch a burning hot silencer or the screaming Multi-Port Muzzle Brake.

Whether I was sprinting around a mock pistol stage or attempting to do vehicle work – suppressed or un-suppressed – the Kuna’s form factor is incredibly easy to wield and manipulate in tight spaces. Moreover, whipping out the brace from a folded position is easy once you get the hang of it.

In the case of self-defense, what often determines a favorable outcome for you, protecting yourself, is being the 1st one to place a lethal shot against a threat. What this boils down to is the ability to get your gun in the fight and to acquire a fast, proper sight alignment to allow for that to happen. All of which I found to be easy with the Kuna.

Room for Improvement

I speak very highly of the Springfield Armory Kuna. So, where can it do better? What aspects did it fall short? From front-to-back, this PDW runs amazingly well and performs far outside its price-point of $1,149. The one element that Springfield should look to improve is the lack or absence of a hand stop. The forearm is such a small area to grip and it places your hand suspiciously close to the muzzle.

• Hand Stop – Add a hand stop for better dexterity and safety while handling.

While the magwell area is textured for gripping, I have never liked gripping the magwell of any platform as it makes you too “choked up” on the firearm. A simple $10 hand stop like the one I used from Strike Industries is all you need.

Final Verdict: BEST Roller-Delayed PDW?

For only $1,149 at full retail, the Springfield Armory Kuna 9mm is the best roller-delayed PDW on the market today.

In the month and half of testing I’ve conducted leading up to the announcement of this firearm, the Kuna has proven itself to reliable, accurate, fast to deploy, and affordable. All you need to finish off this PDW is to add your favorite red dot, a hand stop, and a silencer if you own one.

The PDW market isn’t known for being affordable or wholly reliable to be honest. Many manufacturers have this “race to be the smallest” or “most compact,” and this inevitably affects the functioning and reliability of those firearms all at the cost of being able to say something is tiny. The Springfield Armory Kuna 9mm has thread the needle of accomplishing reliability along with a compact footprint.

If you’ve been dying to add a roller-delayed firearm and/or PDW into your life, this is it. The Springfield Armory Kuna 9mm is going to be the talk of 2025. Mark my words.