Springfield Armory Kuna: Full Review

Not only is the world full of vehicles that I wish were available in the U.S. (cough*Toyota Hilux*cough), the same is often true of firearms. When I Googled “Springfield Armory Kuna” upon hearing Guns & Ammo was sending me a top-­secret test gun about which I knew nothing but the name, and expecting no results, I found a few 2024 press releases out of Brazil announcing that HS Produkt had won a tender with the State of São Paulo, Brazil, for a submachinegun (SMG) meant for the São Paulo Military Police (PMESP). That Kuna SMG was — surprisingly — chambered in .40 S&W. Additional research showed me that Brazil is one of the few places in the world outside of the U.S. where the .40 S&W cartridge has some popularity. Other than the Kuna SMG sporting a CZ Scorpion EVO-­esque stock and a three-­lug mount on the barrel, the SMG looks identical to the pistol introduced by Springfield Armory. Springfield Armory is only launching the 9mm evaluated in this review, available with or without a brace.

Like many of Springfield Armory’s products, the Kuna is also made by HS Produkt in Croatia. HS Produkt has a proven record for designing quality guns, some of which have seen combat around the world. The Kuna has been in development for years.

As aforementioned, the Springfield Armory Kuna is a pistol that is offered with and without a side-­folding brace. Empty and without a brace, the Kuna was tested on our scales at just 4 pounds, 6 ounces. With the provided Strike Industries brace, it was 5 pounds, 1 ounce. The Kuna sports a 6-­inch barrel, and overall length without a brace is 15 1/2-­inches long. With a brace, the Kuna measured 16.35 inches with the brace folded and 24.35 inches with the brace extended.

What is A Kuna?

Since you’re probably wondering, the weasel-like pine marten is the national animal of Croatia where this pistol is made. Croatians call it the “kuna,” which was also the name for its currency before switching to the Euro. Kuna, the firearm, is a submachine-gun-style pistol with a short barrel. The 6-inch barrel is not especially thick, which helps keep weight down, and it ships standard with a multi-­port compensator that marginalizes felt recoil. The barrel is threaded 1/2x28, so if you’re interested in shooting this suppressed — as we did — simply change out muzzle devices.

Keep it Rolling...

There is a lot going on with the Kuna, some quite interesting. Perhaps the most important is this: Unlike many new so-called “large format” 9mm pistols on the market, the Kuna doesn’t use a straight-­blowback operating system. Rather, it cycles using a roller-­delayed blowback action. “Roller locks” are nothing new. The most famous was in the HK MP5 and the larger versions of that design concept, the G3, HK 33, and so on. Unsurprisingly, the roller-­system in the HK guns is a complicated bit of German engineering. The roller in the Kuna bolt, however, is shockingly simple.

When you pull the bolt out of the gun, you might not notice the roller at all. The bolt assembly is a chunk of steel, typical for pistol-­caliber firearms. This one is not as heavy, though, because the roller system does some of the work. If you inspect the top of the bolt assembly above and forward of the breech face, you’ll see a simple spring-­loaded stainless-­steel roller, which locks into a recess in the top of the barrel above the chamber. The roller absorbs some of the recoil forces before it unlocks and moves up and out of the way. Once unlocked, the bolt can start its rearward travel, hence the name “roller delayed blowback.”

The Sum of its Parts

The Kuna has a modern, modular aesthetic. To me, it looks like a cross between a B&T APC9 or the CZ Scorpion EVO 3+. The upper receiver, the serialized part, is machined 7075 aluminum, and it is somewhat beefy. The integral handguard has M-­Lok slots for mounting accessories, and at the rear of the receiver on either side you’ll find quick-­detach (QD) sockets for mounting a sling.

The lower receiver is molded from polymer and held in place with two, big captive pins. Pop those out and the lower comes off the gun. The polymer end plate with the MIL-STD-1913 “Picatinny” rail at the back slides down a short distance before coming out. As with many 9mm SMGs, the bolt assembly pulls out the back of the Kuna for cleaning. The ejector is fixed and mounted to the receiver.

Atop the Kuna is 81/2 ­inches of optic rail to mount the optic of your choice. The slots are numbered for reference, but helping set the Kuna apart from others are that the flip-­up steel sights are integral. I like them. If you leave the sights down, pistol-­style emergency sights remain. At the rear is a white-outline notch and at the front is a post with a white dot. Even with the brace attached, I was able to get my head down low enough to use them, but just barely. Flip the sights up and they snap into detents, but they don’t lock. There is an aperture in the rear and a protected post at the front. The front sight is click-­adjustable for elevation using the wheel just beneath it. The rear sight adjusts for windage using a thumb wheel. There are hash marks on the receiver for reference, but the rear sight doesn’t click.

The Kuna uses a folding charging handle at the front, which does not reciprocate when firing. It’s mounted to the left side but is easily converted to the right side. The handle is made of steel, is smooth and feels great in your hand. When pulled out, it protrudes almost 1 3/4 inches from the receiver, which is big enough for at least two fingers — maybe three. It is spring-­loaded and will fold as soon as you release it. Working the charging handle revealed that the bolt travel glided slick. Notable is that the charging handle can be operated with the brace folded.

Receiver controls are all bilateral. The safety lever is polymer and sports the same fine but surprisingly aggressive texturing that is on the pistol grip and magazine well. Oddly, the magazine release on the right side is polymer, but the one on the left is steel. The steel bolt catch/release lever on either side of the receiver is identical, and you can use it to lock your bolt one-­handed, using just the tip of your trigger finger. In fact, this is the only problem I had when testing this gun. As I was getting used to it, I pressed the bottom of the bolt stop with my trigger finger while trying to hit the magazine release. A few repetitions, though, fixed that problem.

The trigger is straight with a nearly flat face. It feels good under the finger. The trigger pull was not surprising for a gun originally designed as an submachine gun (SMG); it’s slightly long and mushy but not gritty or heavy. The reset was shorter than expected, so I could shoot faster than I expected. The total tested pull weight measured 5 pounds on Guns & Ammo’s sample.

The Kuna uses standard AR-­pattern pistol grips. You may have another preference, but I found I really liked Springfield’s selection. It has a more vertical angle and good texturing. A hinged floorplate is at the bottom. I like storing spare batteries for my optic in Ziplocs, and keeping them inside my pistol grip. 

The magazine well has a generous bevel, so if you can’t reload the Kuna fast, you’re doing something wrong.

Mag Change

As the Kuna was originally developed in 9mm, and then .40 S&W for the Brazilian armed forces, it was designed around the magazine. The magazines are great, and perhaps the Kuna will be offered in other chamberings sooner than later. Springfield Armory told G&A that it intends to keep them affordably price. (Rumors suggest around $25 apiece.) With each Kuna, we get two magazines.

Magazines feature transparent polymer bodies marked for “10,” “20” and “30”-­round capacities on both sides. As with most dedicated SMG magazines, they are two-­position feed. You’ll see that there is a steel feed ramp with a generous double bevel attached to the aluminum receiver in front of the chamber to aid feeding. The walls in the magazine are thick, too. There are stainless-steel feed lips molded into the top of the mag for durability. The .40 S&W magazines are straight and I think they look cool. I’m not a big fan of the .40 S&W cartridge, but in a gun this size it would make sense. I suspect that version would do well for Springfield.

The magazines contain strong springs that require some effort to load, but they’ll last a long time. With two-­position-­feed magazines such as this, here’s a trick to save your thumbs: When the spring gets too stiff to insert a new cartridge, hold the cartridge atop the magazine in place with your thumb and tap the bottom of the magazine on something firm. Inertia will help to seat the round.

The Kuna magazine reminds me of the SIG Sauer MPX magazine. Both are beefy, and if you remember, the MPX, it was originally going to be offered in both .40 and .357 SIG, so the mag and magazine well were sized for accordingly. That’s what I see with the Kuna. The magazine’s external dimensions are big enough that it would be possible to even see a 10mm Auto in the future.

Brace for It...

Should you choose to buy a Kuna with a brace, you’ll get the Strike Industries single-­folding FSA. (Strike also makes a dual-­folding model.) I have prior experience with Strike Industries braces and I recommend them. This brace has a machined aluminum bar, and at the back is a polymer stabilizer arm brace. The locking mechanism is steel and provides a rock-­solid mount. It has a strong detent to remain folded and deploys with a sharp tug.

You can mount the brace anywhere up and down the receiver rail section. Depending on how you’re running the gun, you might find that traditional AR optics are too tall. An EOTech holographic sight seemed both too big and too tall for me. For most of my shooting, I mounted an Aimpoint ACRO P-­2 on a Reptilia Corp. low rail mount. It was the perfect height for me. Another benefit was it added almost no weight to the gun.

My biggest question about the roller-­delayed blowback operating system was how much of the recoil it might absorb, especially since it looked so simple. I shot the Kuna side-­by-­side to the latest Springfield Armory 9mm Saint Victor Pistol, which has a 5 1/2-­inch barrel. Given that the Saint Victor 9mm uses a straight blowback operating system, it has a heavier bolt, and even though it’s about the same size as the Kuna, it weighs 11 ounces more. The Kuna demonstrated that it still produced noticeably less felt recoil! That was great news. I also noticed that the bolt of the Kuna cycled faster than the 9mm Saint AR’s. The cases were up and out of the receiver in the blink of an eye. The Kuna bounced a little with each shot, but it didn’t climb. If I shot faster, it just bounced a bit faster. The recoil impulse reminded me a lot of the Scorpion EVO, but the straight-­blowback Scorpion produced more felt recoil and bounce against the shoulder.

To test reliability, I put a variety of ammunition through the Kuna, everything from soft full-metal-jackets (FMJ) to hot +P jacketed hollowpoints (JHP). I’ve lost count, but I’ve tested hundreds of rounds from 10 different loads of assorted manufacturers’ ammunition. The only problem I experienced was with the 90-­grain +P load from Super-­Vel; the wide mouth on that hollowpoint caught the feed ramp on its way in. 

Accuracy was as good as you’d expect from a fixed barrel 9mm SMG. There was some velocity boost from its 6-inch barrel when compared to normal pistol numbers. The Kuna was a like a friendly, furry weasel, which considering its size and weight would make it a good choice if you’re taking new, small or young shooters to the range.

Honestly, when I first looked over the Kuna after receiving it at my dealer, I was a bit underwhelmed. The more I handled it, and the more I shot it, the more impressed I became. HS Produkt and Springfield Armory did everything right with this gun. If the caliber options materialize, the Kuna will stand out even further in this crowded segment. It was great fun to shoot, and it would work just as well as a home defense pistol as it would a travel bag companion for the road. 

I’m buying mine. Get your own. 

Springfield Armory Kuna

• Type: Roller-­delay blowback, semiautomatic
• Cartridge: 9mm
• Capacity: 30 rds.
• Barrel: 6 in., Melonite (carbon steel), threaded (1/2x28)
• Length: 15.5 in. (w/o brace); 16.25 in. (brace folded); 24.25 in., (brace extended)
• Weight: 4 lbs., 6 oz (w/o brace); 5 lbs., 1 oz (w/ brace)
• Receiver: Forged 7075 (aluminum)
• Brace: Strike Ind. FSA, folding
• Trigger: 5 lbs. (tested); flat face, single stage
• Sights: Folding, post (front); folding notch/aperture (rear)
• MSRP: $1,149 (tested w/ brace); $999 (w/o brace)
• Manufacturer: Springfield Armory, 800-­680-­6866, springfield-­armory.com

Sound Off...

Have any PDWs that deserve some coverage? Let us know by emailing gaeditor@outdoorsg.com with the subject line "Sound Off". If you're interested in more coverage of the Kuna, we sat down with Mike Humphries of Springfield Armory to discuss this sub-gun's success.

---