The EMG Hudson H9 aims to bring the futuristic design, function, and quality of the real steel Hudson H9 into the airsoft market. A joint project between EMG and Hudson, the EMG Hudson H9 features a striker fired design with CNC machined aluminum slide and frame. For those of you unfamiliar with the real steel version, Hudson’s H9 was designed to modernize the classic 1911 firearm design. Unfortunately, Hudson has officially gone bankrupt, meaning the days of this airsoft pistol being produced may be limited.
In terms of build quality, the EMG Hudson H9 gas blowback pistol is made from CNC’d metal parts and the slide has a very short profile to keep the shooter’s hand closer to the bore axis. The pistol is actually made from AW Armorer Works and their construction quality is quite evident. If you have ever fielded an Armorer Works airsoft pistol before, you know they perform very well right out of the box and the EMG Hudson H9 is no different. It has a very unique “straight pull” trigger system and no hammer being a striker fired platform. The grip is stippled in several spots and provides excellent friction – especially if you like to wear tactical gloves. One of the more interesting things about the EMG Hudson H9 is that there is an included, optional thumb safety lever that can be easily installed. The barrel is threaded internally if you remove the orange tip (which we never recommend officially), so you can attach some suppressors, etc to the end of it. Also, the rail system is a bit odd, being much lower than more standard pistols. If you put a light or laser on the pistol, it is a bit more awkward to reach.
In the field, the EMG Hudson H9 performs great, with FPS ranging around 330-350 FPS with .2 gram BBs. The recoil of the pistol is snappy, with such a light slide installed, and helps sell the recoil effect. Like the real steel firearm, the EMG Hudson H9 has a very low axis of recoil spring in the front of the frame. In terms of accuracy, it seemed like our model was shooting lower than out point of aim in most situations – we had to increase the hop up a bit more than we expected to get our accuracy up to our desired performance.
Overall, the EMG Hudson H9 is a beautiful piece of airsoft kit, replicating a real steel platform cut down way before its time.
