Shadow Systems’ CR920XL is the latest member of a pistol line introduced in 2023. The CR920XL is the largest and most feature-rich of the CR920 line, purpose-built for concealed carry but upsized for capacity, control and shootability.
Shadow Systems Corp. (SSC) is located in Plano, Texas. It began work customizing Glock pistols. Today, SSC well-known for producing its own handguns that, in many ways, are superior to factory “G” guns. Every part and piece of the pistols are made in the United States, also.
As for the CR920 series, “CR” stands for “Covert Role,” and the CR920XL is a 9mm designed specifically for concealed carry. The original CR920 has a 3.41-inch barrel and measures 6.37 inches in length, and is 4.27-inches tall with a flush 10-round magazine in place. The CR920X extended the frame so that flush magazines carry 15 rounds. The CR920XL pairs the long frame of the “X” model with an extended 4.18-inch barrel. However, the height and length of these pistols don’t tell the full story.
The CR pistols are slimline models. The slide is only .86 inch thick, in fact, and the grip — except for the small magwell flare at the bottom — is just 1.06 inches! Before considering the specific features of this model and the CR series, I must address the slimline Glock models 43, 43X and 48. These are the pistols against which the Shadow Systems CR920s are — and should be — compared.
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Dimensionally, the CR920X and CR920XL are similar to the G43, G43X and G48, respectively. Where Glock pistols fall short is capacity. The slimline Glocks are all fed by fat, single-column polymer magazines, and flush magazines in the larger G43X and G48 only hold 10 rounds. There’s room for more ammo inside the grip, but Glock didn’t design it that way.
John Browning was an expert in designing firearms that were size-efficient. The wasted potential of the Glock grip and magazines would have him weeping. Shadow Systems has fixed this with double-column steel magazines that offer 50 percent more capacity and significantly better looks and features.
The CR920XL is a polymer-framed, striker-fired 9mm pistol. It is 7.1-inches long, 5.2-inches tall, and supplied with two flush 15-round magazines that appear to be stainless steel but actually have a nickel-Teflon finish. The coating is slick for improved feeding and corrosion resistance. The pistol weighs 20.8 ounces with an empty 15-round magazine in place.
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The CR920XL starts with a 4.18-inch barrel available with either a black nitride or a bronze TiCN (titanium, carbon-nitride) coating. Guns & Ammo’s sample had the latter. The barrel has spiral fluting, which has always been something that makes Shadow Systems’ pistols stand out aesthetically. The slide has cutouts on either side, too, forward of the chamber, which show off the barrel. It looks good. Technically, CR920XL models are the enhanced Elite models that feature the slots and angle cuts atop the slide.
The slide has a nitride finish. Shadow Systems’ segmented “O” symbol is on the right side of the barrel’s chamber and on the left side of the slide, where you’ll also find the model number.
Both the front and rear of the slide sport aggressive serrations. The top of the slide, forward of the ejection port, features the aforementioned angled cuts as part of the Elite package. For decades, Glock consistently ignored requests from its commercial consumers to add texture to the smooth-slabbed slides, only adding forward serrations to Gen5 guns because the FBI demanded it. Glock’s indifference to the wants of the consumer is why SSC has taken market share with G-pattern pistols that are superior in many ways.
The day/night sights on the CR920XL are steel, made for Shadow Systems by Night Fision. The front sight has a tritium insert surrounded by a bright green ring. If you’re new to tritium, it’s a (safe to you) radioactive element that glows green, visible in darkness, within a stainless-steel cylinder having a glass lens at the end to reveal its illumination. The half-life is about 10 years. After that, the front sight’s illumination fades significantly but the green ring will still be bright.
The rear sight is plain black and serrated, with shaved corners to reduce snagging. These sights are full-size, not reduced models for the narrow slide. It allows you to shoot to the capabilities of the pistol with irons.
As an aside, the popularity of red dots on carry guns has caused gun and aftermarket iron sight manufacturers to almost completely abandon rear sights with dots or markings. Why? Dots can distract a shooter from focusing on the reticle in the window. It’s something I’ve been begging them to do for years.
With iron sights, the front sight is everything. Focus on the front sight. As where it is, so too will the bullets fly. Bright marks on the front sight are good, as they help you see and track it at speed. The rear sight, on the other hand, should be thought of as a window frame; look through it at the front sight. Anything on the rear sight that distracts your eye from the front sight should be avoided, generally. That’s a long way of saying I’m perfectly okay with plain black rear sights.
The CR920XL is red-dot ready, though. It’s delivered with a steel coverplate mounted atop the slide. Remove it and you’ll see the slide is set up for direct mounting sights using the Shield RMSc or Holosun 507K footprint. The slide is only .86-inch wide, so full-size optics such as the Trijicon RMR won’t fit without hanging over both sides.
The bronze titanium carbon-nitride coating SSC uses on its barrels has always looked more like copper to me than bronze, but I love the color contrast with the black-nitride finish of the slide. The more I shot it, the darker it got. With enough rounds downrange, it will appear closer to the color of bronze than copper.
This pistol utilizes a double recoil spring system with a stainless-steel guiderod. The springs help absorb some of the recoil, making the gun more shootable, but that means you’ll definitely appreciate all those slide serrations when it’s time to rack the slide. The slide rack requires some force with this gun.
The slide stop isn’t extended or enlarged. It locks the slide back but is small and flat enough to the gun that using it as a slide release doesn’t really work. The magazine release is a serrated, rectangular steel button that is reversible. It is low-profile, so you shouldn’t have any issues accidentally ejecting magazines. There’s a small beavertail on the back of the frame to help prevent slide bite for people with large hands.
The texturing on the frame is nicely aggressive, roughly as grippy as light stippling, which means your hands won’t move around the gun while you’re shooting. It covers all the grip area one could ask for, as well as sections of the frame above the front of the triggerguard where the thumb of your support hand rests when the shooting has stopped.
The triggerguard is double-undercut, as well. Between that, the beavertail in back and the nice texture, you’ll be able to choke up as high as possible on the gun and hold on for maximum control. The frame is long enough for most people to get all their fingers comfortably around the gun’s grip. That’s the point.
At the front of the frame, you’ll see a rail with one slot for mounting a light. Here I had a little adventure.
There’s enough room on the rail for three slots, but SSC puts only one there, which is positioned as far back as possible. Between it and the triggerguard, you’ll find the serial number laser-etched onto a steel insert. Trying to find a pistol light that fit the slot was an exercise in frustration. I tried mounting the usual full-size and compact lights from SureFire, Streamlight and Nightstick — the three biggest names in the industry — but I couldn’t find a single model that interfaced properly with the CR920XL’s slot in relation to the front of the triggerguard. Then I tried a Streamlight TLR-7 HL-X Sub, which was specifically designed for subcompact handguns, and it worked. Eventually, I discovered any light meant to fit a Glock 43, 43X or 48 should work on the CR920XL pistol, but there aren’t as many of those as you’d think.
I’ve tested various CR920 models before. With the XL model, I noticed that Shadow Systems seems to have changed the integral magazine well. It is almost teardrop-shaped, widening at the front into a decent-sized funnel, with extra room at the rear of the magwell. The grip doesn’t flare out at the sides, but that’s fine. Generally, if you mess up during a mag change, you’re hooking either the front or rear of the magazine, or the top cartridge on the gun. This integral magazine well is far more effective and efficient than you might think from its minimalist appearance.
Shadow Systems spec’d a slightly heavier trigger pull for the CR-series guns — between 4 1/2 and 5 1/2 pounds. Every CR sample gun I’ve tested has had a trigger pull heavier than that, though, and the CR920XL evaluated for this article was no different. The trigger pull on G&A’s sample measured 6 pounds, which is heavier than I prefer, but still perfectly acceptable for a compact defensive pistol. Honestly, in this era where everybody is stuffing loaded guns down the front of their pants, I’m not against heavier trigger pulls.
The trigger is polymer, having a gently curving flat face and the safety lever in the center. Pull weight aside, quality was pure Glock sproinkiness — exactly what you’d expect. (That’s a real word I made up.)
At the range, the CR920XL was a lot of fun to shoot. It’s big enough to hold onto properly and shoot at speed, yet small and thin enough to conceal with a good holster and cover garment. The weight of the gun and trigger pull had more of an effect on my speed and accuracy than the size of the gun, but I still found it easy to shred the center of a USPSA target from 10 yards at speed. The bright green dot on the front sight did its job well, even in low light, as I did some of my shooting at an indoor range with controlled lighting.
The CR920XL isn’t a “one-hole” gun, but guns using this design rarely are. The strength lies in being more than accurate to get the job done while offering unerring reliability. Even using proprietary magazines, the XL variant seems to carry on that tradition. Since I mentioned magazines, if the two 15-rounders SSC supplies with the gun aren’t enough, plus-three capacity extended basepads are available.
The XL is likely to become the most popular model in the 920 series if Shadow Systems customers follow the national trend. People embrace the original model, then yearn for a bigger grip they can get their whole hand on. For most, a longer slide isn’t harder to conceal inside the waistband.
The CR920XL is reliable, looks great, easy to shoot, and offers excellent value while being easy to conceal. The American gun buyer has never had it better. The handgun market is an embarrassment of riches, and the CR920XL is another example of gold atop the treasure pile.
Shadow Systems CR920XL
- Type: Recoil operated, striker fire, semiautomatic
- Cartridge: 9mm
- Capacity: 15+1 rds.
- Barrel: 4.18 in., black nitride or bronze titanium; carbon-nitride (tested)
- Length: 7.1 in.
- Height: 5.2 in. (with flush magazine inserted)
- Width: 1.06 in.
- Weight: 1 lb., 4.8 oz.
- Slide: 17-4 stainless steel
- Finish: Black nitride (steel)
- Grip: Polymer, textured
- Sights: Night Fision tritium green dot (front), serrated black notch (rear)
- Trigger: 6 lbs. (tested)
- Safety: Trigger lever, striker drop safety
- MSRP: $829
- Accessories: Two 15-round magazines, cable lock, soft case
- Manufacturer: Shadow Systems; shadowsystemscorp.com
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