Welcome, channel fans and family, to Slav Guns. After two days of walking an industry show floor, the Palmetto State Armory booth was the first place I actually got to sit down. That turned out to be perfect, because PSA always has so much on the table that you need a real conversation to get through it. I sat down with Stephen from PSA to talk handguns only: where the Dagger line was going, the new Micro Dagger, a compact 5.7, and a modular chassis pistol concept called the Switch.
Quick note: this is a look back at a booth first look, not a range test. It was recorded at an industry event in early 2023 and posted on the channel in December 2023. Nothing here was shot for this video. Release timing and “concept” status below are what PSA said on the booth floor at the time, so check PSA for what actually made it to market.
TL;DR
- Dagger family grows: on top of the compact, a full-size short frame that takes the flush compact slide, plus an X slide with a 4.5-inch barrel for a longer sight radius. Everything optics ready.
- Micro Dagger: a slimline carry Dagger that still runs a double-stack, 15-round magazine. Metal sights, metal recoil rod, ambidextrous mag release, optics cut from the factory.
- Micro X: the same pistol with a slide a little over half an inch longer.
- Compact 5.7: what PSA called the world’s first compact 5.7. 20-round mag, 4.4-inch barrel, shorter grip. Still a concept with no release date.
- The Switch: a concept chassis pistol where the serialized part is the fire control unit, with swappable frames. Takes current Dagger slides and magazines.
Where the Dagger stood
If you became a gun owner in the last few years, you probably know PSA for value-priced modern sporting rifles. Then they launched the Dagger pistol and really blew it out of the water: a quality pistol at a price people hadn’t seen before. Of course PSA couldn’t just stop there.
At this point the lineup had the compact Dagger and a full-size short frame that accepts the flush compact slide. There was also an X slide that gives you a 4.5-inch barrel and a bit more sight radius if you want it. Every one of them was optics ready.
Micro Dagger: slimline, but still double-stack
This was the gun PSA was introducing that year. On other platforms a slimline carry gun would normally be single-stack. The Micro Dagger uses a double-stack magazine that holds 15 rounds. Stephen said it keeps all the features you’re used to on the standard Dagger: metal sights, a metal recoil rod, and internals that will feel familiar if you know other platforms.
They also listened to the lefties. The Micro Dagger gets an ambidextrous magazine release. Back in the Soviet Union, if you were left-handed they just trained it out of you. That doesn’t fly anymore, so ambi it is.
Optics cut done right. Every Micro Dagger is optics cut from the factory for the Shield footprint. PSA said they also paid attention to how deep the cut is, so you can run standard-height iron sights and still co-witness with your dot.
I really like that part. As a former gun gamer, I get why everyone wants a red dot now. But once you start using an optic it can become a crutch. It’s not unheard of for someone to get to the range, find out their dot just died, and be completely lost. On a lot of guns you’re stacking a plate and then a dot on top, so your iron sights are washed out and you can’t use them. With a lower cut and co-witnessing irons, if the dot goes down you can still shoot the old-fashioned way. Battery life on modern optics has gotten a lot better, so that problem is fading, but I’d still rather have the backup.
Stephen sees the Micro Dagger mainly as a carry gun, and that’s the first thing he planned to do with his. If you want something slimmer but a little longer, there’s the Micro X. It has the same internals with a slide a little over half an inch longer, so you get a longer sight radius. I’d also point it at shooters with smaller hands, where a typical double-stack frame can feel like too much. The extra slide mass helps calm recoil a bit too, so it could pull range duty as well.
Availability and price, as of that show: the slides would come first, with complete guns soon after, all expected that year. Price was “to be determined” but “PSA price point.” Stephen was also honest that material costs were going up and PSA still had to stay competitive and make a margin. The colors and two-tone finishes on the PSA site would carry over to the Micro too.
The magazine is the cool part
Stephen said one of the coolest things about the Micro is the new 15-round double-stack magazine. It’s a metal magazine with an over-molded plastic front. Usually a 15-round mag in a gun this size means you need a metal mag catch. This design lets you keep the plastic mag catch. When I got my first gun about 15 years ago, a magazine this small holding 15 rounds would have been unheard of. The mags would ship with the guns, and PSA said they’d also be sold separately.
Compact 5.7: the one everybody kept asking for
The year before, PSA surprised everyone with the 5.7 Rock. Its 23-round magazine was, per PSA, the highest-capacity 5.7 magazine out there. At this show they followed it up with what they called the world’s first compact 5.7:
- Capacity: 20 rounds
- Barrel: 4.4 inches, versus about 4.7 inches on the full-size
- Grip: shorter
- Optics: optics ready, with the same Shield cut on the slide plus plate options for RMR and Docter footprints
Where did it come from? Stephen said he wished he could put all the tweets and Facebook comments on screen, because people had been asking for a compact 5.7 nonstop, and not just from PSA. For a long time the answer was that it couldn’t be done because of how the gun operates and how high-pressure the 5.7 round is. At this show it was still a concept with no release date. PSA was still proving things out, but Stephen said they were closer to done than to brand new.
I’m not a huge fan of hunting with 5.7, but plenty of people use it as a defensive round. For someone who wants to carry 5.7×28, open or concealed, without a full-size gun, this makes a lot of sense.
Stephen also pointed out that PSA has its own ammo company now, so more 5.7 ammo was supposed to show up at a PSA-friendly price. That matters. 5.7×28 is a fantastic round, but it’s a small cartridge that can cost more to feed than .44 Magnum. Cheaper ammo helps sell the guns, and more guns help sell the ammo.
For what PSA showed a year later, including the compact 5.7 being “next up,” see my SHOT Show 2024 PSA handguns write-up. The PSA X5.7 PDW concept takes the Rock in a different direction.
The Switch: PSA’s take on a chassis pistol
The other concept gun on the table was the Switch. Everybody knows chassis-style pistols by now, and this was PSA’s answer. PSA already lets you build your own Dagger and your own Rock, and you’ll be able to build your own Micro. The Switch takes that idea further:
- The fire control unit is the serialized part.
- Multiple frames: different sizes, shapes, colors, and materials around that one unit. The goal is to make it as universal as an AR-15 lower, the same thing PSA was built on.
- Uses current Dagger slides and the same trigger packs. Frame internals aren’t identical, but a lot of Gen 3 components will fit.
- Magazines: it uses the same mags as the current Dagger. In other words, it turns the Dagger ecosystem into a modular platform.
- Materials: the sample I handled had a nice, heavy aluminum frame. Polymer frames were planned for the future, and Stephen hinted at a couple of other options he wouldn’t share yet.
- Price: like a billet AR lower, the aluminum frame would cost more, and polymer would bring the price down.
- Timing: no date. Stephen said he wouldn’t be surprised if it came by the end of that year, but he couldn’t promise it with everything else PSA was working on.
Why I think this matters, especially behind enemy lines. Those of us in freer states like the Carolinas or Pennsylvania can mostly get whatever we want. But when I looked at the numbers for another project, more than 40% of gun owners live in states with real gun control, with pistol permits or rosters to deal with. With a modular chassis there’s one serialized part, and you can have four or five different variations of a firearm off that one unit. PSA said it’s aimed at everybody, but it would help those states. The few modular pistols I’d featured before cost four or five times what a Dagger does. The Switch will most likely cost more than a Dagger because of the extra machining, but it should still come in well under the other options out there.
Bottom line
Looking back, this PSA booth was a roadmap: grow the Dagger into a full family, give carry folks a slim 15-round Micro, take the 5.7 Rock compact, and turn the whole thing into a modular platform with the Switch. Stephen made a point of saying PSA watches the forums and YouTube comments, and that’s how things like the ambi mag release and the compact 5.7 happened. Keep in mind this was an early-2023 booth first look, not a range review. Check PSA for which of these shipped and how they ended up. The gear I actually run is in my Amazon picks.
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Would you carry a Micro Dagger over a regular Dagger? And does a serialized-FCU chassis pistol like the Switch interest you? Tell me in the comments.
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