BUL Armory

The frame of the BUL M-5 does not come apart. Its fiber-reinforced polymer grip is molded around a 17-4 PH stainless steel insert, and the frame rails are machined into that insert. It was the first firearm from a company that had not been set up to make firearms. BUL Transmark Ltd. was established in Tel Aviv early in 1990 to develop and build indoor shooting ranges, and its early literature says it also devised training methods for Israeli and foreign special forces. The company’s own histories describe a privately held firm, “owned and run almost like a family business,” and do not name its founders.

By BUL’s account, the decision to build a pistol came in 1992. The company consulted Israeli military and IPSC shooters, along with ergonomics specialists, and chose the 1911 pattern so that owners could fit parts from other makers. The first prototype left the factory in early 1993, and BUL states that Springfield took an early interest and that the two companies exhibited together at the 1994 SHOT Show. The M-5 was offered in 9x19, 9x21, 9x23, .38 Super, .40 S&W and .45 ACP, in forms that ran from the compact Ultra-X to the Ultimate Racer competition pistol. Maxim Popenker’s reference entry describes a single-action, double-stack design and dates its development to 1991-92 and its production to 1994. Competition shaped the staff as well as the catalog. A company page archived in 2000 lists 25 employees and identifies the marketing manager, Saul Kirsch, as Israel’s IPSC national champion.

The frame also had a life outside BUL’s own catalog. The company sold it as a kit to gunsmiths and to other manufacturers, and Shooting Times later noted that BUL was the source Kimber turned to for frames when it first offered polymer-framed pistols. BUL bought in parts as well: by 2000 it said it had been fitting Chip McCormick slides, barrels and internal parts for three years. In the United States the pistols passed through several importers. Blue Book of Gun Values lists All America Sales of Memphis in 1996-97, International Security Academy of Los Angeles from 1997 to 2001, EAA in 2002, and K.B.I. of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, from 2003 to early 2010. BUL announced the K.B.I. arrangement in December 2002, and domestic imports were marked Charles Daly from 2004. That channel closed with the Charles Daly business in January 2010.

BUL’s second line was aimed at buyers who wanted a double-action trigger and a lower price. The Impact, developed in 1998, was a compact polymer-frame pistol that fed from the wide 1911-type magazine of the M-5. It was first displayed, with the Storm, at the 1999 SHOT Show in Atlanta; the Storm was at that time BUL’s only all-steel pistol. The polymer-frame Cherokee followed in early 2002. BUL described these pistols as using an established mechanism and production parts, which kept their prices well below the M-5 line. Popenker identifies the Impact’s basis as the Tanfoglio development of the CZ 75, says the Cherokee kept a CZ 75-type action, and records a new Cherokee frame in 2005. BUL’s later description of that frame lists accessory rails and an enlarged, squared trigger guard. Company literature of this period claims use by Israeli security companies and by special forces units, but names no agency, and no procurement record was located for this profile. BUL reported ISO 9002 certification around 2000, and its later website cites ISO 9001:2000.

An undated company catalog, written before mid-2010, introduced two departures. The BUL 1911 Classic was a steel-frame, single-stack Government and Commander. The SAS was a new high-capacity 1911 whose steel insert and polymer grip frame were separate parts, unlike the bonded M-5. The company’s name changed over the same years: the website copyrighted in 2008 uses BUL Ltd., a placeholder page archived in December 2016 still reads BUL Transmark, and by November 2017 the firm was presenting itself online as Bul Armory, with 1911, SAS II and Cherokee lines. American Rifleman’s Guy Sagi writes that the SAS was aimed at USPSA’s Limited division and was then upgraded into the SAS II. In 2019 BUL released the Bullesteros, an open-division SAS II with a stainless steel grip and a one-piece 5.7-inch compensated barrel. Its catalog credits a year of development with input from Jorge Ballesteros of Spain, who had won the Open division at the 2017 IPSC Handgun World Shoot. Ballesteros died in January 2023. The BL9, a 9 mm competition carbine fed from Glock-pattern magazines, was reported in December 2019.

The American side of the business changed in the same period. Blue Book records International Firearms Corp. as importer until late 2019 and GP Arms of Dandridge, Tennessee, from 2019, and names Bul Armory of Miami, Florida, as a current importer. American Rifleman tested an IFC-imported BUL 1911 Ultra in February 2019. The U.S. registration for the BUL ARMORY mark, issued on 28 November 2023, is owned by BUL ARMORY USA LLC of Miami and claims first use in commerce in September 2018. The range widened as well. Polymer-frame, striker-fired pistols were promised in coverage of the 2020 SHOT Show, appeared at IWA in March 2022 as the Axe, which The Firearm Blog described as a Glock-type design with extensive parts compatibility, and were streamlined into a single revised pistol for the 2025 SHOT Show. A new TAC series of double-stack pistols was introduced at the same IWA exhibition. BUL’s international catalog now runs from the Axe and the single-stack Government, Commander and Trophy to SAS II-platform models such as the Ultralight, EDC and TAC, alongside the Bullesteros. The company also markets a trigger system with interchangeable links for double-stack 1911s, which it describes as patent pending. For a collector, the practical point is that BUL’s early work is spread across several names: BUL-made frames appear under BUL, Charles Daly and Kimber branding, and Blue Book notes that non-domestic pistols are typically marked Bul M-5 on the left side of the slide.