In the last 5 years or so, I've gotten very bored with the handgun industry. Maybe you have too. I can't think of many new or innovative products that have wowed me. Maybe it's 5+ years of complacency driven by quick and easy sales, or an AR-15 market that seems to want to push $4000 rifles that shoot about as well as $400 ones. About the only good thing that's happened is guns have gotten very cheap -- especially when adjusted for inflation.

It seems every polymer gun released is an "also ran" against Glock with the exception of the P320 which seems to have gotten a foothold with the Army contract. But as it stands, it's far more of an interesting idea than a milestone. It seems a handgun comes out, everyone loves it, then it gets promptly forgotten a year or two later (M&P, Beretta PX4, whatever version of XD Springfield is making, PPQ, P30, VP9...etc.). The only polymer gun that has any sort of "staying power" has been 9mm Glocks. Heck, I think we witnessed an entire caliber being killed off with .40 S&W.

I think every new alloy or steel platform introduced has turned out to be vaporware. Vltor Bren Ten? Nope. Hudson H9? Nada. S&W 3rd generation? Dead with all traces gone. Kahr seems to have fallen from favor. And everything else seems to be a rehash of an old Colt or Beretta design. Unless it was designed prior to 1980, alloy or steel pistols are improved only with action jobs and improved sights. A Sig from 1979 shoots about as well as one from today.

And no, optics haven't done it for me yet. When they can reliably pass the Aimpoint "drop it out of an airplane" test and not cost more than the gun on which they are mounted, then I might take interest.

Am I missing something? Is there something on the horizon that will change my mind? Have we reached the point of perfection in the form of the Glock 19 and modern custom 1911, and everything is just downhill from there?

The Silencerco Maxim-9 is a horse of a different color.

+1 - If you got a Glock 19, you're not missing anything. The APX has been a nice experience, but it needs a compact version for me.

A snubby is nice to have too.

That new 6-shot Kimber revolver is pretty sweet. Ruger releases some pretty neat guns, nothing groundbreaking but they keep it fresh at least. I like a few of the newer guns Henry has released too.

I get what you are saying though. There is nothing that blows my mind. I walked around the NRA convention without seeing anything I just had to have.

For all the action in the industry, it involves an amazing amount of sameness.

Why is it impossible to buy a Kahr sized DA/SA pistol?

Why are highly accurate pistols relegated to customs and Euro weirdness?

Why aren't there more guns with changeable trigger systems like DA/LEM?

Where are all the cool tiny guns? Doesn't everyone want a .22 LR Walther TPH if the price was reasonable? Or a DA micro revolver?


I'm personally moving backward in time - those S&W 39s are starting to look pretty sweet.

I agree. There has not been a new handgun introduced in the last 10 years that has interested me at all.

I've contented myself with buying 3rd gen S&W's. Regards 18DAI

I have walked the path of many. IE, denying the value of a G19 for years, until now all I really need is a G19.

Sure a G42/43/J-frame has its uses and such, but I could do without them.

I find the introduction of more reliable, aftermarket magazines to the semi-auto market a great thing, but it's not revolutionary.

I think we are pretty much done until optics get durable and brainless to use, or we move to weapons that no longer fire projectiles made of metal.

I don't know what you're expecting. There's only so much you can do to propel a projectile. Until technology changes (caseless ammo or some such thing), it's all going to be very similar. The area where tech is advancing is electronics, which are peripheral, but starting to become more integral. Remember in Beverly Hills Cop 2 when the tall blonde is shooting at the club with a laser? The damned thing was the size of a Volkswagen. Now you have lasers that are just a bump on the grip. Red dot sights (though I haven't gotten used to them on pistols) have shrunk enough to wheee they're now factory options instead of some one off. 3D printing has some interesting possibilities but it's still just a way to manufacture, not radically change how bullets are sent down range. Plus, there's the economy of it. The demand is for striker fired pistols. That's what everyone is pumping out because that's what people want. Maybe not what you want, but it's a numbers game. Everyone would love a Colt Python for $400 right? But if there was a $400 Python, nobody would want it because 1) It wouldn't be as good as the original and 2) it's a heavy, bulky, low capacity range toy and 3) the cache would be lost because everyone could have one.

I'm getting on a tangent. My point is, we're currently at the edge of technology. Something big has to happen to change the game. Until then, you're gonna see a lot of things that are marketed as innovative but ultimately are just minor variations on things you've seen before.

quote:

Originally posted by Pale Horse:
That new 6-shot Kimber revolver is pretty sweet. Ruger releases some pretty neat guns, nothing groundbreaking but they keep it fresh at least. I like a few of the newer guns Henry has released too.

I get what you are saying though. There is nothing that blows my mind. I walked around the NRA convention without seeing anything I just had to have.

Sadly the K6S was probably my favorite thing at the Shot show when we roamed around this year (but it's really no different than what S&W has been making for years)... and surprisingly the Taurus Spectrum was kinda cool looking for a little pocket pistol (unfortunately A. It's made by Taurus B. It's obviously never ACTUALLY going to start shipping C. It's pretty much an LCP/TCP/bodyguard pick one..)

Even Keltec's awesome idea this year was a reincarnation of the KSG that's hideous and ugly and holds 25rds because it's huge... I'm not saying Keltecs guns are awesome but they have some pretty neat guns with the KSG, PMR30, sub 2k, RFB, RDB, etc...

I'm not sure what they could possibly release that would be "ground breaking" but it is getting pretty old looking at the same gun reincarnated with a different name etched in the slide.

I would love to have a pistol that fires bullets that turn corners. You know, like micro guided missiles.

quote:

Originally posted by 12131:
I would love to have a pistol that fires bullets that turn corners. You know, like micro guided missiles.

This would be cool except you know they'd be an NFA item so each time you shot a bullet it's $50 for the bullet and $200 to the government

quote:

Originally posted by Blackwater:
+1 - If you got a Glock 19, you're not missing anything. The APX has been a nice experience, but it needs a compact version for me.

A snubby is nice to have too.

This guy pretty much nailed it.

Maybe throw in a lever action .45-70 or .30-30 and a pump shotgun, and we're still at around 150 years for 3 out of 4

quote:

Originally posted by 12131:
I would love to have a pistol that fires bullets that turn corners. You know, like micro guided missiles.

They thought about it in 1984.

WTF is that thing? You sure it was 1984? AA date code = 2000

quote:

Originally posted by chongosuerte:

quote:

Originally posted by Blackwater:
+1 - If you got a Glock 19, you're not missing anything. The APX has been a nice experience, but it needs a compact version for me.

A snubby is nice to have too.

This guy pretty much nailed it.

Maybe throw in a lever action .45-70 or .30-30 and a pump shotgun, and we're still at around 150 years for 3 out of 4

You could own guns only designed by John M Browning and be pretty well equipped and ready for any situation that you would ever need a gun for.

do you own a glock 42 sweet shooter.

quote:

Originally posted by BuddyChryst:
I don't know what you're expecting. There's only so much you can do to propel a projectile. Until technology changes (caseless ammo or some such thing), it's all going to be very similar. The area where tech is advancing is electronics, which are peripheral, but starting to become more integral. Remember in Beverly Hills Cop 2 when the tall blonde is shooting at the club with a laser? The damned thing was the size of a Volkswagen. Now you have lasers that are just a bump on the grip. Red dot sights (though I haven't gotten used to them on pistols) have shrunk enough to wheee they're now factory options instead of some one off. 3D printing has some interesting possibilities but it's still just a way to manufacture, not radically change how bullets are sent down range. Plus, there's the economy of it. The demand is for striker fired pistols. That's what everyone is pumping out because that's what people want. Maybe not what you want, but it's a numbers game. Everyone would love a Colt Python for $400 right? But if there was a $400 Python, nobody would want it because 1) It wouldn't be as good as the original and 2) it's a heavy, bulky, low capacity range toy and 3) the cache would be lost because everyone could have one.

I'm getting on a tangent. My point is, we're currently at the edge of technology. Something big has to happen to change the game. Until then, you're gonna see a lot of things that are marketed as innovative but ultimately are just minor variations on things you've seen before.

Also people are hesitant to change.

A few years ago on this forum someone asked a question about what the next major advancement in revolver technology would be and what people expected to see. A large number of posters responded with answers along the lines of smaller but harder hitting cartridges so that you could fit more rounds into a smaller package.

The funny thing is that at the same time the .327 Fed Mag had just been introduced. Yet almost everyone commenting on threads about that cartridge was saying that they were happy with the .357 or that if 5 rounds wasn't enough then 6 wouldn't be either or that they needed real world shooting cases before they would consider it or that there was not enough factory ammo available and on and on.

Federal and Ruger and teamed up and made the "next-gen" SD revolver and cartridge combo everyone said they wanted yet nobody was willing to buy into it. Thankfully both Federal and Ruger and a few others have yet to give up on the cartridge and eventually it may turn into something, though I fear it will go the way of the dodo and the .41 Mag.

quote:

Originally posted by 12131:
I would love to have a pistol that fires bullets that turn corners. You know, like micro guided missiles.

"Phased plasma rifle 40 watt range."

"Only what you see pal."

quote:

Originally posted by 12131:
WTF is that thing? You sure it was 1984? AA date code = 2000

Yeah. It was an old Tom Selleck movie from my childhood called Runaway. You programmed the bullet/missile and it would find it's target.

I'm not bored with the industry, but it has reached a level of maturation. There are cool new pieces of kit, that are affordable, such as the Scorpion. But in regards to handguns, evolutionary only. The PPQ, the VP9, and the new CZ are just Glocks, with finer or better triggers to me. Sphinx/Kriss had a chance with DA/SA but they munched that up beautifully with poor CS and execution.

Is what it is. I've got a few long guns I want, just duplicates, but I won't spend any handgun money until we see Gen 5 Glocks. My preference would be a new line of polymer DA/SA with a mirror of choices compared to G43 - G34. Subcompact single stack 9, all the way up to double stack 1911 size. But nobody is going to make it, nor in every size.

This is a golden age of firearms to me, so hard to complain. So many things out, a plethora. Pick, and choose. If you have everything you need or want, then shoot more.