Originally posted by egregore: It does stand out ... I guess.
Does anybody else see the snarling - or is it an evil laugh? - fire monster with a gaping mouth?
A bird's head with the mag latch as the eye. The trigger guard ruins the beak. Not everything you can do with a 3D printer is worth doing.
Bruce
"The designer of the gun had clearly not been instructed to beat about the bush. 'Make it evil,' he'd been told. 'Make it totally clear that this gun has a right end and a wrong end. Make it totally clear to anyone standing at the wrong end that things are going badly for them. If that means sticking all sort of spikes and prongs and blackened bits all over it then so be it. This is not a gun for hanging over the fireplace or sticking in the umbrella stand, it is a gun for going out and making people miserable with." -Douglas Adams
“It is just as difficult and dangerous to try to free a people that wants to remain servile as it is to try to enslave a people that wants to remain free." -Niccolo Machiavelli
The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one's time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all. -Mencken
October 31, 2026, 09:38 PM
RogueJSK
quote:
Originally posted by RNshooter: Not everything you can do with a 3D printer is worth doing.
With great printing comes great responsibility...
October 31, 2026, 09:54 PM
OttoSig
It’s got great lines.
Eight years to retirement! Just waiting!
October 31, 2026, 10:10 PM
Belwolf
No serrations, but it’s got “ears” at the back.
“Posterity! You will never know how much it cost the present Generation to preserve your Freedom! I hope you will make good use of it. If you do not, I shall repent in Heaven, that I ever took half the Pains to preserve it.” ― John Adams
"Fire can be our friend; whether it's toasting marshmallows, or raining down on Charlie." - Principal Skinner.
November 01, 2026, 08:09 AM
parabellum
SA, Inc, take note. It's got holes in the Grip Zone™
November 01, 2026, 11:50 AM
rat2306
It's too sexy for the range (to steal the lines from another '80s hit tune).
November 01, 2026, 03:43 PM
MacGyver
Well…
Even though I think it’d be faddish, I genuinely was wondering (given the whole pistol optics craze) when someone would finally make a slide with an integral optic and no iron sights…
However, the first time being a one-off anniversary piece from Beretta was maybe the last thing I expected. Without the “Falco” motif though (which I don’t mind as much as some of the other bling out there), an all-steel integral-optic APX would be cool.
November 01, 2026, 03:54 PM
RogueJSK
quote:
Originally posted by MacGyver: I genuinely was wondering (given the whole pistol optics craze) when someone would finally make a slide with an integral optic and no iron sights… ... Without the “Falco” motif though (which I don’t mind as much as some of the other bling out there), an all-steel integral-optic APX would be cool.
One big issue with this idea is that optics technology is constantly changing and evolving. With an integral optic you're stuck with what it originally came with.
They ran into this same issue with certain rifles with integrated optics, such as the early Steyr AUGs or HK G36s. The gun itself remains viable for decades but the integral optic becomes dated much more quickly. It can't be easily replaced or swapped when user needs and/or technology changes.
You can also look at some of the handguns from decades past with things like integral lights or lasers, or modified with permanent or semi-permanent aftermarket lights or lasers. What was cutting edge light/laser tech at the time is now grossly outdated as technology advanced for lights, lasers, and especially batteries, and these are now relegated to being curios.
It also means that if the integral optic goes down, the entire gun (not just the optic) is out of commission until it can be repaired or replaced.
So while an integral optic may be viable for a collector's piece where the primary goal is "cool factor", it isn't really viable for actual production or real world use. Modular/customizable/upgradable setups are far superior.
November 01, 2026, 04:10 PM
OttoSig
quote:
Originally posted by RogueJSK: One big issue
Lets be honest, "One" isnt the number to start off an issues discussion with this pistol
Eight years to retirement! Just waiting!
November 01, 2026, 04:42 PM
WaterburyBob
quote:
Originally posted by manac: Make a good BBQ gun.
Yeah, I guess - as long as you mean you're throwing it ON the barbeque.
"If Gun Control worked, Chicago would look like Mayberry, not Thunderdome" - Cam Edwards
November 01, 2026, 05:36 PM
MacGyver
quote:
Originally posted by RogueJSK: One big issue is that optics technology is constantly changing and evolving. With an integral optic you're stuck with what it originally came with.
They ran into this same issue with certain rifles with integrated optics, such as the early Steyr AUGs or HK G36s. The gun itself remains viable for decades but the integral optic becomes dated much more quickly. It can't be easily replaced or swapped when user needs and/or technology changes.
You can also look at some of the handguns from decades past with things like integral lights or lasers, or modified with permanent or semi-permanent aftermarket lights or lasers. What was cutting edge light/laser tech at the time is now grossly outdated as technology advanced for lights, lasers, and especially batteries, and these are now relegated to being curios.
It also means that if the integral optic goes down, the entire gun (not just the optic) is out of commission until it can be repaired or replaced.
So while an integral optic may be viable for a collector's piece where the goal is "cool factor", it isn't really as viable for actual production or real world use. Modularity/customizability is far superior.
Eh, I think the continuous changes and evolution will level off at some point like with everything else. At the end of the day, a dot in a window is a dot in a window. What I'd be more concerned about here is the internal design, specifically whether or not the window, emitter, and circuitry are easily replaceable. If they are not, that could be very problematic in the future. Otherwise though, in the event of a failure...
...during defensive use, this pistol would be no more out-of-commission than any other optics-equipped pistol with iron sights that cannot be co-witnessed. ...during competitive use, this pistol would likely be more out-of-commission than a pistol with a removable optic, but not necessarily always or even most of the time. ...during any other recreational use, it would likely be a wash again.
For a rifle, I agree that a picatinny rail beats a proprietary integral solution any day of the week. However, the AUG and the G36 were both designed before the widespread adoption of MIL-STD-1913. Of course, Austria (where the Steyr AUG comes from) isn't a part of NATO, but the adoption of MIL-STD-1913, first by the US, and then other NATO countries, is what really began to set the trend. You can't really fault Steyr and HK for coming up with their own solutions prior to that though. Along those lines, modularity and customizability aside, the most common mounting solution today for pistol optics (i.e. using perpendicular screws) is completely half-baked and thoroughly flawed; the "picatinny rail" of the pistol optics market arguably hasn't arrived yet. The Falco's monolithic construction is an obvious (both in the positive and negative sense of the word, which is why I said it would be "faddish") solution to those flaws.
