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What about SIG's long term support for the MPX Gen 2?

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Originally posted by soggy_spinout:

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What about SIG's long term support for the MPX Gen 2?

At this point, who knows?

For these SIG-centric platforms, it unfortunately takes a tremendous leap of faith on the part of the consumer that the company will 'be around and have their back' to support such products over the long haul, something that up to now SIG has not shown much willingness to do. However if the MPX continues to sell in reasonable numbers, that might be something that the aftermarket will do if SIG themselves doesn't. Some parts can be drawn from the AR world. Still others specific to the gun's design like barrels and handguards can be sourced by other aftermarket suppliers.

And to SIG NH's credit, they have stuck it out with both the 516 and 716, which with hindsight surprises me that they have for as long as it's been. Very unSIGlike, when one gets right down to it. Perhaps what military sales they've garnered to date has something to do with it. If so, then the MPX may very well stick around for a while since the Pentagon has bought into it along with versions of the MCX platform.

But if not, so far the biggest impediment if and when SIG pulls the plug and the gun dies away from the lineup (or develops a "Gen 3" that is significantly different) is the bolt carrier assembly and the bare upper and lower receivers, which are probably copyrighted and/or patented designs; just about everything else can be had from alternative sources. And then there's the price of the gun, which keeps going up and pushing the gun further away from obtainable status for those who can't or won't see spending that kind of cheddar when less costly alternatives like the CZ Scorpion exist. All that does is lead to slow civilian sales, making the situation less appealing to developing further and wider aftermarket support.

(Frankly I don't get why the MPX is as expensive as it is. It's based on AR-15 fundamentals, just heavily modified in a way that only SIG can do. Yet when I stare at all of the parts that make up my own Gen 2 MPX, nothing about it--even the proprietary bits--stands out as being relatively costly to make, except maybe the barrel. Even then In Lead We Trust sells their barrels for 'just' $330/per, making it damn hard as to justifying the remaining bits adding another whopping $1400 to bring the gun up to a $1700+ price tag at retail. I certainly don't follow the logic.)

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I like the HK SP5K but now I see them selling for $2700.

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Originally posted by soggy_spinout:

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I like the HK SP5K but now I see them selling for $2700.

Yeah. Supply and demand. When I had them I was $500 less. Now that we can't order them until HK-DE says dealers are green-lighted again, only the few pieces already on back order will hit the civilian market between now and then.

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Any predictions if HK will have them available again? Since it is a popular gun is the limited supply reason that HK simply focuses on police and military contract and is not that interested in developing the Civilian market?

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Originally posted by soggy_spinout:

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Any predictions if HK will have them available again? Since it is a popular gun is the limited supply reason that HK simply focuses on police and military contract and is not that interested in developing the Civilian market?

HK runs their ship pretty much like Colt, CZ, Glock, SIG and FNH does, with a priority towards contracts, which have considerable back-end profit built into them in terms of after-delivery support.

I think we saw exactly this with SIG and P365 production, which initially was at a paltry level even though demand was and still remains sky high. By this past mid-summer SIG announced at the Triggrcon event here in the PNW that they were ready to amp up production of that gun because they had gotten themselves caught up on "other guns", presumably referring to the Army's M17 delivery schedule. Of course since then the other branches have also come on board with the M17, so SIG is probably finding another bottleneck looming if it's not already upon them.

HK's problem is that they've got a LOT of contracts that came together all at once, which dictated that they had to convert much of their manufacturing floors to handle fulfilling delivery on those contracts, since the typical agency or military agrees on those contracts with a mind that a supplier such as HK will HIT specific dates on getting the guns into their operators' hands.

Even their U.S. plant production is now switched completely over to fulfilling contract work, presumably dominated by the USMC battle rifle contract. That means that I won't be seeing any further HK45 pistols direct from them anytime soon, since that's where they're sourced from for the NA market.

As for when HK-DE will start accepting orders on the SP5K; my rep last told me not to expect anything moving on this until mid-2019 at the earliest, but I also was given a dire date prior to receiving the last SP5K we got, which showed up about six months ahead of what HK-DE had earlier "dictated". If HK is able to get ahead of schedule on contract deliveries then that ordering day could move forward. Of course if HK has delivery issues, or is awarded further contract work then it is bound to push that date further out. So at this time Summer 2019 before ordering can presume is about as accurate a time frame as it's going to get.

At least until my rep calls and tells me otherwise...HK (and other manufacturers as well) are also notorious for their "production overruns", and I think that's what happened with the last SP5K I got in.