One of the more interesting things to do on a gloomy January day is to read the reports by the gunnie reporters at the annual SHOT Show. You might recall that last year, they were almost all falling over themselves to praise the Remington R51, a gun that proved to be such a turkey that Remington recalled all of them. Well, this year, the reporters are once again falling to their knees and opening wide over new guns that haven't been in the hands of the (beta-testing) public.
#1: Here is a review of the Korth 9mm "Sky Marshall" by a writer who got to dry-fire it a dozen times.
Korth makes revolvers for people who think that a Colt Python is a budget-priced gun. (They're really pricey). A grand for this one is dirt-cheap by their standards.
Beyond that, a revolver that doesn't need moonclips for rimless rounds isn't exactly new. Maybe Korth's system is better. But I can't see why someone would want to use speedloaders over moonclips. And a Picatinny rail on a snubbie, well, that just looks wrong.
#2: You can hit somebody with a Taurus Curve at 12 feet. BFD, I can hit them with my desk stapler at 12 feet. In comparison, you can shoot someone with a Derringer at 21 feet. Touting that a gun is accurate enough at 12 feet, well inside Tueller Drill range, is kind of damning it with faint praise.
#3: At least, in the midst of praising All Things Bull(shit), this guy gets around to acknowledging that Taurus "had" a quality-control problem. I don't know about "had", I've heard too many stories about their crappy QC and, even in recent years, people talking about buying Taurii and then having to repeatedly send them back for repairs. The biggest gripe, besides general crappiness, is that you have to pay the shipping each way when you send in your heater to Taurus for them to attempt to fix their cruddy products.
#4: Remington is back with the R51 and they've fixed all the problems! Because Remington told this guy so and they couldn't be wrong, right?
#5: HK's "popular" USP 9mm pistol. I don't know how "popular" it is, I never see one for sale in any of the gun shops. Maybe it's because the MSRP on those things is a grand or better? Yep, when you can get two Glocks or two S&W 9mms for the same price*, dropping a grand or better on a HK is going to appeal to whom, exactly? Certainly not to any cop shop that's crunching budget numbers. HK. Because, well, you know.
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* Or half-a-dozen High Points, if you're equipping a street gang.
Both A Little Young, Methinks
21 minutes ago
2 comments:
I don't think the fact that it's expensive is a knock on the HK, any more than it's a knock on Mercedes. I DO have a problem when a manufactured product is expensive because it is 'trendy' or has a brand cachet. As long as the price translates to better quality, better function, better finish, better reliability, if I can afford it I'll happily pay it.
As you touch on here, the selling point for Taurus was price, and they were cheaper because they tended to be of substantially poorer quality than the corresponding Smith.
I don't like Glocks, and I've had bad experiences with the newer Smith autos. Sigs are nice but they seem to go out of the way to fuck up the ergos. The HK USP gets everything right.
I should not have clicked on that last link!
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