Why P320 is so popular outside of pistol-forum
Now that we had a few massive hate fests in this forum, such as "Would you trust P320", how about we reconcile with the fact that civilians love them some P320?
I'm just back from a pistol class where I ran P320 Full Size. I only have that gun because the front strap of G19 cuts painfully into my fingers as I start to apply the grip. The cross-section of the grip on my P320 is more round at the front, so it does not hurt no matter how tight I grasp it. Before getting it, I considered putting a good bead of JB Weld on the front strap of my G19, then filing it into a desirable shape, but I decided that I wasn't handy enough to make that project a success. I fired a bit north of 1300 rounds in the class, and dry-fired perhaps a third of a half of that amount, and my fingers are fine.
But another thing I noticed is the invasion of P320 of various kinds among the students. Most still have Glocks, but I'd say P320 is at least a quarter. It wasn't like that just a year ago. Well, I had a Glock back then too.
I overheard other students discussing this and the ergonomics was the main topic. Glock users had calluses and tender spots. One guy's fingers were in band-aids all over. Another one reported to class on the second day wearing gloves. SIG users were feeling smug, I'm sure. The second topic was the complaints about the price of SIG magazines. I brought ETS magazines to the class, but to the disappointment of many, they aren't drop-free in my gun. Nobody seemed to care much about the difference in the trigger feel.
I didn't see any malfunctions aside from one Glock user having light strikes, but it was cured by a change in ammunition. Well, 1300 rounds per gun is not much. But it is safe to consider P320 reliable enough for civilian use.
I'm afraid P320 is here to stay. Even if nothing else, adoption by Army is going to see to that.