A Glock 42?

[Chuck Haggard]

What would Bill "No honest man needs a handgun smaller than a canned ham" Ruger say?

I'm sure a small town somewhere is being lit by the spinning he is doing in his grave being harnessed and hooked to a generator.

[Totem Polar]

excellent, Tam and Chuck.

[jetfire]

I've not looked at any hard numbers, but I think you seriously underestimate LCP and P3AT sales. I'll bet more people CCW pocket .380s than carry full size Glocks, and by a large margin.

BATFE says Ruger manufactured 177,000 .380s in 2011. That's a lotta guns. That's more .380s than Kel-Tec by a factor of ten.

ETA: Holy cow. That's more than all .38 Special revolvers manufactured by S&W of all models combined. And Ruger only made one .380 in '11.

The anecdotes from working in online gun sales supports that as well. We cannot keep ElsiePees in stock. Get one in, put it on the website, it sells. Just like that.

[Tamara]

The anecdotes from working in online gun sales supports that as well. We cannot keep ElsiePees in stock. Get one in, put it on the website, it sells. Just like that.

The big surprises to me in that BATF listing were Smith and SIG's .380 numbers. I knew Smith was selling a buttload of Bodyguards, but I didn't think it'd be that big of a buttload, and I would have expected LCPs to be outpacing SIGs 380 lineup by a bigger margin than the ~3:1 ratio that they are according to those numbers.

If I were George Kellgren, I'd be a sad panda. He's getting crushed by near-clones of his gun in a market niche he more or less invented. Even the TCP is way outselling the P3AT.

ETA: Take Ruger, S&W, and Taurus, and throw in Kel-Tec as a consolation prize, and you're looking at about a third of a million .380s in 2011. Kahr, which debuted its P380 that year, made less than 5,500 of them... So, this >$400 Glock is going to be the best-selling .380 on the market? Maybe among p-f.com members, okay.

[jetfire]

Maybe if he'd stop trying to make silly shotguns and bullpup .308s that no one wants and focus on making the guns people actually want...no, nevermind. That's crazy talk.

[Joe in PNG]

Maybe if he'd stop trying to make silly shotguns and bullpup .308s that no one wants and focus on making the guns people actually want...no, nevermind. That's crazy talk.

At least Oleg is happy...

[Tamara]

On the other hand, looking at those numbers you can see why Beretta and Glock jumped on the .380 bandwagon. Conventional wisdom says that if it's raining soup, you'd be a fool not to stick a bowl out the window. (See: "Smith & Wesson Governor".)

[Totem Polar]

Yet again, Tam comes out of her corner swinging a surprise upset on the internets.

All food for thought. Regarding the 3AT and Pandas: back in what was practically a past life, I had a chance to hear sales guy/personality/author Brian Tracy speak a bunch of times. One of his more memorable quotes was "you only have to be 1-2 percent new on an idea to make a fortune." As baby Jesus is my witness, is that *ever* true of Elsie.

[Chuck Haggard]

The big surprises to me in that BATF listing were Smith and SIG's .380 numbers. I knew Smith was selling a buttload of Bodyguards, but I didn't think it'd be that big of a buttload, and I would have expected LCPs to be outpacing SIGs 380 lineup by a bigger margin than the ~3:1 ratio that they are according to those numbers.

If I were George Kellgren, I'd be a sad panda. He's getting crushed by near-clones of his gun in a market niche he more or less invented. Even the TCP is way outselling the P3AT.

ETA: Take Ruger, S&W, and Taurus, and throw in Kel-Tec as a consolation prize, and you're looking at about a third of a million .380s in 2011. Kahr, which debuted its P380 that year, made less than 5,500 of them... So, this >$400 Glock is going to be the best-selling .380 on the market? Maybe among p-f.com members, okay.

That both the new LCP and the TCP have improved triggers vs the Kel Tec, and seem to run far better, is also a factor.

If KT would dump everything but the P32, P3AT, sub2000 and PF9 they would be able to sell everything they make and then some.

[Nephrology]

Maybe if he'd stop trying to make silly shotguns and bullpup .308s that no one wants and focus on making the guns people actually want...no, nevermind. That's crazy talk.

Sometimes I think there is a magic invisible wall that separates the opinions of well-educated firearms owners and those of the people who manufacture them.