27 June 02

A friend who works with a large gun retailer in Slat Lake City tells me:

"The 1911 crowd makes up about ten percent of the serious handgun market here. Kimber and Springfield are slugging it out for first place. Springfield is slowly taking the lead from Kimber. Kimber is starting to suffer a breakage problem with small parts, mostly manual safeties and slide-stop pins. We can sell every G23 we can get. In fact, everything in 40S&W is a good seller. 357SIG is now starting to come on strong also.

Kahr suffers from a name recognition problem, but we still sell a lot of them.

Beretta buyers are mostly first-time patrons who saw them in movies. Few experienced buyers are interested in them.

SIGs are good sellers, particularly in 40S&W. The P220 (45ACP) we can't sell at all.

Whenever someone mentions S&W, you typically hear several sneers. They are still suffering from the a serious customer backlash that resulted from their ex-president dropping his shorts and bending over for the Clinton Administration. People don't forget. The S&W P99 shows some life. Sigmas and the rest of the S&W line are all dogs.

In serious ammunition, Speer Gold Dot, because of its popularity with police, is a strong seller. Federal and Cor-Bon are both strong contenders also."

/John