Do I want a P7?

[SoonerBJJ]

If you wait to find one in the $500-700 range you might as well resign yourself to never owning one. The days of finding those prices are over I'm afraid. There may be the 1-in-10,000 lucky find but I wouldn't count on it.

$1200 is a little steep for a used model but if it's "like new" with all original box materials then I don't consider $1000 a bad price at all. $1500 is the higher range for NIB but people are definitely willing to pay that. There are still some NIB in the $1200 range on GunsAmerica. That's where I got mine and what I paid for it. When those are gone I think we're going to see the low-end NIB prices move up another $100. That seems to have happened every 6 months or so over the last year.

The P7M8 definitely gets hot even with the heat shield. This doesn't really bother me as I just accept it as part of the package. I could go through about a hundred rounds this winter on the indoor range before it got somewhat uncomfortable. But I had it outside in 95 degree weather last week and it only lasted about 30 rounds before it went back into the shade to cool off. Each of those 30 rounds though reminded me of exactly why it is all worth it.

Buy this gun if you have the opportunity. If you find you don't like it (which I doubt) then you won't have any trouble finding someone to take it off your hands.

 

[Tom2]

Lot of money

I bet HK is making a tasty profit off of each one they sell. Heck, they might even manipulate the market to make them scarce and drive up the prices. I am sure it is a very nice gun, but I still cannot imagine that it costs more to produce than a top of the line Sig. My P239 can fill the slot for a compact 9 quite nicely here. I cannot say anything bad about the HK, and am sure it is top quality, but still for most of us, 1500 is too steep for a compact 9. Especially one that is a unembellished gun, no fancy engraving, exotic wood, etc. Give a .45 fanatic 1500, and he will go for the latest super Kustom .45, never consider a small 9. Give it to a nostalgiaist, like me, and I might look at a Colt SAA or something else "artistic" "historical" instead of a 9 mm anything. Then again, I might go for a real cool 9MM parabellum aka Luger. But the market price is driven by people like you that admire the design and quality, so have at it. Like they say, it aint gettin any cheaper!

 

[SouthpawShootr]

Heck, they might even manipulate the market to make them scarce and drive up the prices.

Actually, best move for H&K would be to move this model to the limited production category, having production runs every couple years or so. Hell, Sig did the same thing with the 228. Switched it to limited production, let the rumors of discontinuance and inavailability abound and every single one released for the civilian market gets snapped up inside of a month. Then we all wait for the next run. Now everybody's saying again that the 228 has been discontinued with the 229 replacing the gap in the line. I'll bet NIB examples continue to trickle through the supply line.

 

[tulsamal]

In brief...it is the finest 9mm ever made.

I don't know if I'm willing to go _quite_ that far. But I will say I think it is the safest CCW semi-auto you can carry. No way in hell that gun is going to go off accidentally. No matter what strange one in a million thing happens. And if your day totally goes to **** and the bad guy actually gets _your_ gun, the odds are very high in your favor that he won't be able to figure out how to get it to fire before you can turn things back around. Or just flee the AO!

Gregg

 

[918v]

It is not the finest 9mm ever made. The S&W 952 is the finest 9mm ever made. The P7 bows down to and worships the 952. It runs and hides when the 952 discharges. The P7 trembles at the thought of competing with the 952 because it knows that it is an overpriced economy gun.

 

[Pilot]

I have a P7M8 and then bought a BMI P7 PSP when they came in a while back. They are two guns I would never sell.

And to whomever said CZ's have no class, you are just plain wrong. I carry a PCR even over my HK P7's a lot of the time and I'm a callssy guy.

Anyway, the P7 is just a well built, high quality, accurate, reliable and UNIQUE pistol. You must posses one.

 

[Greg Bell]

I am sure it is a very nice gun, but I still cannot imagine that it costs more to produce than a top of the line Sig. My P239 can fill the slot for a compact 9 quite nicely here.

I love SIGs, but a P7 is clearly more costly to make. The thing is machined from a solid block of high quality steel ( I have a video that shows it being done). It as a precisely machined gas piston system, a beautiful hard chromed hammer forged polygonal barrel that is fixed in place. Just take the grips off or look inside the slide and look at all the complicated machining operations it takes to make a P7. Look how HK seam welds the breech in place rather than holding it on with a pin. Take a P7M8 and a P239 mag and see which one is more solidly built. The M8 (and especially the M13) mag is a tank--the 239 is Italian sheet metal.

Again, I love the SIG (and the 239 is one of my favorites), but it is much harder to explain the price of a SIG than a P7. The P7 is German made, out of production and currently in fairly high demand by collectors. OTOH, SIGs are primarily American made (with the dollar weak against the EURO) and much simpler to manufacture guns. Once a SIG's parts a manufactured, it is really just a matter of tossing them together. Putting together a P7 from parts is impossible, unless you have a S@#tload of gadgets for pressing in barrels, gas cylinders, etc.

 

[918v]

Sorry, but a S&W 5906 is way more complicated to machine than a P-7. Just look at the number of parts and the complexity of the frame and slide. The P-7 is just another overpriced gun, as are the MP-5 and USP series.