I'll admit it. I read gun pron.
Guns, American Handgunner, Guns & Ammo. If I can find a stack of them being given away I'm in hog heaven, no matter how out of date they are.
This morning I picked up the latest copy of American Handgunner and noticed that they had a feature story on the Wilson ADP. This is Wilson Combat's rendition of a polymer pistol.
Today while gobbling my lunch in my car before returning to work I read through the story. The pictures of the pistol were, as usual, wonderful. The story the magazine told of the pistol made me hope that everyone who considers this pistol reads the review.
Let me say that I don't know anything about Wilson Combat. I have no axe to grind. I don't own any of their products nor have I ever even held on that I can recall.
That said I think this pistol was a major mistake for them. I'd read somewhere previously that this ADP had originally appeared before under another gun makers' label and it hadn't been reliable or well made. The review of the Wilson ADP seems to back up that impression.
Reliability. The review goes to great lengths to talk about how this pistol is for "carry alot, shoot little". The test shooting was usually halted around the 100'th round because the pistol stopped functioning with anything like reliability.
Ergonomics. The reviewer talks about the fingers bumping the safety button during firing. Then mentions how when shooting it left handed he was hitting the magazine release while firing. Not good. Very not good.
What I don't understand is why a company that others seem to favor with high honors and higher prices felt the need to market a pistol that will do nothing positive for their reputation. The images in the magazine were glowing. The story under the pictures was anything but.
The writer tried in vain to put some positive spin on this one but I feel the magazine is likely to see advertising money from Wilson go bye-bye after this issue hits wide circulation.
I can see why a major maker would need a polymer pistol to compete against Glock. I don't see why a smaller maker would invest in such a project unless they really had a design that would one-up the best-in-class product.
They will no doubt sell many to people who know the Wilson name. I also have no doubt that in about two years these pistols will be on the remainder rack at CDNN for dirt cheap prices.
Maybe I'm wrong, but it would take some powerful convincing before I'd plunk down half the MSRP for this pistol, let along anything near it.
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2 comments:
For the time being there are two ways of making a polymer pistol as reliable as a Glock.
Steal, like S&W did with the Smegma, then pay through the nose when the lawyers come a callin'...
Bribe enough of the gun rags in order to garner positive reviews.
Sooner or later someone WILL come along and out-Glock Glock, but in the meantime the major manufacturers crank out the wannabes and hope that loyal customers will buy from them, just because.
It almost makes me want to take a look at American Handgunner, just to see a less than stellar review. But its hare, man, really hard to witness such absolute crap.
I did have a look-see at Clint Smith's take on the Springfield XD in .45, then promptly tossed the mag into the trash.Basically, he was saying that, well sure, the Glock in GAP is slimmer than anyones .45 ACP, but big bore fans should stick with the old ACP cartridge because a shorter case like the GAP isn't really a .45 at all.
Forget the duplicate ballistics. Sell-out-to-the-highest-bidder Clint just doesn't like the looks of the GAP cartridge, so for those with small hands thats reason enough to buy a Springfield. Codrea remains one of the select few gunwriters with anything resembling a grasp of English, and I absolutely refuse to lower my standards just to read what I know beforehand will be a dazzling review. Now you say they've gone and done something FAIR, so I'll probably peruse the issue on the newstand, but sure ain't gonna spend money on such crap.
I can't help but feel that Wilson saw an opportunity to turn a cheap piece of junk into quick money. Buy up rights to some crap and slap the Wilson name on it to sell to suckers.
Time was a company cared if their name was on junk. Now they only seem to care until it's time to cash in.
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