I love ‘em. I have two; a heel-release P7 and a P7M8. Fantastic shooting guns.
Two things kept sales down, I think. They were always on the expensive side, and they were always surrounded with exaggerations.
The most I gave for one of mine was around $800, which was right around what a Kimber 1911 cost at the time. So not cheap, but not crazy either.
But the claims I’d hear about them! Everybody had a strong opinion on them, but very few had ever shot one. Funny how that works.
People would say things like they operated so differently from every other gun they would “gitcha kilt” because you’d forget to cock them. Or that the gas locking system made the gun so hot you couldn’t practice with it. Or that it was too heavy.
They worked as natural as could be. You picked it up, took a good firing grip as you pointed in, and you cocked the gun in the process. Relax and lower the gun to low ready and you decock the gun.
Forget to cock it? I tried to shoot one of my P7s in an IDPA match at least once a year. They drew a crowd, which allowed a little experimenting. People would ask to shoot it after the match and I’d always agree. I would give them a very brief instruction period. Sometimes the same people would want to shoot it the next time a brought it many months later. This time I didn’t give them so much as a reminder on how it worked, and every single person did fine. Nobody ever “forgot to cock it”. Most shot it as well or better as their own gun.
I would do the same, BTW. I might not shoot a P7 for months, but when I did, I’d usually do as well or better than what I’d been shooting regularly.
Too hot to hold? The gun would heat up some from the gas locking system, so there is some basis in fact there. They weren’t near as bad as many made out. The older one was worse, as the later P7M8 got a plastic “heat shield” along the top of the trigger guard opening. Still, it took around 50 quick rounds to even notice any heat. Most P7 owners didn’t own enough magazines to do that.
I’ve used mine in classes that kept the ammo flowing, and survived OK.
Many said they were heavy, but they came out before the polymer era and all such guns feel heavy to people now. The P7s were within a couple ounces of the other single stack 9mms of their time, like the Sig P225 and P239, and S&W 3913 for example.
Others said they were complicated, with way too many parts. That’s simply not the case. They didn’t have any more parts than similar size guns, and had less parts than the DA autos they competed with.
The biggest negative was probably that they were HKs. At the time, that meant most gun shops didn’t stock them so they could be hard to find. You didn’t run across one at the range very often to try out.
My only real complaint is the blued finish didn’t wear well. I guess the last ones got the HK wonder finish of the time, though.
They may feel heavy now, but they are still slim guns and that makes them easier for me to carry than say, a Glock 26. They are very easy to shoot and get hits with. While 8+1 may seem like a small amount in a 9mm gun, I always could shoot a P7 well enough that it never bothered me at all. I still carry one on rare occasions, but have basically retired them. I was using the P7M8 not too long ago, however.
athlonoutdoors.com
