Not terribly surprising. The plastic pistol market is flooded with brands for half the price.

They have pretty much relied on military sales, and were late to focus on the commercial market. And yes, they are expensive with a poor reputation for customer service. But they make good guns!

They hate the commercial market in the us. Nothing new from hk for awhile. They reintroduced the 416 22s, usc and a long slide vp9. Nothing really to get excited about. They dropped the prices for some of their pistols though.

maybe they should try competing?

When your products are twice the price of the going rate, you limit your market

They are the Colt of Germany

Yup. They could have done what SIG Sauer did, but did not.

Most of the HKs I want are old. P7, P9, preban roller locker rifles, etc. They could have made the effort to work around the U.S. import rules as many other manufacturers did, but chose not to do so. For the same money, everyone is buying an HK stamped rifle vs. a PTR even if both are made here on identical tooling. Fortunately for PTR and others, HK never bothered.

I like HKs. But this isn't surprising. Here's my observation.

* Neglected the civilian market, which is far larger than police or military contracts.

* Failure to listen to the consumers and produce what people want. Who among us would not want to buy a new P7? Or a MP5 pistol? Make them!!!!

* Too expensive guns. The guns are nice but cannot support their price tags, when guns that perform as well or better are 1/2 the price.

* Too expensive magazines with lesser capacity. I'd be more inclined to overpay for a pistol of magazines were inexpensive. Who wants to spend 3x the price for magazines? And for many of their guns their capacity seems to lag behind the competition in spite of the guns having ample grip well for more ammo (why is a larger USP holding less rounds than the smaller SW M&P or Glock?). Their gun capacities are generally not good. A full sized HK45 is 10+1... (a step backwards and 20% worse than the USP45) and you've got competitors that are 13 (Glock 21 or XDM) or 15 (FN FNX 45).

* Too slow to innovate, fix the USP, and introduce new models and models are confusing when introduced. I cannot keep track of their different lines, what is the differences, etc... which also seem to cannibalize other similar lines. And the USP is/was long overdue for a modern accessory rail.

Shut your mouth, sir.

Agreed on all other counts, though. Not surprising to see them in financial trouble. You suck and they hate you.

The USP is a premier pistol and in my top 5 modern options/designs... but the USP is/was long overdue for a modern accessory rail.

And downright affordable if you care to buy used. See them go for under $500 all the time on Gunbroker. Got my 1993 mfg'd USP40 /w safety+decocker from Skagit Arms for $520 OTD. I use a TLR-3 with an HK adapter, so the rail doesn't bother me. She's a dandy.

The USP has more than paid for itself. HK would be smart to ramp up production and cut prices to the lowest figure possible to make a profit. They should have a goal to put an HK USP in every gun owners collection.

Otherwise it's a crowded market and low demand for an $800 polymer pistol...

I always think of Heckling Cock when I see one of their guns. Im too much of a homophobe to own a cock gun. I wont missem.

plus there is a the whole HK Social Media Girl "debacle" from a few months back.

They don’t care for the commercial market, don’t give us what we want (HK91’s, HK93’s, MP5 pistols, G36’s), let companies like Zenith/MKE and PTR capture the market, too much proprietary shit (mags, rails, weird dick towards shooter version of keymod), mags for the cool old stuff (except HK91) mags are expensive and sometimes hard to find, their roller lock guns have shit triggers (this coming from a guy who loves those roller lock guns) and the quality optic mounts for the roller lock guns are expensive. Nothing about the 416 is really that special (other piston systems with nicer recoil impulse and way cheaper). They should have followed Knights Armament’s example at least. Feed the obsessed fanboys on the civilian market access to their stuff, with enough small changes to products to keep interest.