Are low-priced handguns for you? S&W's new .380 defines new market niche

Shooting Industry, August, 1995 by Massad Ayoob

The niche in question has been explored before, but never to the depth that the SW380 promises in the "pocket pistol" category. In 1954, S&W brought out their plain vanilla Highway Patrolman variation of the prestigious large-frame .357 Magnum for the Texas Department of Public Safety. For decades, thereafter, it would be a staple on any gun expert's best buy list. The concept exists today in the same firm's high-value line of stripped-down auto pistols: the 411 in .40, and the 910 and 909 in 9mm.

Similarly, Colt's reversal from the edge of the bankruptcy grave is due in large part to the huge market acceptance of their economy grade .45 autos in the 1991A1 series. Both companies offer the customer a significant break on a "stripped-down," but still high-quality pistol. However, neither goes so far as the SW380.

Retail on this neat little gun is purported to be suggested in the $295 to $300 range. However, with dealer cost expected to run between $200 and $205, we should to see a lot of them going out gunshop doors for considerably less than three big ones. This will place the SW380 at little more than half the price of its much-publicized big-brother Sigma.

Absolute cost-cutting design is the reason why. The original Sigma of 1994 was drafted around concepts of production economy, and the baby-brother pistol slices even more corners. An ingenious, if less than ergonomic, new design is used for releasing the magazine. Paddles affixed to the sides of the mag are pinched with the thumb and forefinger through deep cuts in the frame. There is no slide-lock device. You shoot it 'till it clicks, reload, jack the slide back and release, and shoot some more. Only one magazine is included with each gun. This not only lowers cost further, but also reflects a deep market analysis indicating that the kind of customer who trusts a .380 auto for protection is not the kind of customer who usually packs spare magazines.

The pistol is double-action-only, with a reasonably acceptable trigger stroke and firm resistance to the finger all the way through. Many observers believe this to be an excellent feature from a civil liability standpoint, one shared with the big Sigma. It is also the same pull all the time: easy to learn, easy to teach. It has no mechanical safety and requires no decocking lever. Just draw and shoot. These are all seen as highly desirable attributes by a large segment of the handgun buying public.

The pistol is light, 14 1/2 ounces; the same weight as the more expensive and much harder kicking Model 442 Centennial Airweight snubby revolver by the same maker. The SW380 carries 6 1 rounds of .380 ACP. It fed everything I stuffed into it 100 percent. This included the hottest available .380 round, the Cor-Bon P, which brings this 9mm Short round up to the ballistics of the Russian 9x18mm Makarov cartridge. The Airweight revolver, by contrast, carries five rounds of .38 Special and, of course, costs significantly more, to you and your customers.

Ease of transition between the SW380 and the big SW9 and SW40 is a selling point. The only real operational difference is in the takedown, and the fact that the bigger Sigmas have a push-button mag release. This won't hurt your argument to the cost-conscious customer that the SW380 is a good carry-anywhere gun, supplemented by a .40 Sigma for home or store defense.

A great many owners of SIG-Sauer pistols in 9mm Luger, .40 S&W and .45 ACP augment them with SIG-Sauer P230 .380s for hideout purposes. It seems to bother them not a whit that the big SIGs have a slide-release lever and the .380 versions don't, nor that the duty SIGs drop their magazines via push-button and the little one uses a butt-heel release catch.

Gun dealers are split over whether to carry low-price lines. Some dedicate a separate counter for Lorcins, Phoenix Arms pistols and similar exemplars of the downmarket corner of the handgun trade. Others disdain to have any "el cheapo" guns in stock at all, telling customers with little cash to either buy a good quality used gun, or to shop elsewhere.

The customer pays his money and takes his choice. The dealer assesses his market and makes his choice. If a display of Bryco pistols, with $100 price tags, will turn off the gun snobs who constitute a large part of your customer constituency, you are probably fight not to carry the downmarket lines. If you get a lot of ordinary working people in your place, stocking low-priced handguns might make economic sense.

The beauty of the SW380 from the dealer's standpoint is that you can have your cake and eat it too. Even the most hoity-toity gun snob won't think your shop has gone downhill if you stock any handgun that says "Smith & Wesson" on it. The guy who couldn't afford the $400-plus that you have to charge for an S&W Model 909 may well be able to find the less than $300 he'll need to own a new Smith & Wesson - if you have a SW380 in the showcase.

S&W tried this route once before. A quarter century ago, they came out with the cheap little Smith & Wesson Escort .22 auto. It soon vanished from the catalog for one simple reason: it was a junky jam-amatic.