Pick a Gun Company. Any existing Gun Company, big or small. You are now the CEO, Chairman of the Board, and Majority Shareholder. It’s your company. You can do anything you want with it. What are the TOP FIVE things you would do with your Gun Company?
I’d take SIG SAUER.
1. First thing I’d do, right off the bat… End the relationship with iTAC Defense. iTAC is SIG’s goiter. It’s the unwanted, unloved tumor that people tend to get rid of as soon as possible. You have well engineered and made firearms, and then you have this cheap plastic crap that devalues the weapon system that the iTAC item is bundled with. It’s AOL installed on your new computer. The holster is a terrible knock off of the SERPA… it actually makes the SERPA look good. The Red Dots are okay on the outside, but the field of view is too small and the Dot is too big and the optical quality is much like trying to see through a Vegas Fremont Street dive bar… DANK. Dark and murky. Do not get me started on the SIG Lights.
If SIG is going to Bundle holsters and lights and Red Dots… SIG has got to realize it’s intended market position and select accessories that are in that same position. SIG wants to be the Mercedes Benz of the Firearms World – Who’s the Mercedes of those accessories? Red Dots? Trijicon. Lights? Surefire. Make some deals with those guys and make it happen.
2. Kill the P250. The P250 is SIG’s SIGMA. You might think it’s just fine or you may have thought the SIGMA is fine. You are wrong, and all your taste is in your mouth. You are a Philistine, and your opinion is invalid. The new 320 may be an improvement on the P250, but that’s a low hurdle. I’d kill the 320 as well. Because a Modular Handgun is a good idea, being able to fit a handgun to the hand of the shooter is idea thats time has come. But the P250 is a really bad execution of that idea. Everyone else has done this the right way, simply and effectively with swappable panels. This started with the Walther P99 and now most everyone has done this – HK has done it the best. SIG goes and does something completely different, which is fine… but they did it completely wrong. Changing grip frames to go up and down in sizes of the gun it’s self… We’ve see that before in the Dan Wesson revolvers. Nice execution there… but not exactly a success in the market. Why is that? Because no one really wants that. Why have 1 gun that changes when you can have 2? I’d rather sell someone two guns. They would rather own two guns. How do I know? Because I’d rather have two guns. Changing calibers is different. That’s cool. Look at the TC Contender and Encore pistols. That works. But if the Contender or Encore was all the same caliber and only let you change barrel lengths – I don’t think it would have been the success that we see today. The other thing the Contenders and Encores have going for them are that they are well crafted. The P250 may be well crafted – but it doesn’t feel that way to me. It feels as solid as a 68 VW Beetle that every time you shut the door you leave a line of powdered rust under the door sills. It feels tinny and hollow. Exactly in the same way a Glock or XDM or M&P doesn’t. SIG needs a serious polymer framed Stryker fired pistol. Not a 250 with a conversion kit stuck in it.
3. This. And This. What are you making guns in Turkey now? Sarsilmaz your contractor now? Come on. What the hell is this? This is SIG’s version of the DONK. This has got to stop. Along with it, all the different color variations that are separating the SIG Brand from the SIG core foundation. I counted 26 different versions of the P226. Twenty Six. I’m sorry, but that is just pants on the head retarded. That needs to be trimmed down. You make 20 different pistol types and each one has a couple dozen versions. And that’s not even counting the pistol versions of the rifles… If I did, that’s 26 again. That just… It gives me that sharp stabbing pain right behind my eyes… that headache… SIG – you give me THAT headache.
4. The P210 is literally more than twice the actual price it should be. I’ll give you 1200 bucks MSRP on them. No more. I’d make the P210 pistol something that every enthusiast can obtain… and by doing that I’d burst open the flood gates and take the single stack 9mm market by storm. And don’t tell me that it’s so bloody complicated to machine. This is the age of 5 axis CNC milling when you are talking about a pistol made in the age of hand machining. You can make it faster and cheaper without sacrificing quality. By limiting the production you inflate to value. Look at it this way – everyone competing with an X5 – should be competing with a P210. Make that your flagship line. Don’t call it a “Legend” Others will call it that for you.
4. Your State Compliant guns. GONE. Screw those states. I’m not going to make a special gun that compromises my product to capitulate with Anti-Gun bullshit legislation. I wouldn’t sell a single item in those states. Not only that… I’d move out of New Hampshire and move to a state that is unquestioned in regards to the Second Amendment. I’d move to Arizona. The right to keep and bear arms in AZ is not up for debate. That’s where a premier gun maker needs to be based. Not in New England. New England had the industrial roots at the turn of the century, which is why the great gun companies grew there – but that time has passed. It’s time to go to where your supporters are. The tax dollars you generate for a state that doesn’t support your industry – is folly. Move. Close every office, move ever person and asset, liquidate what’s left. Restart anew. That’s what needs to happen.
5. Where’s my Shotgun? Specifically, where is my semi-automatic, tactical shotgun?