Looking Like A Million Bucks

Tooling down an Exhibit Hall aisle at the NRA Expo in Fort Worth, I did an abrupt turnaround when a tabletop of color caught my eye. Just another black gun is a phrase I’ve heard often during my years in the gun business. Whether it’s a modern sporting rifle or a modern semi-auto handgun, until you get your hands on it and start examining the details, it’s hard to tell the difference between Brand A, Brand B and Brand C. Most of us want something special, maybe an operational feature or something simpler, like a color or a pattern. Savvy manufacturers have been turning out guns in eye-catching colors and patterns for the past ten years or so, but it’s not an entirely new concept. Gunslingers were decorating their guns back in the wild west days with fancy grips, engraving or shiny finishes like nickel and silver.

The guns covering the tabletop at the Expo were SCCYs. To my good fortune, manning the booth that day was SCCY’s National Sales Manager, Scott McGregor. Scott has a long history in our industry, including being a sponsored champion at 3-Gun competitions. He knows guns, and to know Scott is representing SCCY speaks well of SCCY’s quality. We’ve recently reviewed the 9mm SCCY CPX-1 and CPX-2 along with the newer .380 CPX-3, so my interest in obtaining a couple of examples was not for a gun review, but to examine the affect color has on marketing guns that might otherwise pass below the radar.

This lady could have afforded any gun I had in the store or could order, but a pink SAR caught her attention. She bought it and used it to complete the shooting proficiency exercise required for the license. Within the next two weeks, she brought in her husband, her two daughters and their husbands and two neighbors who all bought SARS. Although the men were okay with black ones, the women opted for pink, purple or orange (yes, they were University of Texas fans).

The next year, EAA’s Pavona was marketed especially for women. I found it hard to rack, which is not a feature women like, but those colors filled with metallic silver flakes were awesome. It made you want to buy one just to hang on the wall for decoration! My wife has a blue Glock, and I once owned a green one. Every manufacturer has some type of FDE, and gray is a popular finish. AR pistols sporting various Cerakote camo patterns outsell their all-black brothers in many markets.

SCCY

Back to SCCY. This is a company excelling at making quality guns at very user-friendly prices. In 2015, all their guns had black frames, though with slides available in black or stainless-steel. In 2016, SCCY offered the CPX-1 and CPX-2 in eight different colors. Those colors persisted in 2017 and 2018. Now the 2019 catalog offers 18 colors plus several camo patterns. Put those colors and patterns together with SCCY’s very affordable pricing and you’ve got a gun store owner’s dream. You can just see a customer back up, pull the arm of their companion and beckon the salesperson over. “I want one,” they’re thinking before they ever handle it. Handling it and confirming the price seals the deal. I know this because I had a store during SCCY’s early color days, and we sold every gun we could get our hands on. I can imagine what it must be like now.

While visiting with Scott, I realized I’d never shot a SCCY, much less owned one. I sold a bunch, have several in my family and know two or three friends who could afford custom Les Baers or Wilsons but who carry SCCYs. It was time for me to see for myself. Working with Scott, I ordered a couple. One was a solid color CPX-1 and the other a camo-pattern CPX-2. It became apparent colors and patterns are an matter of personal taste when the guy who checked my pistols in at the gun store called one of them “butt ugly.” That’s fine with me. I like it and it’s why we have so many choices.

The new SCCYs are pretty, but they’re double action only with a 9 lb. trigger pull. While I understand the value of DA-only in a carry gun for safety reasons, especially with less experienced shooters, I wasn’t sure I’d like it. I did some dry-firing before taking the SCCYs to the range and discovered it’s easy to stack the trigger right up to the breakpoint, do a quick recheck of your sight alignment, then touch the round off. During live fire, all my rounds from either gun impacted at or near my point of aim. Encouraged by the performance of the SCCYs with factory ammo, I began shooting some of my handloads using Inceptor’s ARX bullets. There were no malfunctions of any kind and surprisingly accurate results.

With the capability to easily add color in the mix when making a polymer product, most gun manufacturers now do that with at least some of their models. I was on the phone with a Taurus rep the other day, and she told me she was waiting to get her G3 until it was available in colors. My G3 is black but my G2, which is the one I carry most often, is a cool looking FDE with a black slide. It’s funny how that’s appealing because my guns are always concealed when they’re on my person. It’s when I’m looking at them at home or taking them to the gun range for other shooters to enjoy the colors draw the compliments and “I want one of these!” comments.

Consumer Models Mostly

FN, SIG SAUER, Beretta and others with hardcore tactical models rarely extend beyond some flavor of FDE, but consumer-oriented handguns are often offered in enough colors to match Joseph’s robe. I know at least one consumer/collector who has bought guns he wouldn’t otherwise have bought because they weren’t just another black gun. That would be me!

I bought a black Winchester 1300 shotgun from a neighbor who was moving to South America. It just sat in the safe until something on the wall of my local gun shop gave me an idea. The something on the wall was a group of AR15 pistols with custom Duracoat finishes. Brandon Allred has enhanced the value of his small shop by offering AR rifles and pistols with those custom finishes and they have not only helped his sales, but it allows him a better margin on the ones he sells. He took my black shotgun into his shop and a couple of days later I had a camouflaged beauty. Well, maybe not a beauty, but it does deserve a space on the wall rack rather than the back corner of a safe.

Previously in my family a man only had a gun or two, and when he passed on, they went to the oldest boy of the family. I’ve been fortunate enough to build a pretty nice collection I hope will be passed on to generations of kids, grandkids and great-grandkids including family members of both sexes.

I just hope the womenfolk can agree amicably on how to divide up the pretty guns.

For more info:www.sccy.com

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