Why the Hype for the HK P7

ZurokSlayer7X9 · Apr 5, 2024

So I start this thread out of genuine curiosity as to what the hype for HK P7's is all about. Over the course of my years collecting guns, I started seeing people start to flex an odd looking and in my opinion clunky and ugly pistol (again no disrespect intended, just my preference). Then I started to see them in the gun store with their multi thousand dollar price tag. I've even had people brag that they had an HK P7 only for me to respond with a "so what?" reaction. I'm no stranger to HK as I joined the ownership ranks after getting a USP 45 as my first handgun the day I turned 21.

So I ask the collectors here what is the hype truly about for the HK P7? Is it just because it's collectible? Is a collectible for historic reasons? Is it just a niche fan base? Does it genuinely function better than most handguns out there? What warrants its high value and demand, and why does everyone except me really want one. I've seen 50 BMG rifles and top tier ARs go for less than this with not nearly as much hype.

CB1911 · Apr 5, 2024

I asked the same question to myself several years ago. All those years I spent reading the gun magazines always showcased the P7 in a special light. My curiosity finally got to me to try one out so I bought a decent used one but not a top grade. I shot it and it was indeed unique and interesting. In the end it was nothing special to me and was never going to be a shooter or competition piece so down the road it went. Good news is I didn't lose any money at all and made a little profit. HK P7/M8 just seem to increase in value.

ACC · Apr 5, 2024

Scarcity
Unique operation / manual of arms
Highly accurate
Built like a Swiss watch.

NyleRN · Apr 5, 2024

Because they were expensive to manufacture and now they're no longer in production. And there's not a blue million of them floating around. Hence the current price

shootersix · Apr 5, 2024

I think the easiest way to say it is “whatever floats YOUR boat!”
And I honestly think that one of the reasons the p7 boat floats is “the Hans Gruber” affect!, personally I’d love a p7m13! And no I don’t like beretta 92’s! (But a styer aug would be a welcome addition to my collection!)

BigMoose · Apr 5, 2024

Squeeze Cocker!

Basher · Apr 5, 2024

But really though, what’s been said covers it. Unique, not a ton of them made, no longer in production, very accurate, pretty good trigger. I’d do naughty things for one, but unless I win the lotto, I’ll never have one. Amazing as they may be, they’re not worth $2,500+ to me as they’d just be a neat range toy. I don’t have that kinda money to throw around.

SmolderOutdoors · Apr 5, 2024

Basher said:
View attachment 344981

But really though, what’s been said covers it. Unique, not a ton of them made, no longer in production, very accurate, pretty good trigger. I’d do naughty things for one, but unless I win the lotto, I’ll never have one. Amazing as they may be, they’re not worth $2,500+ to me as they’d just be a neat range toy. I don’t have that kinda money to throw around.

This

92FSTech · Apr 5, 2024

They are interesting to me just because of the unique gas system and squeeze cocking mechanism. They are also really well made. I wish I'd bought one back when they were affordable, but it's never going to happen now. Like others have said, I wouldn't carry it. It would just be a unique range toy, and the current going rate is far too rich for my wallet, even if it would fill a practical role.

On the other hand, I can't fault people for buying them due to the "Hans Gruber" effect. The 92FS was my first gun because of John McClain, lol. The "gun cast" of Die Hard was truly excellent...P7, 92FS, MP5, Steyr Aug...all kinds of great stuff!

ZurokSlayer7X9 · Apr 6, 2024

Thanks for the responses, I think I'm starting to get the picture. I forgot it was in Die Hard, and also explains a lot of the hype as well. Kind of like the obsession over the SPAS-12 (even though in that case the gun is a turd, albeit a cool looking turd IMO).

I think I would still rather have a Berrett M95 (the P7's I've seen are roughly the same price), however I'll no longer be scratching my head when I see people flex their P7's.

wtburnette · Apr 6, 2024

For a lot of guns people like, I just figure that a lot of people like weird :poop:

Squid556 · Apr 6, 2024

I came here to make a joke about guys overpaying for a good squeeze cocker but @BigMoose beat me to it.

I think the above points hit it. Die Hard, the quality, the scarcity, and the always looming “it’s an HK so it must be God tier” effect.

Think it was in a James Bond movie too, maybe Goldeneye?

They go up in value. Might not be a bad buy to enjoy it and sell in 5-10 years. Assuming you don’t mind having a couple grand locked up in an investment toy.

Interesting pic I found

92FSTech · Apr 6, 2024

wtburnette said:
For a lot of guns people like, I just figure that a lot of people like weird

There's truth to that, too. The appeal of the P7 to me is purely related to the uniqueness of its design. It's an interesting oddity. For an actual carry/working gun, I'd much rather have something more traditional.

drillsgt · Apr 6, 2024

Squid556 said:
I came here to make a joke about guys overpaying for a good squeeze cocker but @BigMoose beat me to it.

I think the above points hit it. Die Hard, the quality, the scarcity, and the always looming “it’s an HK so it must be God tier” effect.

Think it was in a James Bond movie too, maybe Goldeneye?

They go up in value. Might not be a bad buy to enjoy it and sell in 5-10 years. Assuming you don’t mind having a couple grand locked up in an investment toy.

Interesting pic I found

View attachment 345008

Don’t forget Tommy Lee Jones in Under Siege

Expat · Apr 6, 2024

Looks like we all agree that it and most any other H&K really are just greater than anything else out there.

snapping turtle · Apr 6, 2024

Let’s take the Time Machine back to 1983. The p7 m8 with the heat shield thumb mag release ect finally come to us market. I am 18 and have my LTCH and a father who can help out with the little issue of making the transaction happen.

Was going to be my first non rimfire auto pistol purchase. Having purchased gun show guns before I had my cash money (saved and put away a twenty at a time) until I had my 545 dollars. What I forgot was new pistol purchases had this thing called tax on them so my money was short. Next gun show was a month away but I had to work all weekend. Albro’s was not a gun store then just him and his wife running out of an apartment on the east side at 465.

So with my cash money in hand I come back to the indy 1500 and find my way to the man. During the quarter of the year that passed it seemed the German mark to US dollar made the gun increase again in price and I was again slightly short of the full amount when the tax was included. So I purchased a Bren Ten instead (remember Miami vice)

No was to why I wanted the P7. At the time it was the best grouping small auto 9mm pistol I had shot. It fit my hand like a glove. And German cars and stereo equipment was my thing at the time. If you have never fired the p7 at targets then you don’t understand. The recoil seems great for the time period and the size was perfect.

mike4 · Apr 7, 2024

A lot of this is valid input on why the prices are very high now. I can give you some input on the pros and cons in its actual time, as I carried one for several years. I had zero concern over what was cool or in a given movie, just straight up functionality. Consider there were far fewer choices in a somewhat compact 9mm back in the mid-90s. And the P7M8 was extremely reliable, so that edged out many other choices as well.

Concealment; grip is a little large but the short length concealed very well vertically. With a good strong side canted belt holster (I used a Horseshoe Leather) the muzzle barely extended below the belt so a shorter jacket easily covered it. The grip area is a little large, but the cant aligned that bulkier area with the body for better concealment. Width/thickness was consistent and fairly thin across the whole side surface area of the pistol. I never considered the P7M13, that wide grip completely defeats the utility of the pistol for me, and the M8 also kept the belt-carried spare mags thin (single stack).

Decent factory sights in its day. Very low bore axis relative to grip, and the slightly larger than ideal size of that grip pays off with a very solid grip with full support down the backstrap. The barrel is solidly fixed to the frame, so the whole thing is an extremely solid stable platform to launch bullets from.

Squeeze cocker; you have to train to quickly get a solid grip on the squeeze cocker in the holster. Some might argue for safety you should not squeeze until the pistol is coming on target. There may be some merit to that argument, but that's not how you shoot a P7 really fast from the draw, and I thought it was better to avoid any fumbling by achieving a solid strong hand shooting grip and then draw and kept finger off trigger until on target.

So you have the same trigger pull for every shot (in an era still dominated by hammer-fired DA semiautos) just like a 1911, but it's uncocked while carried which is also drop safe in the holster, and even drop safe when cocked in your hands because it will uncock itself on the way to the ground. The pistol had no controls and nothing protruding on either side except the ambi mag release.

So what you had was an extremely reliable pistol that concealed fairly well, with a rock solid grip that could be shot very accurately very fast, from the draw and shot to shot.

Cons; frame heating. Even with the heat shield that was added to the P7M8 above the trigger, it got insanely hot with sustained fire. First it got too hot to shoot without Nomex flight gloves, then it got too hot to fire with Nomex flight gloves. The complex mechanism and lack of durable finish inside and out, means this is not a good pistol to take out into the mud and wade through creeks. For both these reasons it is not a good general purpose combat auto. It's an optimized street carry pistol where speed is going to save your life in the first 8 rounds, or maybe plus one magazine reload.

All that was worth the extra money at the time. They hit about $1000 before I originally got mine. It's pretty much a collector's item now. If prices keep going up I may part with mine to fund a Barrett MRAD.

russc2542 · Apr 10, 2024

It's a cult gun. It's unique operationally, it works really well, it's designed like a swiss watch but built like a tank. It's rare and getting rarer.

You squeeze it as part of the draw... getting your firing grip squeezes the cocking lever, you don't think about it as a second action after gripping the gun.

Squid556 said:
I came here to make a joke about guys overpaying for a good squeeze cocker but @BigMoose beat me to it.

I think the above points hit it. Die Hard, the quality, the scarcity, and the always looming “it’s an HK so it must be God tier” effect.

Think it was in a James Bond movie too, maybe Goldeneye?

They go up in value. Might not be a bad buy to enjoy it and sell in 5-10 years. Assuming you don’t mind having a couple grand locked up in an investment toy.

Interesting pic I found

full list https://imfdb.org/wiki/Heckler_&_Koch_P7

They're missing the 007 with it: the one where he drives the BMW with his phone. German torture expert and marksman in the hotel room. Tomorrow Never Dies?

The good news is we can't say there aren't any more coming onto the market ever again. The bad news is that won't help the price. https://p7pro.com/product/configurator/

92FSTech · Apr 10, 2024

mike4 said:
A lot of this is valid input on why the prices are very high now. I can give you some input on the pros and cons in its actual time, as I carried one for several years. I had zero concern over what was cool or in a given movie, just straight up functionality. Consider there were far fewer choices in a somewhat compact 9mm back in the mid-90s. And the P7M8 was extremely reliable, so that edged out many other choices as well.

Concealment; grip is a little large but the short length concealed very well vertically. With a good strong side canted belt holster (I used a Horseshoe Leather) the muzzle barely extended below the belt so a shorter jacket easily covered it. The grip area is a little large, but the cant aligned that bulkier area with the body for better concealment. Width/thickness was consistent and fairly thin across the whole side surface area of the pistol. I never considered the P7M13, that wide grip completely defeats the utility of the pistol for me, and the M8 also kept the belt-carried spare mags thin (single stack).

Decent factory sights in its day. Very low bore axis relative to grip, and the slightly larger than ideal size of that grip pays off with a very solid grip with full support down the backstrap. The barrel is solidly fixed to the frame, so the whole thing is an extremely solid stable platform to launch bullets from.

Squeeze cocker; you have to train to quickly get a solid grip on the squeeze cocker in the holster. Some might argue for safety you should not squeeze until the pistol is coming on target. There may be some merit to that argument, but that's not how you shoot a P7 really fast from the draw, and I thought it was better to avoid any fumbling by achieving a solid strong hand shooting grip and then draw and kept finger off trigger until on target.

So you have the same trigger pull for every shot (in an era still dominated by hammer-fired DA semiautos) just like a 1911, but it's uncocked while carried which is also drop safe in the holster, and even drop safe when cocked in your hands because it will uncock itself on the way to the ground. The pistol had no controls and nothing protruding on either side except the ambi mag release.

So what you had was an extremely reliable pistol that concealed fairly well, with a rock solid grip that could be shot very accurately very fast, from the draw and shot to shot.

Cons; frame heating. Even with the heat shield that was added to the P7M8 above the trigger, it got insanely hot with sustained fire. First it got too hot to shoot without Nomex flight gloves, then it got too hot to fire with Nomex flight gloves. The complex mechanism and lack of durable finish inside and out, means this is not a good pistol to take out into the mud and wade through creeks. For both these reasons it is not a good general purpose combat auto. It's an optimized street carry pistol where speed is going to save your life in the first 8 rounds, or maybe plus one magazine reload.

All that was worth the extra money at the time. They hit about $1000 before I originally got mine. It's pretty much a collector's item now. If prices keep going up I may part with mine to fund a Barrett MRAD.

That may be the most well-reasoned, objective, and practical analysis of the P7 that I've ever read. Thanks for sharing your experience!

Fallschirmjaeger · Apr 10, 2024

Others have discussed the technical details of the gun and reasons why the gun has collector value (whether one agrees with the valuation or not, they are undeniably pricey). I have a nostalgia for them because my dad bought one of the first ones in the country in the early 80s (and traded it off many years ago, unfortunately). Plus I’ll admit I’m pretty much an HK fanboy so it falls right in my wheelhouse of cool stuff to have.

In all seriousness, the squeeze-cocker design has a safety value in another respect: bad guys who get your gun may not understand how to activate it and use it against you. Just ask Joe Montgomery of 500 Guns, who owes his life to the fact that a $hitbird armed robber who had Joe dead to rights (and had taken Joe’s P7) was unable to figure out how to actuate the gun when he tried to kill Joe. By great fortune and the Almighty’s grace, Joe was able to turn the tables and survive the encounter, unlike the two would-be robbers.

Why the Hype for the HK P7

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