re: #286 Cato the Elder

Yep. P7M8. So expensive because they’re rarer than 9mm ammo at Wal-Mart these days. Originally designed for German police use. The funny-looking grip is the squeeze-cocker. If you don’t squeeze it in, the gun can’t fire. You can safely carry a round in the chamber and hurl the thing on the sidewalk, and nothing will happen except you’ll have scratches on your $1,500 gun. And if a bad guy gets it away from you, he can pull the trigger all he wants - he’s not going to figure out how to fire it unless he has a convulsive grip (which admittedly happens). Release the cocker, and the gun is instantly “safe”.

And it’s a tack-driver out of the box. I regularly shoot smiley-faces on targets with it.

The only thing I hate is that even with the heat-guard on the trigger housing (an afterthought), you can’t shoot more than thirty rounds without gloves, or you’ll burn yourself. Apparently the Germans never do the kind of two-box sessions we consider normal here in the States…

Wow! You got one of those? I had always coveted one in my youth, but could never see my way clear to dropping the dough when the time came. I loved the idea of so safe and brilliant a piece of German engineering.