So why no STG 44 clones again?

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I ask myself this question literally every single day. It’s too the point that I’m seriously considering selling off a car and some firearms to buy an old PTR44. Apparently that same company (SSD) still makes a clone called the BD43. They also make FG42 clones. They even make fully modernized versions of these platforms. Why can’t someone just start importing them? I’m not sure of all the legalities and logistics involved in importation, but what I do know is that a lot firearm collectors are willing to pay big money when they want something. A lot of people definitely want a fairly true to the original STG…the same way a lot of people want an AK, an FAL, a G3, etc.

Ever since the HMG debacle I‘ve seen people use their failures to argue against an STG clone. They say things along the lines of “if people wanted them HMG wouldn’t have went out of business”. That’s not a good argument though for several reasons. First off, a single rifle never made it into the hands of the consumer. A lot of people just aren’t going to risk preordering a newly tooled firearm from a very small and relatively unknown company…especially one that made what name they did have off assembling parts kits. The reason those guns didn’t sell isn’t because enough people didn’t want them. It’s because they didn’t actually exist. Yeah there was a lack of preorders but that’s because people saw huge red flags and questions went unanswered from the start. The main one being that they were taking preorders for four vastly different calibers when they hadn’t even released it in one of them yet. My point to this rant is that the HMG ordeal had nothing to do with the STG not being a highly desirable firearm. It had everything to do with their own questionable practices.
 
The guns didn't "actually exist" in large part due to start up costs. You seem very passionate about this, and rightly so. I think you would be a good candidate to cash in your 401k, your IRA, mortgage your home, max out your credit cards, and borrow the sane from every person you know to buy tooling and raw materials, lease a building, hire machinists and gun smiths, and start production.

Will you sell enough to recover your costs? Will you run into production problems? Can you even get the raw materials you need?

If you were an established, well known, profitable gun manufacturer, why would you invest (i.e. risk) your investors' money on such a product? Wouldn't it be financially wiser to keep turning out AR15s, with a known mass demand that will keep driving up stock share prices?

You're thinking like a firearms enthusiast; start thinking like a CEO.
 
The guns didn't "actually exist" in large part due to start up costs. You seem very passionate about this, and rightly so. I think you would be a good candidate to cash in your 401k, your IRA, mortgage your home, max out your credit cards, and borrow the sane from every person you know to buy tooling and raw materials, lease a building, hire machinists and gun smiths, and start production.

Will you sell enough to recover your costs? Will you run into production problems? Can you even get the raw materials you need?

If you were an established, well known, profitable gun manufacturer, why would you invest (i.e. risk) your investors' money on such a product? Wouldn't it be financially wiser to keep turning out AR15s, with a known mass demand that will keep driving up stock share prices?

You're thinking like a firearms enthusiast; start thinking like a CEO.

Yeah and what makes it any different than any other old firearm platform that’s being reproduced or imported? And I get you wouldn’t pay over 1K for it. There are plenty of people who would though. I’m confident in this because there are people like myself who are willing to pay over 1K for reproductions of comparable firearms. It’s not as if I’m saying I think someone should gamble every asset they have away in an attempt to release an entirely new product that may or may not sell.

This is a firearm design that’s well known inside and out. The blueprints are already there. Even the tooling is already out there. Not only that but there’s clear proof of desirability. Look at those 22LR aesthetic copies. They’ve been around for over decade now and they’re still selling for $500 and up. A person who’s willing to pay that kind of money for a novelty version would most certainly be willing to pay at least double that for a true reproduction.
 
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But for the laws, there are plenty of the originals worldwide.

For being the land of the free, we have to go through so much paperwork whereas the average Afghani can have a selective fire AK with no paperwork. So much for being "free" with rights.
 
The "good" repro models of that sort of thing are always mediocre, and crazy expensive. I can imagine the buyer's remorse hitting hard before I finished opening the box.

If I wanted something like that, I'd probably just spend the $300 and get one that I can shoot in my back yard. Its close enough.

https://www.evike.com/products/31134/

agm-31134-3.jpg
 
I'm with you. I understand the aversion to startup costs and risk from a business standpoint, however there's already a European company making the darned things. Remove the stock and sell it as a pistol if need be.
 
Are you serious??? 1968 GCA and 922 r. Google it.

922r isn't a death sentence on importation. There are plenty of foreign manufacture guns imported they just need to have a certain amount of US-made parts (or rather, no more than 10 foreign made parts on the list). Some are rather easy - EG gas pistons, muzzle attachments, etc.

Also 922r doesn't apply to handguns. Remove the stock and add a goofy buffer tube only mechanism and it can be imported as a handgun.
 
The "good" repro models of that sort of thing are always mediocre, and crazy expensive. I can imagine the buyer's remorse hitting hard before I finished opening the box.

If I wanted something like that, I'd probably just spend the $300 and get one that I can shoot in my back yard. Its close enough.

https://www.evike.com/products/31134/

View attachment 1085506

Not necessarily though. PTR makes an amazing G3 clone. DSA makes an amazing FAL clone. LRB makes an amazing M14 clone. It just depends on who's doing it. Sure the DSA FAL and the LRB M14 are expensive but for someone that really wants as close to the real experience as possible, those prices aren't near as bad as going after the original.
 
It would be neat, especially if you redesigned it a bit to use the dimensionally similar 7.62x39 ammo and AK mags. I wouldn’t pay more that what an AK cost though so that would be a non starter to manufacture it for that.
 
I think the things that put the brakes on the project were cost and lack of knowledge about the quality to go with the parts. Also remember that lots of guns like the AK's, G3, and FALs you mentioned were already very prolific and in common use world wide (and still are) and that there were plenty of parts and kits available, not to mention the costs of relying on pre-orders (of an expensive gun of unknown quality).
 
Most likely the market for such arms would not generate sales (income) needed to be profitable. As a 'new' arm it is not collectable, and only one person of whom I am aware (I belong to a gun club with just over four hundred active members and I go to many local gun shows) would spend the money for such a 'white elephant'. They are interesting - if one is interested in that sort of thing - but of no use in normal life - at least in the current U. S.
 
Most likely the market for such arms would not generate sales (income) needed to be profitable. As a 'new' arm it is not collectable, and only one person of whom I am aware (I belong to a gun club with just over four hundred active members and I go to many local gun shows) would spend the money for such a 'white elephant'. They are interesting - if one is interested in that sort of thing - but of no use in normal life - at least in the current U. S.

New items can be collectible if rare and/or desirable enough. While an original, transferrable Stg-44 brings in significantly more, the few semi-auto reproductions by SSD that did get imported (the PTR-44) still go for a good chunk of change. This one that was auctioned by Rock Island auctions a few years back for example brought in $13,900: https://www.rockislandauction.com/d...-dittrich-ssd-model-ptr44-semiautomatic-rifle

Granted, they wouldn't pull in that kind of money if they were more widely available, but there's still a good chunk of people willing to pay quite a bit for one.
 
Why can’t someone just start importing them?

Because politicians ban the importation of things they don’t like. They don’t have to take something away from you, you couldn’t get in the first place…

They might say it’s because they don’t want to support an evil empire or some such nonsense but they readily accept various other imports from them.
 
The appeal of something like this would be to historical collectors. Making it in modern calibers would be a non-starter.

It doesn't have practical use whatsoever (compared to what's available in modern guns).

That's true to some degree but there are some exceptions. At the end of the day, it's still a firearm and that alone makes it desirable to anyone in the market for a basic semiauto rifle. There will always be people willing to pay a higher premium for something they just think looks really cool. The 22 models have been around for a decade now and are usually running around $500 these days. They sell enough of those that companies are still manufacturing and importing them.

I'd be perfectly happy to have an STG clone in any comparable caliber as long as it still uses the same gas system and all. Having anything reliable and attainable for less than $10,000 at this point would be enough sway almost anyone interested in these rifles I'd imagine. The original caliber would be great but I just want SOMETHING.

They could modernize these rifles in the exact same way they modernize every other old rifle that gets cloned. There is nothing keeping this from being a functional platform in today's world. Would it be heavier than your typical AR? Yeah probably but that's never stopped people from buying a PTR. Just make a model with a with a welded on top rail, a KeyMod handguard, and a polymer grip frame. There you go. Now you have modern sporting rifle 44.
 
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