...no one seems able to quantify the reason for this pistol costing twice what other handguns of the same pedigree and manufacturing process do.
You're absolutely right, they are very expensive for what they're made from, but original designs cost a lot more than their materials, and FNH can't count on NATO to pay for the R&D this time.
However, I do not agree the Five-seveN is cut from the same cloth as most (any?) other polymer pistol. Its lock action, magazine design, and control layout are quite different from common industry design concepts for pistols (High-Power, 1911, Glock, etc.). If the pivoting cam blowback-delay device has been used elsewhere, I would be very interested to know.
I do think they'd move a lot of them at $600-ish. I'd buy it at that mark.
Too true, but then, a lot of guns would move at 2/3 their current price. And if FNH priced their stuff like Kel-Tec, they couldn't make it fast enough to sell it at double the price (couldn't resist a jab at the KSG, RFB, Sub2000, PMR30, ...
)
It is big departure from the FNX/FNP (I've not examined an FNS) lines that Herstal makes, and I think this is the reason for the bulk of its price tag. There is (or was) an entire group of ammunition and firearms design guys devoted to it and the P90, and FNH will attempt to pay that off so long as people keep buying. I believe we shouldn't chastise new designs for being costly, since competition will bring down prices on successful ideas anyway. I don't believe the Five-seveN is expensive because it is a failure, since it performs so well. I imagine FNH has restrictive licenses and patents that are preventing the Hi-Points and other developers of the world from entering the market, at least for the time being.
I only wish the gun and round could be freed from the stigma attached to them.
The Five-seveN and 5.7x28 have unjustly earned the ire of both worlds;
Ignorant people that can only percieve the potential for mis-use and lethality,
and disdain from better-informed gun-folk deafened by the cries of the former to ban a mere light pistol as a WMD.
The Five-seveN can stand on its own, if people will let it. No other pistol I know of can quite do what it accomplishes.
TCB
Off-topic; I think FNH would pull a coup by making a ridiculously low-profile single stack 5.7 "mouse" gun for the budget conscious. It would
definitely have an edge over the .22WMR snubs/derringers/sub-miniature semis out there it would be competing with...