Gun Designations

[svtruth]

I am a new shooter and I find the manufacturers letter and number designations very confusing. Is there some method to their (apparent) madness that is escaping me?
Thanks in advance.

 

[atblis]

Not really. Manufacturers usually have their own names for stuff

Here are some ramblings.

Often a C in a name means compenstated.
It might also mean compact though.

Sometimes P means polymer, sometimes it just means pistol.

L might mean long (e.g. G17L)

 

[Aguila Blanca]

Is there some method to their (apparent) madness that is escaping me?

Probably.

But it escapes me as well. Get used to it, the industry isn't going to change because you or I find their model designations to be counter-intuitive.

 

[Standing Wolf]

Is there some method to their (apparent) madness that is escaping me?

Nope. Guns are named the same way cars are: by committees of marketing individuals.

 

[rritter]

What Standing Wolf said - the names are what a marketing committee thought would sell the gun, or somehow make it more memorable. Sometimes they're vaguely related to function or caliber. The FN FiveseveN, for example, manages by weird capitalization to get both the company name (FN) and caliber (5.7mm) into the name.

 

[Janitor]

Or simply a cutesy version of the caliber alone - like the P3AT.

Though, this is a good example of where I don't know if the 'P' means Plastic or Pistol. (or Puny?)