Riding The Retro Wave
Marketed to consumers as “your ace in the hole pulled right out of the Old West,”
Heritage Mfg. designed the Roscoe as a tribute to gunfighters of decades past.
All products seem to have cycles. The fashion industry is a classic example. We also see it in vehicles: Look how many 1930s’ style PT Cruisers the Chrysler Corporation sold. (More than 1 million during its 10-year production run.)
Cycles are true of firearms, too. Not necessarily sweeping changes, but definite trends of things once thought to be obsolete becoming popular again as new generations discover the attributes that made them popular in the past.
At the moment, this includes revolvers (particularly snubbies), lever-action rifles, smaller-caliber handguns and even double-barrel shotguns. Let’s take a look.
“Snubby” Renaissance
Revolvers, particularly compact “snubbies,” are coming back.
Lipsey’s commissioned a special run of J-Frame “hammerless” Smith & Wessons with good sights, smooth actions and improved stocks. They relied heavily on advice from two recognized experts on defensive handguns in general and revolvers in particular, Bryan Eastridge and Darryl Bolke. Half of the production run was in .32 H&R Magnum (hold the thought, we’ll come back to this) and half in the traditional snubby chambering of .38 Special.
They’re dubbed the “UC” series for “Ultimate Carry.” The stocks are unlikely to shift in the hand upon recoil, and they have a big tritium front night sight complemented by a big U-notch rear sight. This helps these Airweight guns, already very easy and comfortable to carry, to be shot much more effectively. Serious handgunners are reportedly buying them in droves.
In recent years, Colt successfully reintroduced its long discontinued “D” frame guns, which around 1927 really created the genre of the small-frame, snub-nose .38 Special. Their Cobra and King Cobra lines seem to be selling well.
Similarly, Kimber has sold so many of its K6 snubbies, they’ve expanded the product line significantly. The Ruger LCR and its predecessor, the all-steel SP101, continue to be steady sellers available in multiple configurations, calibers and barrel lengths. Heritage Mfg. came out with a classic retro-looking snubby, the Roscoe, for the low price-point market, which it shares with companies like Armscor. Taurus has upped its quality control with the 856 and similar revolvers in their current catalogue.
.32-Caliber Comeback
.32s are coming back. Walther recently made news with the reintroduction of the PPK in caliber .32 ACP. Recoil is mild compared to the more popular .380. (Editor’s Note: For tips on selling the .380 today, refer to this column in the April 2025 issue.)
The late gun expert Phil Engeldrum may have been ahead of his time when he wrote he preferred the .32 to the .380 because it held more rounds, kicked less and wasn’t much different in potency in his opinion. Federal Ammunition has doubtless noted the same, having introduced a 65-grain premium jacketed hollowpoint .32 with a velocity of 925 fps — an indication this savvy ammo giant is seeing an increase in demand for the caliber.
KelTec has discontinued the P3AT, its innovative, super-small .380 that was the inspiration for Ruger’s super-best-selling LCP series. But it is still making its even smaller and lighter P32 in .32 ACP, which tells us all something about market demand.
(Get some P32 presence in your handgun showcase. These little guns are so small and light they’re almost novelty purchases for gun collectors. They can also hide in places where your customers who frequent non-permissive environments will appreciate something they can discreetly conceal.)
All this to say, look for a renewal of interest in the KelTec P32. Two very powerful influencers among the serious handgun buyers are Craig “SouthNarc” Douglas and a man known as SLG because he is a federal agent and can’t be seen to endorse products. Douglas has developed a surreptitious pocket draw with the P32 that works remarkably well, and SLG published a test of the P32 with a four-figure round count without cleaning that reassures the buying public about its reliability.
We’d All Take 20%
Those just mentioned, of course, are autos.
Let’s return to that UC series of small S&W revolvers in .32 H&R Magnum. While I haven’t been convinced of the caliber’s effectiveness based on a couple of self-defense shootings and testing on hogs, many are comfortable with its light recoil and the fact it puts a sixth shot into little guns that only hold five .38 or .357 rounds.
Your customers who carry 9mm pistols with 15-, 17- or even 20-round magazines may scoff at the value of one extra cartridge, but it means a lot to some who prefer revolvers. Remind the revolver-buyer the sixth round is a 20% increase in firepower, and none of us would turn down a 20% increase in lifespan, income or health.
When Colt had its famous brand war with Smith & Wesson decades ago, they advertised that unlike J-Frame S&Ws, the similar-size Colt “D” frame offered what its maker called the “all-important sixth shot.”
On The Upswing: Lever-Action Carbines
Across the board, we’re seeing an increase in sales of the lever-action carbine. Sometimes in handgun calibers, sometimes in the traditional .30-30 Winchester, sometimes even in powerhouse bear-busting calibers.
In the personal defense market, the public is aware of the constant assault on autoloading rifles by anti-gun politicians. The failed Democrat candidate in the last presidential election had promised she would institute a “buyback” confiscation of AR-15s and the like. Gun owners see a lever-action carbine as a home-defense weapon that is, at least for now, immune to confiscation.
American police have certainly proven with hollowpoint or soft-nose ammunition, that the .223 Rem./5.56mm NATO cartridge is a very effective fight-stopper. However, there is still a strong faction who agrees with the late Col. Jeff Cooper and views the .223 as a “poodle shooter” — wanting something with more power. These folks see as Cooper saw: millions of .30-30 rifles have killed many millions of man-size deer and even a bunch of bears, and are more confident with a .30-30.
Raves about the excellent quality control of Ruger’s iteration of Marlin lever actions has helped sales. So has S&W’s intro of a lever-action .44 Magnum carbine.
Discussing the company’s Q2 2025 financial results last December, S&W CFO Deana McPherson said: “Net sales for our second quarter were nearly 4% above the prior year comparable quarter on the strength of our new BODYGUARD 380 pistol and lever-action rifles.”
“Fun” Sells, Too
From the recreational side, we see something else. Manually operated guns are simply more fun to shoot! It is somewhat analogous to the sports car driver who prefers a manual transmission to automatic. There is a satisfying sense of the operator driving the machine instead of the machine driving the operator.
With a lever action, similarly, the shooter is running the machine, and it just gives a little more sense of accomplishment.
Ultra-modern 9mm autos and AR-15s will certainly continue to be the most popular of your personal protection stock in trade. But don’t neglect the retro trends. They’re here, some of your customers want them and if you don’t have them in stock, well, your competitors will.
