Not a GLOCK, but sure looks like one

360glitch said:

Nice, what serial prefix is on yours? (example, "ZC")

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I'll find out tomorrow morning, after my obligatory BATF delay period. I fondled it in the store today, but didn't have enough knowledge to know to check the serial. It sounds like Academy has moved enough of them that it should be, at least ZC and perhaps even ZD. This thing may wind up being a dog, but I'm patient enough to make DB make it right and Academy says they'll send it back for me for free, if need be. I'm hoping it'll be one of the good ones, though. Jim up at Turcotte has an early model that's never given him a bit of trouble. I've admired the design since seeing his a year ago. The problem reports made me leary of buying one, especially when the going price was running about $350 to $385 OTD, but the $260 sale price on this one reeled me in. That's less than the LCP and I think this gun with the bugs worked out is a much nicer gun. It certainly looks better and feels better in my hand. If it'll shoot reliably, I think it'll fit my needs just fine and it sounds like the odds are pretty good that it will. They've made wholesale changes in the gun and hopefully it's past the shakedown period now. Recent reports are much more favorable, so maybe they have a handle on the bugs.

chestnut said:

What length of warranty does DB have on this pistol?

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Lifetime of the original owner, I think, however I've read that they require a copy of the BATF form for warranty repairs. Hopefully, my Academy receipt will suffice, since I intend to let them return it, should it be necessary. That said, this is a new company and any warranty is only as strong as the issuing company. They've been in business for a while building air boats and have a great reputation in that area, but the gun business is fairly new. So far, all the warranty reports have been favorable. Not always correcting the problem on the first go round, but willing to go the extra mile to satisfy you. To be honest, I suspect many of the reported problems are more shooter related than deficiencies with the gun itself. Most pocket pistols are very susceptable to limp wristing and most of the problems sound like the result of bad shooter form. However, the trigger reset problems are more of a concern and indicate some sort of problem with the gun itself. Thankfully, most don't suffer from that and even it may be due to dirty guns. These .380s aren't GLOCKS and they get awful dirty awful quickly, no matter what ammo you use, and they don't like to run dirty. They're more precision pieces than most firearms and there's very little room in them for the mechanism to work when clogged up. Seems most folks who experience little or no problems with them have a pretty strict cleaning regimine. I'm hoping for a phone call any minute now and I hope I get a decent one.

Well, I believe someone has done me a huge favor, either the BATF, or the lazy Academy employees. Didn't get a phone call today and the sale is over, so I think I'll be passing on this one. I wouldn't have been interested in paying more than the sale price, anyway, and I'm not sure I even want it at the sale price now, either. The more I read about this little item, the more it really turns me off. I really don't think it's ready for primetime yet and I'm not sure I feel like tinkering quite as much it'd likely take. While I enjoy tuning a slightly problematic gun, I have absolutely no patience with a real dog and this little gun may be just that. Shame, because it was about the only mousegun out there that peaked my interest, other than a couple of really high dollar items that I simply can't justify. Oh well, I don't particularly like buying paperwork guns anyway. Don't own but a couple now and it's probably to my benefit to keep it that way. I've already got a .380 and if the mousegun bug bites me again, I can always wait for an LCP to show up for sale here. While it does annoy me that the BATF delays my gun purchases for reasons totally unknown to me, it may have worked to my benefit this time and I'm not gonna look a gift horse in the mouth. A little extra research time never hurts.