St. Louis-area companies push into firearms market with Pocket Shotgun, DoubleTap
[St. Louis Post-Dispatch]
KNIGHT RIDDER/TRIBUNE 9:18 AM ET 08/29/14
Aug. 29--This may not be the best time to establish yourself as a gun maker -- with firearms sales slowing after several years of rapid growth -- but that's what two local companies are trying to do.
Pevely-based Heizer Defense and St. Louis-based DoubleTap Defense are pushing new guns -- sharing a common, and somewhat contentious, ancestry -- targeting the highly competitive concealed carry market.
Both companies are doing it with small, but powerful, handguns. Heizer has what it calls the Pocket Shotgun, a single-shot pistol that fires a .410-gauge shotgun shell. DoubleTap's flagship is a two-shot pistol chambered to use .45 ACP rounds.
The challenge for these strikingly similar firearms is finding a place in a market already flush with offerings from industry heavyweights like Glock, Sturm Ruger and Smith & Wesson.
"It's a tough category to crack into," said Russ Thurman, editor of Shooting Industry Magazine. "Anyone would have a tough time going up against the major makers."
If novelty alone were the deciding factor, these guns would have no trouble finding buyers. They have a unique look. They're small, thin and relatively lightweight. And they are chambered in calibers generally found in much larger guns.
But will that be enough?
"You never know what's going to spark people's attention in the marketplace," Thurman said.
Among Heizer's offerings is a series of brightly colored guns -- called the Hedy Jane model -- targeting female shooters. There's even a jewelry line in matching green, blue, pink and purple hues.
And the Pocket Shotgun, which sells for around $400, is about to be followed by a Pocket AR -- chambered in the same .223 caliber common in AR-15 rifles.
The expectation is that owners of the popular rifles will be drawn to these small handguns, made of stainless steel, that can shoot the same ammo.
"It's a perfect companion," said Eric Polkis, Heizer's director of sales. "It's very unique. You can't really compare it to anything else that's out there."
DoubleTap is offering several versions of its gun, including one chambered in 9 mm. The company offers frames in aluminum or titanium, with prices ranging from $500 to $800, according to the company's website.
When looking at the Heizer and DoubleTap pistols side by side, it's obvious these guns share more than a St. Louis connection. The casual observer might not even realize a difference between the two.
It's not an accident.
The firms were once partners, starting in late 2010, working on what they called the Heizer Defense DoubleTap. The gun, marketed heavily in firearms industry publications, was developed by Raymond Kohout, a St. Louis businessman who owned a gun shop in the early 1990s, and the folks at Heizer Aerospace.
The team lasted only two years before Kohout penned a letter to customers, telling them he had ended the relationship with Heizer "due to their inability to manufacture the DoubleTap pistol."
Kohout's new DoubleTap Defense quickly announced another manufacturer, Naples, Fla.-based Azimuth Technology.
And in early 2013, the former partners were suing each other in federal court in St. Louis over who owned various patents related to their earlier collaboration.
Heizer executives declined to discuss the matter. And Kohout would not agree to be interviewed for this story.
But a confidential settlement in July appears to have closed the dispute, with the two firms continuing on their separate, but similar, paths.
Charles Heizer, founder of the 52-year-old aerospace firm, sees the move into gun manufacturing as a natural one for a company that makes aircraft parts, including wing panels, built to exacting tolerances.
"We've been thinking about it for a long time," Heizer said. "Aerospace is so up and down."
With the Pocket AR ready to go, the company is hinting at more models to come, including one chambered in a more powerful .308 caliber. And maybe even a new semi-automatic pistol design.
If things go well, they anticipate hiring more workers to handle the manufacturing.
Heizer says it has sold about 3,000 of the guns through a handful of distributors.
But finding one locally may be something of a challenge. A quick survey of several local gun shops found no Pocket Shotguns in inventory.
For now, that matches pretty well with where Roy Huntington, editor of American Handgunner, sees these guns fitting into the firearms landscape.
"It's a little niche market. And it's a curiosity," said Huntington, who suggests the Pocket Shotgun and DoubleTap may appeal to more experienced shooters looking for a backup or secondary gun.
Indeed, the combination of light and powerful generally creates a gun with uncomfortable recoil that's not all that enjoyable to shoot -- designed for self-defense rather than an afternoon at the range.
And it's tough to find a proponent -- outside of the companies' own marketing -- making a case for either gun as a go-to option for someone looking to carry a firearm.
Greg Pugh of Cedar Hill has been a concealed-carry instructor for 25 years.
The limited capacity of the guns is a drawback, particularly when other well-regarded compact guns, with five- to eight-round capacity, are available in the same price range, he said.
"I personally would not go for either of these as a carry piece," Pugh said. "It's better than nothing. But I see better options out there."
Tim Barker is the biotechnology and agriculture reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter at @tbarker13
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