I was always a big HK fan, even after they started to hate us and tried their best to get us to do the same.
The one thing that stood out to me with the P7 was, you pretty much had to dedicate yourself to it, if you were going to carry it. If you are one of those "rotation" carriers, its not the gun for you.
I also think it was a little too strange for the US market. A lot of the people I let shoot mine, seemed to have a lot of trouble with it, and didnt like it. Some were even afraid of it.
Kind of scary when you think about it, but that squeeze cocker seemed to be overly technical for them.
Its a shame too, as, once you get them down, they are one of the most accurate and easy to shoot well with, out of the box factory guns out there.
One other thing I think really killed them here, was price. When they first showed up here, they werent bad, but you still paid the HK premium, compared to other things. That went for guns and accessories as well. They didnt seem to become desireable until they really became expensive.
I paid $450 NIB for my P7M13 back when they first showed up here in the 80's. I sold it less than a decade later, for $975. Mags I bought when I got it were going for around $25. When I sold it, they were getting $125 for them. There was a lot of HK turmoil going on back then too, with import bans etc.
Things like the 91's and 94's were relatively cheap back then too, and shot up in price dramatically. I paid $450 for my 94 before I had it converted ($800 for an MP5
), and around $550 for my 91's. I literally made thousands on them when I sold them. Made a killing on the accessories as well.
Maybe if they didnt hate us so bad, they would have done better.