the p89 was a dirt cheap aluminum frame with a big high strength steel slide. they were $300 guns brand new, they're very cheap used now.
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I don't know if cheap metallurgy is going to catch up to cheap polymer manufacture. i think we've kind of reached the end of line when it comes to making guns out of metal, and that's not because i don't prefer it, but it's undoubtable that technology has improved. A design like this is no longer the cheapest possible way to build a gun and there isn't a market for it anymore now that glocks exist, and that $300 s&w bodyguards exist