The First Polymer Framed Handgun

Many have credited Gaston Glock with creating the first polymer pistol and attribute a large portion of his success to this innovation, but those who do this have missed a small part of obscure history: The Heckler & Koch VP70!

The above specimen is actually a part of my personal collection that I use whenever I set up a Glock historical display at a show. The VP70 was the true first polymer framed handgun and began production in 1970 (we also owe a hat tip the the Remington nylon series of rifles that pioneered the use of polymers in rifle form even prior to HK’s new model). HK wanted to make a “space age” design which can clearly be seen by the profile of the pistol so having a “space age” material be the foundation of the pistol just made sense. By all accounts, the pistol seems to have been reliable, accurate, and rugged but it was a HUGE commercial failure!

The space age pistol came equipped with a truly horrendous trigger pull (typically measuring about 15.5lb pull) and the company never tinkered with the design to try to correct. Mine is quite a finger exerciser to try to fire which definitely impacts the accuracy even though the design features a fixed barrel that does produce tight groups from a rest. No matter the other features, the trigger makes it a nearly unshootable pistol and despite the best marketing efforts, it never caught on with military, police, or the public. As a side note, the VP70 was the full auto military or police version that could also be purchased with a shoulder stock. My personal gun is a Z-version that is just a semi auto pistol only.

Though he could be considered a transformational figure in the history of firearms, Gaston Glock seems to be given much more credit than he might deserve. Most of the design features of the Glock pistol were borrowed from previous designs and Gaston’s real talent was in making a commercially successful design where the finish product was greater than the sum of the individual parts. Glock himself often credited his success to the fact that he just didn’t know any better so he had no pre-conceived ideas of what his gun could be and rather just looked for the best parts that could be utilized. And while HK certainly is no slouch in commercial success, they seem to have just been too far ahead of their time when it came to the VP70 (it’s interesting to see them coming full circle with a very Glock-like new CC9 pistol). We still should give credit where credit is due: just perhaps, Gaston Glock saw the VP70 used in the 1979 movie “I Killed Lùcio Flàvio” and thought to himself “I’ve got to use polymers for a new pistol!”