Ugly Gun Sunday

A blow-back blast from the seventies is the Rogak P-18, manufactured in the anti-gun city of Morton Grove, Illinois. A stainless copy of the Steyr Pi-18 which stood for "Pistole, 18 Schuss", or "18 rounds of 9mm ammo on tap." Back in late 1970, that was a lot of ammunition to stuff in a handgun.

Many reasons are cited for the demise of the Buck Rogers looking Rogak. First, Buck Rogers was passe' by the 1970s. Star Trek was in after school re-run territory. Ray guns were out.

Guns that shot when the trigger was pulled were in. The Rogak failed to do that consistently enough that it became known as a jam-a-matic. It was the epitome of what Jeff Cooper dubbed the "crunch n' ticker."

The 9mm Para was not a wildly popular cartridge back in the late 1970s. The Beretta sidearm was yet to be adopted by the US military. The only common handguns shooting the European cartridge were surplus Lugers, the Browning Hi-Power and the Smith & Wesson 59. Eighteen rounds in a handgun doesn't mean much if nobody wants to shoot them.

Steyr did not appreciate their pistol being copied and marketed in the US. They launched a lawsuit. Production halted after about 2300 Rogaks were produced.

Of course, the Rogak was ugly. The craftsmanship sucked. Nobody really wanted to shoot the cartridge it chambered choked on. But there was one other factor that was the last gasp for the Rogak, as well as the Steyr Pi-18. In 1980, the new fangled plastic "get 'em through metal detectors" Glock 17 came along. The Glock 17 did not just look innovative. It was. The future was here, and it wasn't the stainless steel Rogak.