What Ever Happened To Glock and Browning’s Love Child, The Hudson H9?

NRAAM 2017

January, 2017 — SHOT Show — A new gun takes the industry by storm. I was one of the few who got to handle the gun early on, and it was dreamy (though I didn't shoot it until the following year). The Hudson H9 was a strange compilation of a handgun that was kind of like a cross between a Glock and a 1911.

I, like many, were instantly sold. It was a hit and everyone who shot it agreed it would be an industry shaker.

Except, it didn't shake up anything but the owners and employees of the company. In fact, the company ended up filing for bankruptcy.

There are a couple of things that happened, causing the demise of the company. One of those things, is that before they sold many guns, they announced the release of a new, less expensive version of this gun called the H9A.

While they didn't see it at the time, this was a mistake. They likely thought to themselves: “Well, people keep saying it's too expensive. Let's figure out how to sell more guns by dropping the price a couple bucks.”

On the surface, that makes sense. But, before you actually sell any guns, releasing a “new and improved” version is apparently a disaster waiting to happen.

It is feasible that people who were readily awaiting the original H9 changed their minds to get the new and updated H9A, essentially halting sales on the original gun.

This may have caused the company to have stock and parts from guns that people no longer wanted, because they saw something shiny and new. Those guns cost money to make, and when that money stopped coming in it likely hurt them. A lot.

Then there was the lawsuit. I don't have all the details on this, nor do I care to because it'll likely cause me to fall asleep, but there was a lawsuit filed by one of their parts suppliers that did not help matters.

However, there are a couple important parts to this. The first part that's important is that they ended up owing the parts supplier a lot of money. The second part is that Hudson said they didn't pay the money because the supplier gave them inadequate parts.

If “inadequate” means that the parts were breaking, I'm not sure I would have paid the supplier, either. And if the inadequate parts led to the customer complaints and gun failures, without a proper supplier there isn't much they could have done.

I'm willing to go out on a limb, though I cannot be positive and should not be quoted on this, and say that I think bad parts have had something to do with it. Guns were reportedly breaking down, and Hudson apparently had no way to fix them.

Here is just one screenshot of some of the comments on their Facebook page. Their last post was 12/11/18.

What happened next though, is inexcusable. They stopped answering calls, emails, or any other correspondence and just kind of disappeared off the face of the planet.

And, there are reportedly still outstanding orders and people who have shipped guns back to the company to be fixed. Hudson still has those guns.

It's shameful how it went down and the people who started this whole thing are likely disgraced beyond being able to come back to the gun industry and try again. I've met them on a few different occasions and we had them on the podcast a couple times. They're nice people. I do believe they meant well. But somewhere along the way they struggled and could not bounce back.

The design on the pistol was fantastic. If someone could work out the bugs, it'd do well. The only hope for the Hudson H9 at this point, however, is another company swooping in and saving it.

On the plus side, if you own a Hudson H9 with problems, you can find parts for them here.

Leave your thoughts on this in the comments below.