The Galil ACE 32 pistol was recently released into the wild, with the sort of reviews you’d expect in conjunction with a 6lb rifle-caliber pistol. I am going to guess sales have not been brisk, because I’m already seeing them advertised in the ~$1425 range – which is pretty much as low as I think they’ll go without IWI reducing the MSRP. This street price is relatively competitive with the Arsenal SAM7K – the Arsenal is somewhat cheaper, but the Galil ACE 32 is a much better value when you consider the whole package.

The point here is not “go out and buy a Galil ACE 32 pistol”. I mean, sure, if you’re in the market for one, go buy one. They’ll eventually be a good SBR platform, and the price isn’t going to fall much further soon. But it also means that my guess about Galil ACE 32 rifles being around $1550 on the street is looking pretty solid. I imagine the rifles will be more popular than the pistols, but the competition is so heavy now (M+M M10X, Sig 556xi, PTR-32 Gen II, the various Zastava rifles, etc.) that I think they’ll need those heavy discounts to sell.

IWI-US got a bit spoiled by the Tavor. The Tavor was an exotic rifle and the first quality bullpup since the FN FS2000 was released half a decade earlier in 2006. All the quality bullpups were running ~$2000 back in 2012. This let IWI-US charge a premium for the Tavor. That’s OK, as that’s how the market works. But when you’ve got the PTR-32 and Sig 556xi in the same market space as the Galil ACE 32 for hundreds of bucks less, you aren’t going to get those Tavor-esque premiums, no matter how much better your gun is.

They’ve got a similar problem with the Uzi Pro Pistol. $875 just isn’t going to cut it when the CZ Scorpion EVO is running $750. Both guns have their problems, but CZ was on top of their game and addressed the safety and SBR situation quickly. IWI-US still has yet to do anything about the grip safety (too strong) and the trigger (which is a zillion lbs).

I don’t want to be too roughly on IWI-US – they’re releasing what IWI makes, and they only have so much control. Plus, they really did a nice job of getting the Tavor properly accessorized. But until the X95 comes out in 2017 or 2018, they’re going to need to work a bit harder to sell their products, and probably have to take a hit on their margins.