A Glance at H.E.R.A. Arms Handgun Conversion Kits

While American consumer spending continues to spend much of its time listlessly circling a giant porcelain bowl, gun sales in America have notably been on the upswing, particularly under the rubric of “black guns” and presumably in anticipation of a re-visitation of a Clinton Era-style automatic weapons ban.  And with such fervent consumerism in the arms industry, it’s no small wonder that Frankenstein guns are experiencing a bit of a Renaissance as well.

Coming to us from the famed tradition of Rhineland arms manufacturers, designers and innovators, Germany’s H.E.R.A.-Arms is an outfit that specializes in conversion assemblies for some of the world’s most cherished handguns—Colt, Glock, and Heckler & Koch just to name a few—as well as cleverly dissected weapons systems suitable for customized, at-your-own-work-bench assemblies.  And they just popped up on our radar.  Their pistol conversion pieces look like a variable grab bag from stock and grip extensions to fully integrated weapons systems that transform handguns into tactical, AR-15-esque carbines in a matter of minutes.  Adapted systems seem to cater to just about any basic modification your little heart may desire: Picatinny rails for scope mounts, expanded magazines for more smiles between reloads, lights, folding stocks, lasers, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

What we like?  Assembly options appear to be simple and sturdy and all the divisions (lower assembly, upper assembly, receiver) are as familiar to us as they would to any shooter.  Though not completely modular, the engineering seems, at least a distance, to address our general fears of wobbliness when attaching mods (screws are a good idea sometimes) and promises to be usable in a number of different configurations of weapon systems (not just H.E.R.A. either).  Finally, though we’re a little unreceptive to the idea of turning one gun into another (that’s not really in the spirit of things is it?), we do appreciate the freedom modifications warrant the dedicated gear-head and we also anticipate that a pistol conversion kit will bring down the price of what you would have spent on a brand new AR considerably