WALTHER P99 - tried on range:

WALTHER P99 S/A Pistol

I had a go with a Walther P99 at the range this week - a very interesting piece it was too. The magazines hold 15 rounds of 9x19mm cartridges and it seems to look something like a Glock as far as the surface finish of both the frame and steel slide assembly – but its shape and controls are distinctly different. Overall the P99 has a very sculpted look with lots of detailing and deep engraving.

                                                                       Walther P99 9MM

Whereas the main feature of a Glock 17 9mm is its lack of shaping, knobs and whistles – having overall a very smoothed 'de-horned' feel & look.

                                                     Glock 17 9MM

 

I was told the price paid for this Walther was just about twice that of a Glock 17 – so maybe some of that cost goes into extra machining time. The feature that most fascinated me was that the magazine releases (-one on each side) are located on the sides of the trigger guard beneath the trigger – making it an easy movement to drop the trigger finger down and press for a quick change.

The Walther P99 is also licensed to be built / marketed by Fabryka Broni Radom ( in Poland) and a version is also built in USA by Smith & Wesson as the SW99 . According to Wikipedia, - S&W also build it in .45"ACP - which the P99 isn't.- These other makers wouldn't be using this design unless they thought that it is worthy and has a profitable long term future. (- I understand that S&W pay a license fee to Glock for their Sigma model)

The P99 is a striker fired short-recoil design using the Browning Hi-Power system – Its frame is moulded from glassfiber reinforced polymer and the machined steel slide is Tenifer treated like the Glocks. - I was caught by suprise when I loosed-off the first magazine as I'd expected it to be soft recoiling like the Glocks – but it was very lively, even 'snappy' in my hands. - My guess is that the glassfiber reinforcing in the frame makes it stiffer and less flexible for absorbing recoil energy. I've seen slow motion video of a Glock frame on firing and there is heaps of flex there for sure! - Even metal frames have some flex - but the Glocks are amazing!

- Both of these makers offer +2 floor plates for their double-stack magazines. - I'll try to do a closer comparison of the shooting dynamics between these two if I get an opportunity - but my first impression was that accuracy and trigger feel were, for me, on par with my G 17 .