The slide stop is best described as a paddle as well, in my opinion. With the size of it, you can use the slide stop without adjusting your grip, but you don’t really have to worry about it snagging. It is a pretty sturdy piece of stamped metal, like the Glock slide stop, but very long and low profile. The real control that gives this gun it’s uniqueness is the decocker. It is a cutout on the top of the slide and to operate it, you simply press down to actuate it.
Some people have shown distaste for this method of decocking a pistol. The biggest complaint is that the shooter cannot actuate the decocker without moving one of their hands to do so. In my experience, if you are going to decock the pistol, you are also ready to holster it. For this reason, I find the spot for the decocker to be of no issue. I personally will decock the pistol with my support thumb just before holstering.
SIGHTS
The sights on the Walther P99 are made of a very durable polymer. In the previous picture, you see no damage from me doing manipulations on the rear sight. The three dot sight picture is just like the PPQ, for those familiar with that pistol. The rear sight has a wide gap between the two rear dots with plenty of room on each side of the front sight in order to help you acquire a rough sight picture quicker. Some people complain about this type of setup being the reason they cannot hit well and accuse them of being inaccurate due to the space on each side of the front sight. Well my answer to this particular complaint is that I have rarely seen people properly applying the fundamentals have issues with any sighting system. Unless the sights themselves are misaligned or the barrel is damaged, I see no reason for people to not shoot well with these sights. They are not the most visible sights, or the highest quality, but they are far from the reason for missing.
TRIGGER
The Walther P99 trigger is one of the best double action triggers in my opinion. The smooth and lightly rounded trigger face is nice and gives the feeling of a lighter pull. The curve of the trigger is very much like the curve on a CZ75, but is much more comfortable on the pull. The double action on the P99 pulls around 10 pounds when you first get it. When you break it in with about 2000 rounds, you may find the trigger to drop a couple pounds on the double action pull alone. The single action is where this pistol shines and people like myself fall in love with it. The trigger is very light(4 lb) on the single action pull with an almost non-existent wall before the break. The trigger pull goes all the way to the rear and the trigger will actually touch the back of the trigger guard. The reset on the pistol is incredibly short and tactile. You barely have to move your finger in order to make the trigger reset.
As you shoot the pistol more, the trigger pull becomes smoother and lighter. You can do very little to improve the trigger pull aside from shooting and dry firing the pistol. I recommend a generous amount of the latter anyways, just to get proficient with whatever you intend to shoot.
SHOOTING
Shooting the Walther P99 is a little unusual at first. Once you shoot it for the first time, you may come away feeling like the pistol recoils more than it should. This is a common observation, even by myself. After shooting it for a few thousand rounds, it has calmed down exponentially on the kick. To be clear, it wasn’t “flipping” and being difficult to bring back on target, but it does give the impression that it is a bigger caliber than it really is. But like I said, this pistol doesn’t actually “flip” much at all, and in fact I found myself able to make very quick follow up shots with great accuracy. The reloads on this pistol are very easy, and almost straight up fun with how simple the magazine release is to use. The slide manipulations will need to be done firmly for a few thousand rounds because the P99 uses a .40 caliber recoil spring, which makes the action a little stiff. Funny note, I got the P99 so hot that I made the recoil guide rod droop a little. The guide rod is just fine and this is not a problem by any means, just so we are clear.
I have over 3000 rounds through my P99 and I will be putting more rounds through it in the future. This is a very young round count for this pistol and most pistols for that matter, so there is still a good amount of room for the pistol to grow, if you will. That said, I have had zero malfunctions with this pistol, even after putting it in Alaska mud.
THOUGHTS
Through the years, the Walther P99 has stayed very relevant, and has seen a respectable amount of use in various police forces in Europe in all of its different variants. I would not discount this pistol if you are looking at pistols with a good light DA pull and a PPQ-like SA. This pistol actually is reported to have a better SA trigger than the PPQ. The one thing people have constantly complained about is the paddle release. There is no need to change your grip and it takes zero training to learn, so I don’t understand where the disconnect is. Other than that, I can’t think of a reasonable reason why this pistol would not be on your list of pistols to check out. It is reliable, durable, easy to shoot, and has a proven track record in Germany and other European police forces. This pistol is an example of why Walther pistols stay in the holsters of militaries and Law Enforcement agencies for such a long time.
COMMENTS