After a week of grading Advance Placement essays followed by several weeks of prepping for, then actual painting our house, summer break finally arrived for me! So, this week, along with some little "honey-dos", I finally got around to doing some projects of my own. Much of today was devoted to working on my ARs (yes, I said AR(s), which I'll write a separate post on), I got to spend some time with my favorite gun; the Walther PPQ.
The first order of business is to replace factory sights with some TruGlo "Nightsights"!
This gives my main 9mm the same sights as my conceal carry piece, the PPS/M1. I really like consistency and having identical sight pictures is a good thing. At some point, I'll probably do the same to the Magnum Research MR9 "back-up" handgun as well.
In this image you can see a depiction of the M1 (aka Classic) magazine on the right vs. the M2 or the button (American) style release mag on the left. This is one of the reasons I use the MR9 as my backup gun. It's basically a Walther P99 and therefore uses the same mags. All that is awesome and fits my plan (personal obsession) well. However, it leaves one nagging issue that I wish was different.
Here's an image of the Kel-tec Sub 2000 like the one I picked up a couple of years ago. I really like it and it shoots well. I could wax eloquent about it for some time, but I'm going to go a different direction here. I bought it because it shares the 9mm that most of my guns uses. It's pretty much everything I want except for one thing. It doesn't take the Walther mags. The Sub2K actually comes in a wide variety of versions, ranging from S&W M&P, to Sig P226, to CZ75, to the Beretta 92/96 (which is the one I have) and of course the ubiquitous Glock 17 as well as the shorter gripped 19 version as well. No Walther. This is the price you pay when you choose based on what fits the best versus what's most popular! Currently, Kel-tec even makes a mag catch kit for the Canik TP9, so what gives? The M&P is easily the second most popular 9mm, and both the Beretta 92 and Sig have been around so long that they are considered standards.
Surely the Walther is more popular than the CZ75 and Canik? There's actually a perfectly logical explanation as to not only why there's not a Walther version, but will likely never be one.
So, here's the deal. There are actually 3 versions of the Sub 2000/9mm in production; a Glock 17 (the original) version and a Glock 19 version with a shorter grip to accommodate the shorter magazine for the "compact" and most popular Glock. Of course they are going to not only make something to match the most popular striker-fired of the most popular caliber (9mm) on the market! Then they make one other version for all the other 9mm handguns out there since pretty much everyone else's (non-Glock) mags are the same with the only difference being the shape and location of the magazine catch. One catch! All these magazines are roughly the same length; that of the old "full-sized" handgun along the lines of the Sig P226 and Beretta 92/M9. So, the issue for the Walther is that not only is that not the weird (really high) catch slot, but is too short for the grip of the gun since the PPQ is a compact along the lines of the Glock 19! So, what now, give up and just use the Beretta mags?
Heck no! I've got one more trick up my sleeve. If you'll look at the bottom of the grip, you'll see the finger cut-out to allow for a stuck mag to be pulled out. By comparing, it looks to me if I opened that area up more, maybe with a Dremel, I'll be able to get the shorter Walther mag up high enough to feed rounds to the bolt. But what about the PPQ/M1 mags with the "too high" catch slot?
I might have a solution for that as well. It appears that the Beretta have the "lowest" slot of all the ones that Kel-tec makes catch kits for......., and that if I turn it upside-down, it'll be in roughly the right location for the Walther mags! Now, it's going to require me to do some filing and maybe some "Southern Engineering", but what the heck? Ordering a catch kit is only $15! Stay Tuned!
Christmas came early! Let's just hope that I continue to practice good firearms safety and don't "shoot my eye out". In the last week, I've bought or arranged to buy 2 pistols. Neither really fit into a plan as such (maybe 1 of them...... a little bit). They're mostly because I like them, and they both have to do with my favorite gun: the Walther P99 and it's evolutionary progeny, the PPQ.
So, I'll start here. This is the original (Gen1), Walther P99. Some may recognize it as the Pierce Brosnan Bond Walther, when they decided to move the Bond character to a more plausible primary weapon, vs the much loved, but rather illogical 7.65mm Walther PPK...... if you didn't already know, yes indeed, it was a .32acp version of that gun he supposedly carried. Might as well have been a .22LR! Anyway, that's not the reason I like that pistol anyway. Well..... look at it! More importantly, hold it. I know, it's a very personal thing, but that grip fits me like no other. In fact, I traded my HK VP9 for one of these a while back, but then I traded that for a PPQ.....
This is it. My favorite pistol! That which the P99 became after evolutionary improvements. I like it so much that, I'm about to have 3 versions of it.
The Umarex (part of Walther Gmb), PPQ CO2 powered, .177 BB/Pellet gun.
The Walther PPQ/22LR, which of course shoots a .22 long rifle. It's direct blowback, as you can see by the fixed barrel and the magazine. It's unfortunately, not paddle released, but hey..... I'm going to pick this one up next weekend and is part of my early Christmas, but is there more?
Is there more!?! Does Santa wear red? I came across this and bought it. It looks vaguely familiar doesn't it? What is it? Why, is a Magnum Research (of Desert Eagle fame), MR9, sometimes labeled the "Baby" Desert Eagle. OK, what is it really? It's a Walther P99, licensed to Magnum Research with a slightly altered frame made by Walther, upper parts made and assembled by MR in Pillager, MN (one of my favorite town names).
Here's a little bit of history and commentary for you. Don't worry, I'll let you know which is history and which is my commentary. Back in the late 80's and into the 90's, Walther wasn't in as good of a business situation as it is now and needed some help selling in the large American market, so they hooked up with Smith and Wesson. At the time, Walther needed a company with a big footprint here in North America and Smith was trying to get involved in the polymer gun market, so it looked like a marriage made in gun heaven. So, Smith took over the importation and distribution of Walthers and as such, you see the P99s of that time with the S&W rollmarks. That part is the history. This next part is my commentary. Don't get me wrong; I don't like S&W as a company, but I respect their guns. This whole thing turned into a conflict of interest for them and Smith for their part pretty much ripped off Walther's technology which you see today in the Smith & Wesson M&P line lifted from the Walther P99 and the S&W Shield derived from the Walther PPS. In the meantime, Smith did a piss-poor job of marketing Walther's products, so much so that Walther ended up breaking away and forming their own distribution based in Ft. Smith, AR. All that is fine, because in the gun-world, everybody copies everybody else. In fact, Walther hired away one of Glock's top engineers when it started the P99 project to compete against the Glock 17. The part I take exception to? Look at that top image..... that's the S&W SW99. It's a Walther manufactured lower mated to a Smith upper. It's awkward, ugly and an affront to it's Germanic roots! Walther agree to some rather interesting partnerships to push more units at that time. The Magnum Research MR9 was a part of that, although, clearly a much more aesthetically pleasing one than the SW99! So yeah; I've gotten myself into the collecting and enthusiast aspects of gun ownership.
That part of me would rather have had picked up the later 4.5" version of the MR9 with the Desert Eagle-esque slide than the 4", but I'll take it. Of course there are other members of this family tree that I'd like to get as well.
The next most likely would be this; the Q4 Tactical. It's unfortunate that it only comes in the M2 or "button release" version, but I'd really like to have the longer threaded barrel and the slide already cut for RMR attachment plates.
A more far-fetch addition would be the target/race-gun versions. The Walther Q5 Match, and the Canik TP9SFX. Not because I don't want one of these sci-fi looking variants, but mostly due to their $600-700 selling price!
Speaking of....... Canik....... If you didn't already know, the Walther P99 has been copied,..... a lot. One of the main culprits has been the Turks. There's been a number of firms, such as Sarzimaz, but by far the most successful has been Canik. A brand brought into the U.S. by Century Arms of Delray Beach Florida. The Canik TP9 is basically a clone of the Walther P99, down to the decocker on top of the slide. They are so close to the various Walthers, that there are videos showing people interchanging slides and barrels between the TP9 and the Walther PPQ. The reviews for them have been very good, particularly when you calculate in the big difference the selling price difference between the brands! Canik has done so well that they've released a number of different models. If I were a betting man, I'd put money on me picking one of these $300-350 9mm models at some point and adding to my growing collection!
