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View Full Version : Walther P99 pistol smiths?



m4fun
07-25-09, 02:44
Anyone know or have any experience with someone who knows how to work on a Walther P99 trigger?

Outrider
07-25-09, 13:25
I looked into what could be done about the trigger. It does smooth out a little after 500 rounds or so but it's still on the heavy side.

Some people have tried cutting springs and using lighter Glock springs but that was found to compromise the reliability. -About eight years ago, I was told plainly by a gunsmith who had been an engineer at Boeing in his previous career that nothing could be done to lighten the trigger barring a new kit.

That said, maybe something new has been developed. There's a Walther Forum where you might want to check what people have to say.

http://www.waltherforums.com/

decodeddiesel
07-25-09, 20:15
Anyone know or have any experience with someone who knows how to work on a Walther P99 trigger?

Good luck dude. I have been looking for a good smith who will do a trigger job on my P99 for a year and a half.

I did the "how to make your QA trigger un-suck" on the Walther forums, and I also replaced the striker spring with a Glock 5.5# striker spring. Both of those helped, but the trigger is still less than optimal.

JonInWA
07-26-09, 10:17
Try checking with Earl Sheehan of Earl's Repair; see www.carlwalther.com

Best, Jon

decodeddiesel
07-26-09, 10:34
Try checking with Earl Sheehan of Earl's Repair; see www.carlwalther.com

Best, Jon

Jon, in the past I have heard Earl will do trigger work on P99s, but now he won't touch them, especially if it is a "S&W" gun :rolleyes:. This is what I got back from him when I wrote him about a trigger job:


"Dear Sir,
We represent Carl Walther directly from Germany. We have all spare parts / pistols as you can see and order on our website: www.carlwalther.com . All of our products come from Germany.

Sorry but because we represent the Factory from Germany, we can not reduce / change the trigger design as this pistol already has a lower tension trigger than the normal AS pistol. Please advise.
Sincerely, Earl"

:rolleyes: There's a whole lot of poop in that statement IMHO.

Here's how it is with Earl. He imports and sells "German" P99s for a little over $1000 each. Somehow these are "better" than the exact same pistol S&W imports and dealers sell for around $600. Unless you want to spend $400-$600 more on a "German" P99 (even though all of the proof markings on my pistol indicate it was made 100% in Germany) Earl believes you have a substandard gun and won't even talk to you about them.

My opinion? Earl can take his little alternate universe of reality and shove it.

JonInWA
07-26-09, 10:42
Earl can be a tad on the expensive side, but I've always found his advice (and Walther knowledge/expertise) to be sound. I believe that Gun Tests (and possibly others) comparatively tested a German-made Walther P99 and a Smith & Wesson produced P99 concurrently, and found the German-made version to be significantly superior-I'll try to dig the article out of my archives and report back.

Best, Jon

decodeddiesel
07-26-09, 11:09
Earl can be a tad on the expensive side, but I've always found his advice (and Walther knowledge/expertise) to be sound. I believe that Gun Tests (and possibly others) comparatively tested a German-made Walther P99 and a Smith & Wesson produced P99 concurrently, and found the German-made version to be significantly superior-I try to dig the article out of my archives.

Best, Jon

I'd say that charging nearly 2x as much as street price for an already expensive pistol is a bit more than a "tad expensive". What's the return on that money? Just so you're gun doesn't say S&W?

Jon, S&W does not "produce" P99s. They import them the same as Earl. All P99s are made in Europe, and some entirely in Germany. My pistol has all of the German proof stampings on the barrel, slide, and frame. It also has "Smith and Wesson, Springfield, MA" engraved on the slide as per the ATF regulations of imported weapons.

OK, Earl may be knowledgeable, but he certainly won't share that knowledge openly. His completely irrational disdain and disregard for anyone who doesn't pony up for his $1000+ "German made" pistol on the grounds that it is somehow better than the exact same German made pistol S&W imports completely invalidates anything the man has to say IMHO.

It's clear he is in the business of selling guns and parts, and not openly helping the P99 community. That's fine, it's a free country. Regardless though, if the OP does not have a Earl's Repair Service imported P99 then Earl isn't going to give him the time of day.

JonInWA
07-27-09, 16:03
First of all, although I don't have a dog in this fight (not ever having either a Walther P99 or a Smith & Wesson SW99), the issues discussed are interesting, and I hope I can be at least tangentially helpful.

Gun Tests comparatively tested both the Walther and it's S&W clone on two seperate occassions, in November 1999 and again in November 2005. In the 1999 test, they recommended the Walther varient, based primarily on trigger smoothness and overall reliability. Additionally the differences that they found between the two were different barrel crowning, different slide angles and grasping grooves, and different receiver treatments (triggerguard and checkering/grooving).

In the 2005 test, they tested a Walther America P99 QA, and a Smith & Wesson SW990L, and recommended neither, but their lack of a positive recommendation smacked me as more due to unfamiliarity/uncomfortableness with the operating systems inherent to the P99/SW99 guns, as opposed to any substantively experienced operational difficulties experienced during their testing.

In reading the articles, it appears that in the 1999 test, the two guns were substantively different enough in their details to suggest (at least to me) that they were produced in two totally different locations . In the 2005 test, the two guns appeared different, but less so as before-but the magazine well was beveled on the Walther, not on the S&W gun, which strikes me as being a bit odd if both guns were produced in the same facility.

I simply don't know enough about the Walther and Smith & Wesson varients (and the sub-varients within each line) to really be able to substantively state that one is made in Germany and the other in the US, or that they're both made in one location (or that they started out being made in one location, and then progressed to being manufactured (or license-built, as the case might be) in different locations.

Regarding Earl's Repair, and its owner, Earl Sheehan, my previous dealings with him have all been concerned with German-production Walthers-P.38, P1, P5, P5C, and P88. Regarding those, our conversations were very amicable, and I found him to be exceptionally helpful, whether I was buying parts or requesting servicing (I usually ended up in getting the parts and either installing them myself or having a local gunsmith do so for me).

There may well be some ruffled feathers involved-Prior to Smith & Wesson's involvement with Walther, Earl pretty much had the Walther franchise for service and sales in the US, after the demise of Interarms, their previous US distributer. As Decodeddiesel relates, currently the situation appears to be somewhat muddy, with uncertain lines of territorial demarcation (which doesn't necessarily provide a user-friendly environment to us as consumers).

Despite their differences, there are some strong commonalities between Glocks and the Walther/S&W P99 lines-perhaps inquiring with some of the Glock aftermarket specialists might be a more fruitful way to go for tuning these guns.

Best, Jon

NCPatrolAR
07-27-09, 16:15
The best trigger job I did for my SW99 was turn it in to the range staff at work and get reissued a M&P. :p

decodeddiesel
07-27-09, 16:17
Despite their differences, there are some strong commonalities between Glocks and the Walther/S&W P99 lines-perhaps inquiring with some of the Glock aftermarket specialists might be a more fruitful way to go for tuning these guns.

Best, Jon

This is the avenue of approach I am hoping will yield results. So far I haven't found anyone who works on Glocks who would be willing to work on my P99.

Jon, I think you're right about the S&W/Interarms/Earl's Repair thing. Seems Earl is bitter with Walther USA over going to S&W for the importation of these pistols.

However don't confuse the S&W99 and the P99. The S&W99 was a disaster. It was a licensed copy of the P99 S&W produced. All P99s are made in Germany, and most are imported to the US by S&W, and a few are imported (at a high cost) by Earl's Repair Service. These guns are identical aside from the importation stamp.

decodeddiesel
07-27-09, 16:18
The best trigger job I did for my SW99 was turn it in to the range staff at work and get reissued a M&P. :p

Yes the SW99 sucks, but the actual P99 is a whole different ball of wax.

Still I would agree the M&P is a better pistol.