HELP.... VP9 or PPQ?

[DreadPirateMoyer]

Short answer: VP9.

Long answer: both pistols are a wash on a performance basis. Great, reliable guns with good ergonomics and good triggers. The VP9, however, has more aftermarket support, a more robust American presence, and a more established American service chain behind it than the PPQ. The PPQ will always be a niche pistol. The VP9 may eventually be the de facto "just buy a ______" pistol that Glock currently is. Heck, we're almost there already in the civilian market.

So yeah, buy the VP9. The meta stuff is much better for the HK.

[Toecheese]

Short answer: VP9.

Long answer: both pistols are a wash on a performance basis. Great, reliable guns with good ergonomics and good triggers. The VP9, however, has more aftermarket support, a more robust American presence, and a more established American service chain behind it than the PPQ. The PPQ will always be a niche pistol. The VP9 may eventually be the de facto "just buy a ______" pistol that Glock currently is. Heck, we're almost there already in the civilian market.

So yeah, buy the VP9. The meta stuff is much better for the HK.

You do know that Smith & Wesson was handling all distribution and support up until 2013 for Walther, and still produces the PPK and Walther still produces the M&P 22 for S&W. Doesn't get anymore "American presence" than that. H&K has a funky rail set up on most of their pistols that nothing interfaces with (VP9 exception), and good luck finding magazines for a decent price. We are nowhere near having the VP9 supplant Glock in regards to the "de facto" pistol in the civilian market......just look at the sales numbers and it's not even close.

[Toecheese]

....Double Tap

[montrala]

H&K has a funky rail set up on most of their pistols that nothing interfaces with (VP9 exception),

And US P2000, and P2000SK, and P30, and P30L, and P30SK, and HK45, and HK45C, and VP40... list of "exeptions" seem to be little longer than you think.

BTT Here we have lot of experience with Walther (almost 100,000 P99 in use by Police and PPQ is face lifted P99). When new they are great, but durability problems (mostly with barrel life) hit much earlier than with HKs. Also constant loosing of polymer sights are quite annoying (rear sights were getting knocked out when open carried by uniformed officers). Barrel problems in long run were solved by switching to one piece, cold hammer forged barrels made by FB Radom (that Walther started to use also in "German" P99 at some point), but PPQ does not use those barrels. Of course not like those will come apart instantly. My friend needed over 50,000 rounds to remove rifling completely from his P99 barrel. Also those barrels that suffered recoil lugs separation had at least few thousands rounds in them. Sights problems where solved by going with steel sights.

Of course in US PPQ is cheaper than VP9 and has cheaper mags. Here it is more expensive than VP9 (SFP9 actually) or SIG P320 and until quite recently it was even more expensive than HK P30.

My advice is:

If you care for Walther - buy Walther PPQ.
If you care for HK - buy HK VP9.
If you do not care for make - buy HK VP9.

Hey... even Bond dumped Walther for HK

[WickedWillis]

Hey... even Bond dumped Walther for HK

Supposedly it's a gun he picks up during a fight and not the gun he carries throughout the film.

[Waylander]

I love how the "good luck finding VP9 mags at a decent price!" myth keeps getting perpetuated.

[WickedWillis]

I love how the "good luck finding VP9 mags at a decent price!" myth keeps getting perpetuated.

Best price I have personally seen is $37 from preppergunshop.com. DO you have some better deals running out there? Because I would love to stock up on VP9 magazines.

[TMS951]

I own a PPQ and over the weekend dry fired a friends VP9.

From this limited experience I preferred the PPQ. I like the PPQ mag release as I'm a Glock guy, so the muscle memory is there for me.

If I had it to do over again I wouldn't spend the extra money on the HK, doesn't seem worth it. If they were equal price I'd decide based on mag release preference.

[Hmac]

Short answer: VP9.

Long answer: both pistols are a wash on a performance basis. Great, reliable guns with good ergonomics and good triggers. The VP9, however, has more aftermarket support, a more robust American presence, and a more established American service chain behind it than the PPQ. The PPQ will always be a niche pistol. The VP9 may eventually be the de facto "just buy a ______" pistol that Glock currently is. Heck, we're almost there already in the civilian market.

So yeah, buy the VP9. The meta stuff is much better for the HK.

I'm not sure that the aftermarket support is superior on the VP9, but if not, it's likely to become so over time. As to "American presence", Walther has as much of that as HK (Walther Arms, based in Ft. Smith).

Owning all three, there is no question in my mind that both the PPQ and the VP9 are vastly superior pistols in virtually every regard, but neither will outsell a commodity pistol with the low-bid mentality of Glock, at least not for the forseeable future.

[Toecheese]

I love how the "good luck finding VP9 mags at a decent price!" myth keeps getting perpetuated.

Care to share where you are finding all these awesome deals on H&K mags? You can't possibly argue that across the board, H&K mags (not just for the VP9) are more expensive than practically everything on the market.

Couple comparisons:

Midway has VP9 10 round mags for $57.99 (15 rounders sold out).
http://www.midwayusa.com/product/239...ger-steel-blue

Midway has 17 round PPQ mags for $40.99
http://www.midwayusa.com/product/208...ProductFinding

Top Gun (sold out) VP9
http://www.topgunsupply.com/h-k-p30-...-magazine.html

No worries, you can always just order 10 rounders direct from H&K for $70
http://www.hkparts.net/shop/pc/HK-VP...ne-50p1273.htm