[Para-bellum]

Some say the same about Glocks and other pistols. "It's a flat shooter." It's all really a personal thing but it's really not that much different than Glocks and others. Glock, M&Ps, APXs, and other top tier duty pistols also use hammer forged barrels as well. I've own CZs, Glocks, XD's, APX's, Walthers, M&Ps, etc. Other than XD's with their grip safety P320s and APXes with their modular features, the rest pretty much try to get as close to Glocks as possible. They don't really offer any unique feature that you can point to.

I don’t disagree for the most part. I feel that most other polymer pistols offer more for the money at this point. CZ with their better triggers, optic cuts and night sights, sig with the same offerings, XDs and caniks give a lot to the buyer too. The IWI Masada is a crazy value for the money too. I feel to get to a where you are with the other manufacturers with a Glock you’ll be at a much higher dollar amount. Unless you buy blue label. Which most other manufactures have too. I think HK is the only one I’ve found that only has that for law enforcement most others have it for first responders too which I appreciate.

 

[SlickCZ85]

The discounted pricing to LE/MIL, for me, always plays out better to glock. With all of the others I have to pay to bring it across the table so it adds the 30 or so bucks on top of shipping. Which ends up putting me back in the range at which everyone else pays. However, with glock, the blue label dealers dont charge me any of the extra. So I get a truly discounted price with the extra BL mag. The LE deal with Dan Wesson and other 1911 dealers pays off though because now even with the extra costs, it gets you a lower price than the box stores/LGS can get you.

Basically a 400 dollar gun discounted doesnt play out an advantage against shipping and ffl fee, unless they dont charge you that stuff. A 1500 dollar gun however, saves you enough to matter. In bigger cities with more dealers this may not be the case. You may find a CZ LE dealer. But they don’t exist where I live.

 

[Para-bellum]

The discounted pricing to LE/MIL, for me, always plays out better to glock. With all of the others I have to pay to bring it across the table so it adds the 30 or so bucks on top of shipping. Which ends up putting me back in the range at which everyone else pays. However, with glock, the blue label dealers dont charge me any of the extra. So I get a truly discounted price with the extra BL mag. The LE deal with Dan Wesson and other 1911 dealers pays off though because now even with the extra costs, it gets you a lower price than the box stores/LGS can get you.

Basically a 400 dollar gun discounted doesnt play out an advantage against shipping and ffl fee, unless they dont charge you that stuff. A 1500 dollar gun however, saves you enough to matter. In bigger cities with more dealers this may not be the case. You may find a CZ LE dealer. But they don’t exist where I live.

I’ve noticed that, where I live it’s really a matter of being willing to drive a bit. I have sig/Glock/CZ/S&W/SA blue label dealers around me but all different locations of course. The hardest to find it stock is Glock.

 

[Jan R Whitaker]

I feel like they're never really mentioned as a solid company. The PPQ probably has the best stock striker fired trigger I've ever felt. The PPS is my favorite single stack 9MM on the market.

But when most people ask what to companies/pistols to look into, Walther isn't mentioned that frequently.

Yet they look cool (to me) and they're pretty reliable.

Always had a thing for Walthers. Have 6 now . The p99 is the best made polymer 9mm. On the market. Walther doesn't advertise or push their products like they should.

 

[BuckyP]

Yea, they where in the mid $400s, and the Shield was $350-$375 once the price settled. The Shield was also marketed and pushed pretty heavily.

Pre-shield, I remember seeing them sitting on shelves for $600+.

 

[unit1069]

I think a PPK chambered in 9mm would be a very versatile CCW weapon. Why couldn't Walther come up with a sure winner during the years the "Bond Gun" was all the rage?

Mating a natural point-and-shoot design with a proven duty caliber seems to me to be a no-brainer. It would have put a lock on the CCW market years ahead of the time had Walther understood this.

 

[JohnnyReb]

I don’t hate them, but they don’t offer anything nice enough to justify buying one and having yet another style of gun to buy accessories for.

If they followed the current retro craze and made a new P38 I’d consider it.

 

[BuckyP]

I think a PPK chambered in 9mm would be a very versatile CCW weapon. Why couldn't Walther come up with a sure winner during the years the "Bond Gun" was all the rage?

Mating a natural point-and-shoot design with a proven duty caliber seems to me to be a no-brainer. It would have put a lock on the CCW market years ahead of the time had Walther understood this.

You’d need to implement a locking system for the higher powered 9mm cartridge. Doing so would change the lines and look. Also, as cool as they look and as iconic as they are, they’re not great shooting guns.

 

[Gamera]

The PPS is my favorite single stack 9. They are perpetually underrated.

 

[grumpy1]

Pre-shield, I remember seeing them sitting on shelves for $600+.

Me too, actually close to $700 at my LGS for quite a while.

 

[fastbolt]

Walther hasn't really heavily promoted their products in America in the past. Now that they've set up an import company of their own, perhaps they'll invest more effort in advertising their products.

I've always thought that what Walther calls their "Anti-Stress" version of their 99 series is a very good pistol. The DA trigger is smooth, and the SA has a nicely short recovery with a clean and light break. (Nicer than the standard PPQ's SA trigger press, although many shooters nowadays have come to prefer a "consistent" trigger mode, versus the original traditional double action's DA & SA trigger modes.)

Walther has made ongoing revisions and refinements to their models over time, too.

 

[Rocks]

I find Walthers and HKs just feel better in the hand.

 

[Brian Dover]

My first PPQ (M1 in 9mm) was bought used. The shop/range had a policy of letting you test fire five rounds of their ammunition through any of the pre-owned guns*. Loved the trigger pull and the clover leaf group it produced. Sold!

However the paddle style magazine release was hard for me to get used to so I traded up for an M2. Then later, got a second one. Just lately picked up the .22 LR version. Good for practice, and will make my center fire "gold nuggets" supply hold out longer.

*That policy ain't available these days!

 

[Gfive45]

 

[Hef]

I have a PPQ M2 45 SD that I bought 18 months ago for use as a suppressor host. It is a fantastic pistol. It has a better trigger, better ergonomics, and ambi controls. My only complaint is the price and availability of magazines, but if that's my only issue, I can live with it.

 

[TheDreadnought]

PPQ is a solid pistol. Just not well promoted and expensive mags IIRC.

 

[Pandaz3]

I have two economy Walther's a 9 mm PPX and a 40 S&W PPX, I do not have a warm fuzzy on the 9 mm, but like the 40 pretty good

 

[domin8ss]

I like the Q5, preferably the steel frame over the polymer frame.

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

 

[DrewBone]

As mentioned earlier in this thread we tend to think that everything regarding the firearm market revolves around us here in the United States. Walther has had more than a solid reputation overseas, with an especially long success story in target pistol competitions; it was the Walther GSP pistol chambered in .22LR and S&W .32 Long wadcutter that piqued my latest interest in .22LR competition pistols. I'm presently looking at early pistols like a post '80 GSP model in .22LR along with a few other European competition .22's. e.g., Hammerli 208/215/280, Unique DES 69/x, etc., that even the latter at 50+ years old can run rings around any Ruger Mark series pistol...

Mid '80's GSP in .22LR:

Latest version, GSP Expert, in .32 S&W Long Wadcutter:

We tend to not pay attention to what we're not interested in (there aren't alot of people interested in or consider spending $2,500-$3,000 on a competition pistol if they're not a competition shooter), and as also mentioned Walther doesn't seem to promote their products alot here in the US, but judging from their popularity with European citizens, LE agencies and foreign militaries, it seems that they just don't have to...

'Ever notice how good products don't need to be heavily advertised? The quality and popularity of their products provides all the advertising they need. Surely, no manufacturer is immune from producing the occasional lemon, but IMHO that's no reason to write them off especially when they've earned a long and well deserved good reputation.

 

[SlickCZ85]

Watch the armorers videos. While they are not the most complicated, they just aren’t as simple as glock or m&p. If that stuff doesn’t matter to you, they have amazing factory triggers and ergos.