Reprint Permission granted by Harris Publications, November 1998 issue of Guns & Weapons for Law Enforcement

by Walt Rauch

When the name Walther is mentioned, most readers will call to mind either the Walther PP or PPK, if for no other reason than its co-starring role with British Secret Agent James Bond of Hollywood fame. Others may recall the other famous Walther handgun, P-38, a German Army service sidearm that replaced the Luger pistol during World War II. Only a few will note that Walther modified and improved the P-38 with the Walther P5 series, which are priced in the $1000 range, far beyond an acceptable cost for most handgun buyer. Walther abandoned the P5 when it made the P88 which is, I think, the progenitor of this newest design - the P99.

The perception of what a Walther "is" may well change very quickly when handgun buyers get a chance to handle or shoot the new P99. The gun is very deceptive. Upon first examination, I didn't see all that much to get excited about, although my friend and fellow gun writer Frank James kept insisting that the P99 was an excellent pistol. Sometimes I must be a bit slow on the uptake, for I continued to ignore the gun as Frank and I shot together for three days during a High Intensity Tactical Handgun course at Thunder Ranch. When he and I were not testing another new handgun, he used the P99 in 9x19mm chambering quite effectively. I just couldn't see what he was making all the fuss about. After all, it was "just another polymer design."

The point here is that the P99 is deceptively simple. At first glance, it does look like just another polymer frame, steel slide, striker-fired double- and single-action semi-auto. But there's a great deal more to the gun's design, as I've come to appreciate after getting one of the new P99's chambered for the .40 S&W cartridge and spending a couple of mornings with it on the range.

Shooters vary in what they like most in a personal defense handgun - be it caliber, handiness, accuracy, ease of use, safety, compactness, weight or durability. Of course, any good self-defense handgun should have all these features, and the P99 as I discovered does indeed.

Gun Details

Starting down the list, the P99 is chambered for either the 9x19mm or the .40 S&W round. For law enforcement buyers, magazines, will hold 16 round of 9x19mm and 12 .40 S&W rounds. Civilian mags are of course, limited to 10 rounds. In the .40, the loss of two rounds is an acceptable trade-off, for the length of the grip, but I don't see that it's a good deal in the 9x19mm.

In the accuracy department, the Walther P99 is a winner. If the shooter does his job, the .40 caliber rounds will easily run under three inches at 15 yards from a casual shooting rest and, as I recall, Frank did considerably better with the 9x19mm chambering.

Unique Trigger Options

The P99 trigger is good, but it takes getting used to and at first I didn't do as well with it as I'm sure I will after more shooting. If I had to pick the most significant feature of the P99 it would be the trigger arrangement. The gun can be fired in three ways: double action, with the trigger completely forward; single action, with the trigger still fully forward; and single action with the trigger positioned halfway to the rear of the firing stroke. The trigger also serves as a safety as it can't be moved unless full finger pressure is applied, which causes the trigger to move the trigger block up into the frame.

The first trigger pull option - the traditional double-action-first-shot mode -- is performed by the first loading in the normal manner and then depressing the innovative decocking bar (located on the upper left of the rear slide just forward of the rear sight) to release or decock the now-cocked striker. You can immediately tell if the striker is cocked because the rear of the striker protrudes rearward in the center of the concave retaining plate in the rear face of the slide.

The striker does not serve as a loaded-chamber indicator, as with some other Walther pistols, notably the Walther PP Series. The visible part can be both felt and seen (and is colored red). Also, when the decocking bar is depressed, there's an audible "click" as the striker runs forward. The striker cannot hit the primer, for there's a striker pin block in the slide that's disabled only by pulling the trigger.

By the way, the extractor also serves as a "safety." If there's a cartridge in the chamber, the rear of the extractor recesses into the slide. Additionally, there's a red dot on the right side of the extractor cutout that's exposed when the extractor is moved outward by a cartridge in the chamber. (You can only see the red dot when looking down at the slide in the extractor cutout).

For the second trigger pull option, after the above actions have been performed, simply retract the slide about 3/8 of an inch. Thus, the striker is cocked but the trigger remains fully forward, only now with a significant decrease in trigger pull weight. (The only other recently-manufactured handgun with this sort of system is the Daewoo Series 51.)

The third trigger pull option is obtained by doing the above striker-cocking action and carefully moving the trigger rearward until it meets resistance, only then letting up on it. (I strongly discourage anyone from this action, though as it's all too easy to misjudge the amount of pressure needed to move the trigger to the rear without firing the gun.) In any event, after the first round is fired, the trigger action resets in the single action, with the trigger positioned just to the rear of the raised "bump" found on the lower inner surface of the very large trigger guard. (Which also has horizontal serrations on its forward outer face.)

Other Features

Staying with the frame for a bit, the front strap has wide, raised horizontal bands, intersected with narrow cut lines, that extend around the front strap and back onto the sides of the frame. At this point, the bands meet vertical depressions on either side of the frame, right where the pads of your fingers or fingertips meet and grasp the frame. The front strap is also raised in two places to create finger-grasping grooves. The sides of the grip are pebbled in the areas where the gun is held.

The P99's backstrap is unique in that there are three of them supplied with the gun. The backstrap is a modular insert that can be removed by drifting out the pin located at the lower rear of the frame so that the other inserts can be used to increase or decrease the circumference of the P99. This should help accommodate the P99 to almost any hand size. (The grip was designed by Olympic grip maker "Morini.") The grooved magazine-release lever works with a downward push, is flush mounted into the lower rear sides of the trigger guard and is ambidextrous too.

The front dust cover is grooved to accommodate accessories such as flashlights, lasers or IR devices (Laser Devices Inc., 2 Harris Court, A-4, Dept. GW/LE, Monterey, CA 93940, phone 408-373-0701, has a modular laser light and halogen flashlight custom-designed for the P99.)

In addition to furnishing backstrap inserts, the Walther P99 also comes with four front sights of varying heights so you can easily zero the arm for your particular ammo brand and bullet weight. A small Allen wrench is included to remove the Allen screw in the front sight from inside the slide. Removing the screw, the sight is tapped out, another sight inserted and the screw replaced. (Take care; it's a very small screw!) The rear sight is windage-adjustable and a three-dot sighting system is used. The top of the slide is grooved between front and rear sights and there are large grasping serrations on the rear sides of the slide. The slide body proper has seven flat surfaces (counting the top of the slide) to create a more streamlined appearance yet retain enough mass for proper functioning.

When you get the magazine, the base plate is removable by using the supplied plastic dowel to depress the inner base plate retainer so the outer plate can be slipped off the magazine body. Since the backstrap extends downward pas the rest of the grip frame, the magazine base plate serves as a slight finger rest and also extends outward from the circumference of the magazine body to complete the lower part of the frame well, protecting this area against dirt and debris. The frame is, as we said, polymer, and the entire gun is dull black. The slide has a Tenifer finish, but has a smoother, more polished surface than Glocks.

One last item. The Walther P99 disassembles and reassembles just like a Glock. The takedown lever is above the trigger and runs across the frame. To disassemble, the slide is retracted slightly and the "takedown catch-finger piece" is pulled down and the slide allowed to run forward and off the frame. The captive recoil spring is compressed and removed and the barrel drops down and out the rear. The slide runs on four metal inserts in the frame. Reassembly is accomplished in reverse order. The operating mechanism looks similar to but is more complex than the Glock.

As far as concealment, Frank had already demonstrated that he could hide it well using a Matt Del Fatti inside-the-waistband holster with matching magazine pouch. Frank was visiting with us recently, so he left the rig with me. The P99 does do just what you want it to do - conceal well, and at about 25 ounces empty, it certainly doesn't drag your pants down. I ran some draw-and-shoot exercises, as did my shooting partner, John Lysak, and we discovered nothing new. The gun draws, points and shoots well. The P99 doesn't lack in the accuracy department and we had just one malfunction during our range sessions, with a factory round that failed to chamber. Curiously, we tried the round twice and each time it wouldn't chamber, so we set it aside intending to see if the cartridge was defective. An hour or so later, while gathering up loose rounds, the suspect round was inadvertently loaded into the magazine again - and it fired. (So much for any pseudo-scientific analysis!)

As we shot the P99 right out of the box, it wasn't until I cleaned the gun that I noticed some additional nice touches. The face and inside of the extractor, the striker "hook" and the mating operating surfaces, as well as the striker safety block, are all highly-polished and appeared to have a hard nickel or chrome finish, all of which adds to the very smooth double and single action trigger pull weights of 11 and 6 1/4 pounds respectively.

After all this, I must confess my just taking a cursory look at the P99 was a big mistake! The Walther P99 is an excellent self-defense arm in either caliber. It has a suggested retail price of $799 and comes in a foam-lined hard-sided case with a cleaning rod.