range report: walther pps
I bought a
Walther PPS in 9mm a couple of weeks ago, primarily for the same reasons you're shopping now: summer carry. I love my H&K USP Compact .45. But it is a tad chubby. And heavy. And when it's riding in an in-the-waistband holster and digging that de-cocker/safety into my winter, um, padding. Eh!
Weekend before last, I got it to the range.
What follows is an informal report.
I rolled the first target, a B-24 (headless, body-mass silhouette), out to about eight yards, and put six of the first seven rounds fired in the center ring, not tight, but in there. Rolled it back in. Pasted a dirty bird (shows color at impact points) over the center. Took a few deep breathes, settled into it and immediately started placing much tighter groups, varying the range between seven and ten yards.
Pretty quickly, however, I started worrying. I wasn't seeing anything landing on the target. Rolled it in. The center was gone.
I was missing to the inside. I like doing that.
I shot, by and large, as accurately with the PPS as I do with my 1911 or
H&K USP compacts (9mm & .45).
I may even have shot a little better this time out. Sometimes a change in weapons or adding a light attachment or holding a flashlight seems to improve my accuracy, probably by focusing my attention more acutely on the act of shooting.
Be that as it may, I'm confident that the PPS is capable of a good deal more accuracy than I bring to the range.
These were Remington 115-grain, jacketed hollow points. (I haven't been able to find any FMJ range ammo in stores for a month or so, and I had a lot of defensive rounds that have been lying around long enough to need to be used.)
Through about 75 rounds: No stove-pipes. No failures to feed. No failures to eject.
I had read in the forums that, to prevent these, it was a good idea to clean and lubricate the weapon before firing (which I would have done anyway) and to store the magazine loaded overnight (to relax the spring a little). So I followed that advice.
In terms of feel, with the larger of the two back straps on the grip, it feels a lot like a skinny H&K USP Compact.
In fact, it feels a little bit skinnier than even a 1911 with standard grips.
With the 7-round magazine that now ships solo with the PPS, all three of my non-trigger fingers fit comfortably (but barely) onto the grip.
Perceived recoil was somewhere between what I feel with the USP-C 9mm and what I feel from the USP-C .45, not bad at all, and very manageable -- with that back strap and magazine.
I have not enjoyed shooting smaller gripped .380 and 9mm pistols that leave my pinkie hanging, and I've not shot well with them. I've read that that is psychological and don't doubt that, but it's still my reality.
With smaller gripped pocket rockets borrowed from colleagues, the pistol seemed to shift on firing, battering the webbing between my thumb and forefinger and seriously slowing my reacquisition of the target. Ten to 20 rounds was all I needed to be persuaded that it was time to get back to my own sidearm.
When you consider that "my own sidearm" has been, often as not, a 1911 Combat Commander (albeit a nice one), I think we can agree that I'm not a baby about the webbing between my thumb and forefinger.
I've heard it said, of pocket rockets, "Well, you wouldn't want to shoot this all day, but it's great for concealed carry." And I understand that position and sympathize with it. The sidearms I've been most comfortable shooting all day have tended to be ones I would prefer not to carry concealed all day (except perhaps off body).
By contrast, I feel like I could have shot the PPS all day; and next time, I may; and yet it is small enough and light enough that I don't mind carrying it concealed on body (in a
High Noon IWB Split Decision).
(For summer carry, you might also consider High Noon's
Alter Ego, also IWB but with a flap that insulates the sidearm from your, well, side. That was my first purchased holster for this weapon, and I'm keeping it. But it's a little heavier than the Split Decision, and bulks the carry package back out to what the H&K would be in a Split Decision. Still, an H&K in the Alter Ego would look like a fanny pack.)
In summary, I've found that, for discretion and comfort, the Walther PPS outperforms the H&Ks and that, for accuracy, at my skill level, it matches the H&Ks (if not my 1911).
I will concede that, for open carry, I'd still go with the H&K (for the extra rounds in 9mm, or the extra firepower in .45; and for the DA/SA action and thumb-actuated safety/de-cocker on both) in a
Black Hawk Serpa CQC. But open carry is not an option in the city, and I live in the city.
