HK 7 PSP experiances

Status
Not open for further replies.
K

Kindrox

Member
Joined
Nov 2, 2006
Messages
703
I was in the market for a pocket carry pistol so went to a gun shop accross town over lunch just to see what they might have new and used.

The first handgun I ever wanted was the HK 7 squeeze cocker, but they were discontinued and turned into a bit of a collectors item, out of my price range.

Somehow HK was sitting on 2000 of them and imported them here. That drove the price way down. So my pocket carry gun will have to wait as one of the 2000 is mine. Although not looking absolutly brand new, it looks nearly so with just minor wear on the moving bits.

Does anyone have experiance with the ammo they like or other good to know information.
 
Well, don't shoot unjacketed/unplated lead in it as that will quickly jam up the gas port. Otherwise, it will shoot just about any ammo you throw at it, and with better accuracy than most any other 'production model' handgun. The only issue you might ever possibly encounter is the slide failing to lock back when using some of the very weak domestic 9mm loads out there. (euro 9mm is usually what we'd consider +P)
 
No lead bullets
No bullets under 100gr.
Keep the gas hole open
Be gentle cleaning the gas piston.
It's OK to have some carbon on the piston.
Take the slide off before removing grip panels
Grip panels have a lip along the backstrap, slide them foreward to remove.
Remove the firing pin assembly only with the slide on the frame.
The gun gets hot...that's normal after say 50 rounds.

Have fun, enjoy, these are great guns.
 
Last edited:
Take another pistol along when you practice. The PSP will heat up.

Do not replace the striker spring with an "extra power" Wolff - it'll have an unhappy impact on the trigger.

Robar's NP3 on the frame and internals works nicely.

A Milt Sparks VM2 with the PSP is so comfy you'll forget you have it on.

Buy a second one. Tell SWMBO it's for parts - only prudent given that it's discontinued. I haven't needed the "parts gun" but it's comforting.
 
it's a pretty big and heavy gun. pictures people post up make it look compact. it's possible for carry, but pocket i dont see how.

it's got a really good trigger and accuracy is there. the barrel heats up pretty quick, but I usually alternate it with a p225 and p7 shooting 8 rounds each.
 
H-K wasn't setting on them.
If used, they are most likely West German police trade-ins.

The grind mark on the right side of the slide, if there, was where the unit marking was ground off. The slight Purple hue, if purple, is from rebluing the slide to cover the grind mark.

The used excellent PSP's are selling for about $750 dealer.
The last of the New P7M8's about $1,350 dealer.

1224.jpg
rcmodel
 
Virtually all of the tradeins on the market now don't have the unit mark ground off but many are reblued simply because they have seen a bit of holster wear in the 20 or so years they've been in service.

Guns marked BMI were issued to the Bundesministerium des Innern or "Federal Ministry of the Interior".
Guns marked (Nds) were issued to the Polizei Niedersachsen or "Lower Saxony State Police".

That should cover most of the trade-ins circulating currently.
 
Really good advice, USP. I'd add that 147gr seems to be a no-no as well. It doesn't seem to have enough energy to cycle the slide well enough.

It's certainly not a pocket gun, but with the right holster, it carries very well. You'll have to have one made, and make sure they make it to ride high, since the weight is distributed oddly.

Here's mine, with Robar's NP3:

p7_bulman.jpg

And, yes, it's as accurate as you've heard.
 
I got it at Bachman’s pawn and gun. I have been in there a few times but never purchased anything from them before. I did not go really intending to buy anything today either.

The apparent owner/guy in charge told me that only 2000 were imported recently, and that there are no more to be imported. This tidbit was not critical to my purchasing, but now I wonder as the serial number of my gun is 8XXX. There does not appear to be an original serial number on the gun.

I don’t believe the gun was reblued, at least not recently. The gun is in very good condition with not a lot of wear, but is certainly is not new. But it does not seem to have been a duty weapon either. The grips do look new. Owner/guy in charge said that HK sold the lot in three grades, “A”, “B” & “C” and this gun was “A”.

One salesmen knowledgeable on this gun freed up at the end, showed me how to take down and clean the weapon. He recommended either not shooting lead based bullets, or using the included brush with lead solvent on the gas hole after each range session.

The gun has Nds newly engraved on the slide.

I hope it will shoot 147s ok. My wife’s Beretta 9000s won’t cycle reliably with three different brands of 115s, but has not had a single malfunction with three different brands of 147s.

A friend is getting an XD compact for Christmas in two weeks or so, so I might wait a bit and go to range with him and his gift. Will update with the results.
 
The gun has Nds newly engraved on the slide.
Click to expand...

That's not new, it was there the day it was issued, as I posted above, to the Lower Saxony State Police.

There should be a proper serial number on the right of the frame and before the Nds mark. Also There is likely a ##/## date mark on the slide. This is the month and year it was made/issued.

The P7 below was made Oct. 1985 for example.

p7markings.jpg


Also seen there after the date is the BWB proofmark. Weapons purchased by the German government go through their own proofing instead of the regular commercial proof houses. It stands for Bundesamt für Wehrtechnik und Beschaffung or the "Federal Bureau of Military Technology and Procurement"
 
Last edited:
I cannot see your picture. I'll take pictures and post them as soon as I can as I don't see the original serial number. It looks to me that the 4 digit serial number and the Nds is a recent marking for importation, as this engraving is bare metal and not blued like the rest of the gun's markings.

By the way I have to say just how impressed I am with some of the people on this board. I see many of the same people respond with great knowledge on over a wide range of gun questions. Some of you folks have been around a lot of guns.
 
These guns are German ex-police. They were sent to HK who inspected them and graded them (A to C) based on wear and tear (not aesthetics). I have not heard of any that were re-blued, by HK, anyway.
 
rcmodel

I had an original P7 over twenty years ago. Mine also had the purple/reddish hue to the slide. I wrote to H&K and they replied that it was the original finish, and that's just how some of the slides turned out because of variances in the metallurgy, heat treating, and the bluing itself. So if does have this color difference, it may not necessarily indicate that it was reblued.
 
Well, I fixed the picture in my earlier post so it should show up.

The only marking added for import on your P7 is "HKI-Trussville AL". Everything else is original and everything besides the HK logo and caliber rollmark were engraved after the slide was blued, even on current production HKs you will find the serial, datecode, and proof marks look "freshly engraved".

H&K did not refinish any of these guns themselves, but some of the departments that were issued P7s did. If the serial number, date, and proof mark are 'blued in' then the slide was refinished at some point, just not by H&K. They are selling these exactly as they came from the police arsenal, the only additions being the HKI import mark, a new wire brush, and an english manual.
 
Oh, and the issue with 147grain bullets is not so much about energy as it is the extra length of the projectile. 147grain bullets are normally longer and seated deeper in the case than standard, that coupled with its slower velocity puts off the timing of the gas delay system enough to cause issue.

A 147 that was either slightly boattailed or simply standard length with a beafier cone profile might function better in the P7.
 
We were seeing a lot of M8's around here the last year or two with a vertical grind mark on the right side of the slide and a purple reblue job done after the mark was ground off.
Don't recall ever seeing a purple one except for those.

I assumed that was what was still floating around.

1224.jpg
rcmodel
 
So if does have this color difference, it may not necessarily indicate that it was reblued.
Click to expand...

That is correct. My P7M8 has a purplish hue to the slide. It was bought new. My M13s look black by comparison.
 
The grind mark was being done to some of the earlier BMI trade ins, but gradually they stopped caring so much and simply started 'striking out' the BMI with two horizontal lines. More recently they stopped defacing the mark completely after realizing that it was a silly, officious thing to do.

The Nds P7 I got from CDNN a couple months ago has all its markings intact, but was obviously reblued sometime in the past 23 years. (filled engravings)
The 'purpling' of the slide is a result of whatever chemical used not reacting properly with the hardened steel of the slide. The frame however was not reblued, retaining its original grey-ish flat finish and unfilled engravings.

p7box.jpg
 
Buy one of the German police trade in PSP's NOW while you can get them at a decent price. Don't look back.
 
Kindrox, your PSP is a German police trade-in and therefore used. The guys at Bachman's are not know for their knowlegde or truthfulness when either seems to stand in the way of making a sale. As for the markings looking new, they aren't. That's the way the factory markings look on P7s. Coincidentaly, I got my P7M8 from Bachman's in a trade at the Market Hall Gunshow close to 20 years ago. That happened to be the only gun trade that I have not come to regret.

Enjoy your PSP as it is one of the finest handguns ever made.
 
Just so Happens, I got an Nds last night.

Ordered a Browning T-Bolt Target/Varmint a week ago from one of my regular dealers, the gun came in Tuesday, I picked it up yesterday. As I finished buying the rifle, the counter guy mentions that the P7 PSP under glass had been sitting for longer than they liked and that they'd be willing to significantly drop the price for me or anyone else I knew to move it. Told him I already had 3 (M8s and M13 but no PSP) and wasn't looking for one but would mention it to anyone I bump into (think specifically of a particular friend of mine).

He kept on talking about it and so I decided to look at it myself (which was not a good idea on my part). Looked it over, had some holster wear, one very tiny ding on the corner of the right side of the slide but very little wear on the inside (took the slide off and firing pin out) and seemed pretty tight. Said that they would be willng to part with it for $630/$650 (down from $800). Thought for a few minutes as I wanted to drive up to the CMP North store today to pick up another Kimber 82G but suckered myself into getting it. (Went to the CMP this morning anyways and got the 82G. Told me friend about the deal and he wasn't mad about it.) Told him to ring it up as $650 as I didn't mind them making a little more profit from me. They've been treating me very well and have always given me bigger than normal discounts due to the amount of business I give them.

No date code on the right side on mine, just the S/N, BWB stamp, Nds logo, and import stamp. Comparing it to my earlier ground slide P7M8 police trade-in, nothing significantly unusual (except the differences between the PSP and M8, of course). The PSP does feel a little better, though as it is one of the ones with the more contoured grip panels as opposed to the flat ones of the M8 and other PSPs. What I found odd was that the M8 has, "MADE IN W-GERMANY" on the left side and the PSP has, "MADE IN GERMANY". I would have guessed the M8 would have been made at a later date.
 
I own one. It is a great gun.

You absolutely should buy one right now if you think you ever might have an interest in owning one. If you decide later that you don't like it, you can sell it for a tidy profit. Chances are you will not want to part with it.

The gun is slim, small, points well, has a seriously sweet trigger, is reliable and accurate. Get one now.

Mike
 
I would have guessed the M8 would have been made at a later date.
Click to expand...
While the M8 was introduced after the P7, there was a long period where both were made simultaniously. Some departments issued only P7s, some only P7M8s, and some issued a bit of both. The P7M13 even got some Polizei action with the special units.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top