So I had an itch. I really fell for the HK USP. Everything about it looked and felt right to me. But that 1993 designed handgun has a worthless proprietary rail that can't take a light without a janky 3rd party adapter that has some flex and sag and a slide that can't be milled for a modern optic. Plus as good as the gun felt in hand, it was a bit on the short side in the grip. Also accessory magwell required to run 18rd mags. It was relatively easy to talk myself out of, but I had the itch.
I talked myself into a VP9L-B as a USP surrogate. When I got home from my FFL I swapped the panels and backstrap and the gun seemed to perfectly match my natural aim. The trigger was disappointing. Too much gritty travel to the wall. The wall breaks clean with no creep, so that made up for the long travel to it. The reset is long and kicks you off the wall. Reset not terribly tactile or audible compared to my Glocks. Trigger a million times better than my Glocks in comparison. So kind of a toy gun feeling trigger that isn't all that impressive sitting around the dining room table, but objectively better than any polymer striker fired gun I've felt excluding the CZ P-10, which has a flawless trigger for its class.
I took it out shooting for the first time over the weekend and put 200 rds of 124 gr through it. No hiccups, ran flawless, slide locked back on empty mag each time. Extremely ergonomic. For a 5" barrel handgun it does not feel like it. Handles like a 4" barrel with the added bonus of longer sight radius.
Determined for me the sights were combat so I held on the dot instead of the plane. I never shoot paper with handguns, but wanted to see what this gun did. I shot a 5 round group on paper at 15yds that was just over 1.5". I am not the greatest handgun shooter, and I just train on 7x11 steel targets so I'm proficient enough should I ever need it. With my skills that 5 shot group impressed the hell out of me. Went from there to shooting steels set out at 15, 30 and 50 yards. Couldn't miss, shot like a raygun.
In practice that trigger bothered me not at all on the range. Not surprising because in practice I don't find Glock triggers awful. It's only when sitting around the dining room table and comparing them to your DA/SA guns that they seem alarmingly bad. I have a Streamlight TLR1 HL on the HK, and the added weight does not bring attention to itself. The recoil impulse of the gun is pleasant. I expected it to be a little flip-y on recoil from Youtube reviews, but in hand it did not feel that way at all.
I'm putting a Holosun 509T on this pistol. I have never shot a handgun with a red dot. My hope is that the reticle will help show me anything I do wrong on trigger pull so I can work on eliminating it. I am also hoping that the dot will be an aid in fast target acquisition and keep me thinking about the target instead of my sight picture. Lastly, I am hoping that any improvements to my shooting imparted by the dot will translate into better shooting with irons.
I am very pleased with this HK. Itch scratched. If HK ever updates the USP with a pic rail and optics ready I'll have to have one. In the meantime, I'm really glad I picked up this VP9, it's a wonderful shooter.
I talked myself into a VP9L-B as a USP surrogate. When I got home from my FFL I swapped the panels and backstrap and the gun seemed to perfectly match my natural aim. The trigger was disappointing. Too much gritty travel to the wall. The wall breaks clean with no creep, so that made up for the long travel to it. The reset is long and kicks you off the wall. Reset not terribly tactile or audible compared to my Glocks. Trigger a million times better than my Glocks in comparison. So kind of a toy gun feeling trigger that isn't all that impressive sitting around the dining room table, but objectively better than any polymer striker fired gun I've felt excluding the CZ P-10, which has a flawless trigger for its class.
I took it out shooting for the first time over the weekend and put 200 rds of 124 gr through it. No hiccups, ran flawless, slide locked back on empty mag each time. Extremely ergonomic. For a 5" barrel handgun it does not feel like it. Handles like a 4" barrel with the added bonus of longer sight radius.
Determined for me the sights were combat so I held on the dot instead of the plane. I never shoot paper with handguns, but wanted to see what this gun did. I shot a 5 round group on paper at 15yds that was just over 1.5". I am not the greatest handgun shooter, and I just train on 7x11 steel targets so I'm proficient enough should I ever need it. With my skills that 5 shot group impressed the hell out of me. Went from there to shooting steels set out at 15, 30 and 50 yards. Couldn't miss, shot like a raygun.
In practice that trigger bothered me not at all on the range. Not surprising because in practice I don't find Glock triggers awful. It's only when sitting around the dining room table and comparing them to your DA/SA guns that they seem alarmingly bad. I have a Streamlight TLR1 HL on the HK, and the added weight does not bring attention to itself. The recoil impulse of the gun is pleasant. I expected it to be a little flip-y on recoil from Youtube reviews, but in hand it did not feel that way at all.
I'm putting a Holosun 509T on this pistol. I have never shot a handgun with a red dot. My hope is that the reticle will help show me anything I do wrong on trigger pull so I can work on eliminating it. I am also hoping that the dot will be an aid in fast target acquisition and keep me thinking about the target instead of my sight picture. Lastly, I am hoping that any improvements to my shooting imparted by the dot will translate into better shooting with irons.
I am very pleased with this HK. Itch scratched. If HK ever updates the USP with a pic rail and optics ready I'll have to have one. In the meantime, I'm really glad I picked up this VP9, it's a wonderful shooter.
