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Walther PPQ Review

January 10, 2013 by TopGunReview Staff

The firm of Carl Walther GmbH Sportwaffen of Ulm, Germany has been in the firearm business since 1886. They started their first line of semi-automatic pistols in 1908 and by the 30s were making such legendary arms as the PP, P38, and PPK series pistols. In 1996, the company debuted its P99 full size polymer framed duty gun marketed to military and police sales. This gun went on to inspire a scaled down rimfire version with a cast slide imported into the US by S&W as the popular P22. Today, with lessons learned from all of these pistols, Walther’s premier polymer tech is embodied in the Police Pistol Quick-Defense, or PPQ.

Ergonomics and Recoil

This pistol is on the small end of the ‘full-size’ spectrum and is borderline compact. From a distance, it is easily confused with its slightly older cousin, the 22LR single stack P22 pistol. At 21-ounces unloaded, 7.1-inches long with a 4-inch barrel for the 9mm version; it is almost the same profile as the Glock 19. Still, the capability to carry a 15-round magazine, have a Picatinny rail, front and rear side serrations, and a full size grip with removable backstraps means this gun has full-sized features all day. The grip has a cross-directional texture that actually feels good and not the raspy wood file grip of the Gen 4 Glocks and other polymers in its class.

Muzzle flip, due to the high bore axis and the weight of the slide in respect to the frame, is a little stouter than you see in the XD and SR9, but about the same as in the Glock.

Trigger and Accuracy

Like the XD, SR9, and Glock before it, the Walther PPQ has a two-stage trigger with a short pre-set before the main trigger is engaged. DAO, the trigger pull is 5.5-pounds and only travels .40-inches before breaking. This is much tighter than the Glock. The striker fired action is unique in that it is precocked which allows an almost imperceptible 1/10th of an inch trigger reset after the first round is fired. If it wasn’t for the ‘click’, you feel once you’ve reached this reset, you’d miss it. Every combat DAO pistol should have this trigger.

Accurate all day, the PPQ hit everything we aimed at with it, which left a great taste in our mouth. The sights are fixed front, adjustable rear, and, while aren’t as elaborate as we’d expect in a German-made gun, are more than functional.

Reloading and Disassembly

The pistol has a horizontal magazine lever across the bottom of the trigger guard, like the P22, and not a release button, which takes some getting used to. Witness holes abound in the magazine, which is retained from the old P99. These mags, since there aren’t millions of PPQs floating around out there, are pretty pricey when you can find them. Italian made Magnum Research Baby Eagle magazines, which can usually be found slightly cheaper, also fit the PPQ but are known to cause malfunctions.

The gun breaks down a little trickier than most of the guns in the comparison. It’s a trigger puller during the field strip process, which is always a pucker factor in training. Once the two take down levers are pressed down, pull the trigger on an empty chamber and unloaded magazine, and ease the slide forward. From there everything is straightforward unless you go to remove the striker assembly. For this, we ding the PPQ a little in the scores.

Reliability and Durability

There have historically been issues with S&W made PPKs and Umarex-made P22s, but the PPQ seems to be an altogether different animal when it comes to reliability. We didn’t find any issues in its firing. It’s a Walther. Heck, James Bond even used it in Skyfall.
Durability, since it’s an import, may be a problem in the long run for repair/replacement work. Also, it’s one of the newest pistols in the comparison, at just a few years old so that may be a controversial subject as the gun could essentially be in a beta-test mode.

Final Verdict

The PPQ is terribly under marketed. Most shooters don’t even know it exists in this country. Walther prefers to market their firearms to military and police users, so the fact that their civilian sales in the US aren’t very high isn’t really very surprising. Smith and Wesson is their US-based licensed distributor and most PPKs and P22s that are in circulation here at one time or another passed through Smith’s hands, which means a weird competition between the PPQ and the M&P. Walther knows what they are doing with the PPQ, and the only reason that it ranks lower on this list is the availability of both the guns and their magazines, or lack thereof.

Ranked #9 of 10 in our Best Polymer Handgun Comparison

Filed Under: Gun Reviews, Handgun Reviews Tagged With: handgun, Polymer, PPQ, Walther

FN Herstal FNX Review

January 10, 2013 by TopGunReview Staff

The 124-year old firm of FabriqueNationaled’Herstal (FNH) has long been an innovator. It is the company that gave us the M1900, one of the first reliable pocket pistols, and the Browning Hi-Power, which was arguably the best combat pistol for the middle third of the 20th century. In terms of polymer arms, the Five SeveN as well as the FNP series have been around for quite some time. Today, their primary entry into the market of full sized polymer pistols is the FNX.

Ergonomics and Recoil

Marketed by FNH USA and manufactured at their South Carolina plant, the FNX hit the market in 2009. The first thing you notice about the pistol is its huge trigger guard. Looking rather like the winter guard on the old school Japanese Nambu pistol, the FNX is designed with users of heavy combat gloves in mind. Fully ambidextrous it offers both a functional magazine release and a safety/decock on both sides of the frame. Short and rather thick because of this, it resembles the Beretta PX4 in overall appearance. Like the PX4, it has a blocky Lego-style grip with four interchangeable rear backstrap pieces to adjust the thickness and fit. With most tactical training today not using a slide release (preferring to just use it as a slide stop), the fact that this lever on the FNX is rather tiny is a bonus rather than a hindrance.

The gun’s recoil was mild and controllable and returned to target rapidly. The gun is designed with a low-bore axis, which means you’ll feel less recoil when shooting.

Trigger and Accuracy

With its single-action/double-action safety decock design; the pistol gives a rather typical heavy double action pull followed by a gentle single. When firing single action the FNX has a little more creep and travel experienced by other such guns in the same class. For those used to hooking the index finger of the offhand on the end of the trigger guard for support, the large rounded guard on the test pistol proved an uncomfortable change. The skeletonized hammer gives the FNX a nice combat appearance and tactile feel while not snagging on clothes and gear.

Accuracy was above average with nice no-frills 3-dot sights. However, the front post did seem slightly thin and the sights cannot be adjusted but work well for what they are.

Reloading and Disassembly

The magazines are a steel body with low-friction follower and a plastic floor plate. They have individual witness holes for each round, which is helpful. The pistol indexes well for both tactical and administrative reloads. Like many of these new double stack magazines, fully loading the 17-rounds in a 9mm version takes determination. The FNX-45 version carries an impressive 14-round magazine that fits flush

Disassembly is the same as the SIG P-series and Beretta 51/92 series, which incorporates a takedown lever that pivots downward 90-degrees to release the slide from the frame. This keeps the pistol in line with generations of military trained users who are familiar with this type of field strip. It’s fast, easy to master and hard to confuse.

Reliability and Durability

The FNH symbol has been synomonous with qualitysince the company began. The test gun suffered no malfunctions other than the occasional user error. In short, its designed for a military/LE market and you can feel it from the moment you pick it up.
Like Ruger, FNH is hard to nail down on the exact terms of their warranty limits, but it appears that they support their products, even when they don’t have to.

Final Verdict

The FNX pistol is well made with a lot of great features. It’s these ambi features that make the gun a standout for those who need to shoot left-handed only direct from the box, but trade off in making the design rather thick across the frame. FN has reached for the stars with this one and come up with a very nice service sidearm that would benefit those who carry these firearms for a living. For self-defense or CCW work, however, it falls slightly behind the pack.

Ranked #8 of 10 in our Best Polymer Handgun Comparison

Filed Under: Gun Reviews, Handgun Reviews Tagged With: FN Herstal, FNX, handgun, Polymer

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