Looking today, at the Walther PPQ M2.
We English speakers pronounce this “Wal-ther,” but if you are German or Austrian you would
pronounce this “Vol-ther.
Volther.”
Which, had to work on that today.
Vol-lther.
So we are looking at the Walther, Walther PPQ M2 Model.
M2, these models have the push button for the mag, similar to how we are used to with
most American guns.
Vs. the paddle style you’ll see on the former model.
This is a wonderful striker-fired weapon that is actually designed on the P99 from Walther
that’s been around since the mid-90s.
Many people assume this gun to be new.
Not actually the case.
It’s kind of new to the American market, but it’s design parameters are based on
the P99.
We’re going to share with you guys what we like.
What we didn’t like, and whether we would recommend this gun.
Alright dudes, we’re at the range today having some fun.
We are running the Walther PPQ 9mm, the M2 model through its paces.
The M2 is the one with the American style mag release rather than the paddles.
It’s a really fun shooting gun.
We are going to run it through our one armed push-up drill at 10 yards on the steel.
The fun drill really puts you at a disadvantaged position.
I don’t know if it’s applicable to anything, but it’s not easy to do.
Bill drill on the cardboard.
A-Zone hits are the only thing at count at seven yards.
Then retreat back to cover here and engage the steel with six rounds.
Here we go.
Alright, let’s see what that target looks like down there.
That was fun.
This is a very enjoyable shooting gun.
Looks like we got all A-Zone hits.
We’ll call it.
Make sure you’re locked in nice and… yep.
So you just forgot to charge the gun.
Make sure you are locked in good.
With your grip.
Good front sight focus.
Right at the upper-third of that steel.
Don’t worry about the steel.
The hit will be there.
You hit.
Right up in the middle in the upper section.
Good.
Two hits.
Three hits.
Four hits.
The PPQ is not new in the sense that is a short recoil operated lock breach design pistol.
This is very common for many semi-automatics.
But they were very thoughtful in ergonomics.
Ergonomics and how this gun fits the human hand.
If you guys have heard us say that, one of the most important things about shooting a
weapon, pistol, rifle, shotgun, whatever, is that interface between human flesh and
the steel… and the plastic and they’ve done a very good job with this gun.
What makes this gun different than all the other polymer guns out there?
… Striker-fired in particular, is this AMAZING TRIGGER.
So how they did that, was re-designing it from a lot of other polymer makers…
Striker fired makers were doing.
You can go to their website and read all about the internals and how it’s done.
You’re looking at about a 5.6 pound trigger press, which is pretty nice.
Easy take down.
Easy maintenance of this gun.
So far we’ve put about 1,500 rounds through it.
Zero malfunctions.
Zero failures to feed.
It’s a tight gun.
Not overly tight.
I’ve had some female students that had issues manipulating other weapons shoot this… and
they found it to be much easier.
Very handy with the ambidextrous Slide Stop Lever.
So, a left or righty student, has no issues with locking the slide to the rear.
Or dis-engaging the Slide Stop.
So we have students that use some of the other widely sold striker fired guns.
They tell us, “We can’t do a slide stop reload like that because…” or a lefty
shooting a gun and only has a port-side Slide Stop Lever.
Well, this one solves that issue.
Good steel sights.
There are night sights available for this gun.
Tritium.
There are some others that make aftermarket sights for this.
We’ve them to be very accurate.
They are regulated very nicely.
One of the other things I like are some very thoughtful slide serrations, both forward
and rear, to allow for a good press check.
If need be, if that’s part of your training.
Take down is super simple with this gun.
Slide comes right off.
We’re going to use this weapon for a cleaning video, so you guys will be able to see more
of the innards with this gun.
Magazines are for Walther by Mec-Gar.
Mec-Gar does Berettas and many other companies.
This is a super highly engineered magazine.
It’s actually very similar to the Beretta ’92 magazine.
It fits in our magazine pouches we have for the ’92, which is nice.
These are 15 round magazines.
They have that smooth coating on them so they enter and exit the gun very easily.
You’ll notice some of the range footage we shot, the reloads are pretty slick.
And I do appreciate the size and location of that magazine release.
It took me a little bit of time to get used to the grip.
The shape, after shooting Glocks for so long, but the one thing I took no time getting accustomed
to was the location and size of that mag release button.
There were no accidental releases.
Coincidentally I also had no accidental lock backs or failure to lock back the slide, because
the way this lever is designed, they did a really good job…
I don’t know if we can zoom in here on this…
They did a very good job of making it have enough purchase so you can physically manipulate
it… but it’s also close enough into the slide where you really have to try to lift
it accidently or hold it down accidentally and I hold the gun up, high and tight.
What don’t I like about this pistol?
Just for me personally, I prefer a more aggressive texture.
Some of the female students we had shooting this, with their smaller hands, had no problem
hanging on.
For me, just personally I like a more aggressive texture.
That’s something nice about plastic guns.
You can always make them more aggressive.
So perhaps we’ll do this if we end up keeping this test weapon.
We would carry this with a +P rated Duty Ammo.
Walther does recommend NO +P+.
There are a lot of reasons for that.
+P+ is an ammunition type that is not hugely regulated for pressure, so there’s no pressure
limit for that +P+.
So it’s pretty safe of them to not suggest that.
So we have found the accuracy of this gun to be more than adequate for the type of work
we’re doing with it.
Not sure you would use it for bulls-eye competition shooting, but we have found it to be just
as accurate or more accurate than most of the striker fired weapons that we own.
The 9mm version is a standard cut rifling in the bore.
I did notice in Walther’s literature that the .45 caliber version is polygonal type
rifling.
Which if you have that you need to know certain bullet types should not be shot in that.
Accuracy potential not a problem with the trigger press on this thing.
It increases accuracy potential for the shooter.
As you guys know, the trigger does not change the accuracy of the gun.
It just allows you to stay on target when you press the trigger.
And they did a very good job.
Let’s take a look at that.
Drew, can you zoom in?
As you would expect on a weapon of this type, for its purpose, this has multiple safeties.
It’s got the trigger safety.
It has a firing pin safety… and it also has a disconnector safety.
In addition to that, visually it has a loaded chamber indicator we’ll get a close up of.
When there is a round, the extractor actually pivots and you can see a red section here
on the slide so you can visually look down in the holster and see that red to know that
you have a round loaded in the chamber.
So they were thoughtful about those couple of things for sure.
Another cool thing.
We’ll get the case open here.
Is, they provided, as many makers now are, various back straps, these are a solid, I’d
say rubber.
I’m not a chemist, so I don’t know the exact product but they’re not hard plastic.
There’s some flex to them.
And they fit in very nicely to the gun.
There’s really a very minor line you see where these pop-in.
You’ve got three different sizes.
We’ve got the middle one in there.
Very high bore access.
You hear that name constantly now.
That term, bore access.
Here’s the bore.
The higher up you can get, the better.
And this gun allows you to get up there while keeping that slide away from flesh.
If you do have big or meaty hands, they have this larger grip which allows you even more
purchase to get up higher if you’ve got fleshier hands than mine.
This is a gun that you’re going to be using for duty or for carry.
They were wise to make both a simunition version of this gun with complete functionality as
well as a red gun which is basically a completely neutered, non-firing version you can use for
force on force training and class room work.
Classroom work.
Dry fire work.
Things of that nature.
Where it’s totally going to fit in the same holster and such.
So, we are going to keep running these guns.
We are going to keep seeing if we can find faults with them.
So far we are really digging on this thing.
We found it to be, as I said, a very ergonomic gun.
It’s a pleasure to shoot.
It’s got a sweet trigger.
The ability to get magazines in and out is very nice.
It points well coming out of the holster.
We’ve done a lot of drills, both static and moving, with single and two hands.
It’s been everything they told us it would be.
So there is no end all, be all for everybody right?
What Walther has done a great job of here is making a very ergonomic gun that is easy
to shoot accurately, reliably and as safe as it can be mechanically.
Which is of extreme importance.
There are a lot of folks out there that don’t like the other plastic guns that may find
they can shoot this well.
That’s what we’re going to be using this for as a reference for our students that are
trying to find something that fits their hand a little bit better.
We appreciate Walther getting them to us to test out.
We look forward to seeing what they have in the future.
Look for future videos with some of Walther’s weapons.
We’ll be looking at the PPS soon.
This is Mickey with Carry Trainer dot com.
Reminding you to stay safe, train hard, and be well.
We Americans call it Walther but it’s actually call “Vol-ther.”
Volther.
Haha Polyognal.
Poly… how do I say that.
Poly…
I got to look that word up.
So… uh… um… uh There uh uh BLEEP.
Something else folks may or may not know.
This company has been around since 1886.
Walther arms.
Vol-ther arms.
We will be eating the leadkugen and the delicious schnitzel.