Glock vs. HK USP vs. Walther vs. Steyr

[ghostie]

I've put together a picture thread comparing four of the current popular 9mm polymer pistols.

Top to bottom: Glock 17, HK USP 9mm, Walther P99, Steyr M9-A1

Glock 17:

HK USP:

Walther P99:

Steyr M9-A1:

Barrels. You can definitely see the "family resemblance" here. (top to bottom: Glock, USP, P99, Steyr)

Although they are all somewhat different in this regard: (left to right: Glock, USP, P99, Steyr)

My attempt at the "fully supported chamber" (or not) photo:

Recoil springs. The USP and its recoil reduction system is the odd-man-out here. The Glock and the Steyr are almost identical. (top to bottom: Glock, USP, P99, Steyr)

Slides. (top to bottom: Glock, USP, P99, Steyr)

Sights. (left to right: Glock, USP, P99, Steyr)

Internals. (left to right: Steyr, P99, USP, Glock)

Backstraps. (left to right: Glock, USP, P99, Steyr)

Mags. (left to right: Glock, USP, P99, Steyr) The P99 and Steyr mags are both pretty clearly made by Mec-Gar. Only the P99 is marked as such (and with "made in Italy"). The Steyr mags are marked with the Steyr logo and "Austria" on the front.

Glock.

USP.

P99.

Steyr.

Glock.

USP.

P99.

Steyr.

My take:

Glock 17:
Pros: Bomb-proof design. Reliable. Simple. Always goes "bang". Slide doesn't wear easily. Hex barrel is easy to clean. The gun generally is easy to clean and maintain. Easy and safe holster training gun. Instantly recognizable icon. A modern classic.
Cons: Mushy trigger. "Combat accuracy" only.

HK USP:
Pros: Bomb-proof design. Reliable. Accuracy is on a different level from just about every other polymer pistol. Soft recoil.
Cons: Big boxy grip for smaller hands. Not everyone likes the placement of the decocking lever or the mag release.

Walther P99:
Pros: One ofthe most innovative pistols of the last decade: SA/DA striker fired pistol with top mounted decocker; five interchangable front sights; three interchangable backstraps; cocking indicator; loaded chamber indicator, etc. Superior accuracy to Glock-type pistols. Ergonomic grip.
Cons: Extremely light frame seems to be the root cause of the very heavy "snap" recoil. One of the harder recoiling modern 9mm pistols. Point of impact seems to rise out beyond 15m, which may also be connected. Not everyone seems to like the mag release... and it can be tight, especially when the mag is full. The other weird thing is that, because it is striker fired, unlike every other SA/DA gun the trigger does not move back by itself when the gun goes into SA mode. It just has minimal to non-existent resistance until you reach the SA break-point. You can get used to it, but I prefer the normal hammer fired SA/DA system (which is used on the P22, by the way).

Steyr M9-A1:
Pros: Takes the Glock trigger concept and vastly improves upon it. Very crisp trigger with a solid feel to it. Superior Ergonomics to the Glock. Cool "Bulldog" appearance. The internals of the gun are also set up so that all the moving pieces are hidden away from the chamber where the gun dirties up. Makes cleaning very easy. It would make repairs more difficult, except that the mechanical part of the frame is designed as a "box" that can be taken out of the grip en masse. A very innovative design.
Cons: The sights are just plain funky. The triangle and the trapazoid only line up on the point of impact when they are directly level with your eye, otherwise you get into this weird guessing game... so you start going just off of the front sight. I tried for over 6 months (shooting every week) to get this sight system to work for me but couldn't. i made some progress, but I'm planning to replace mine with 3-dot night sights.

 

[highspeedlowdrag]

Nice pics ghostie! Thanks for sharing this with the rest of us....

hsld.

 

[foxbat]

Good job,man.This should be a Stickie.....

 

[target]

Nice work.

Very nice pictures and appreciate the information.

If you could of, it would of been nice to have added the M&P into the comparison as well.

 

[ElmerFudd]

I have to agree with the others... well done!

Quite helpful for some of us that can't buy them all to compare or that work in the gun business. And I appreciate the fact that they are in the same order from picture to picture (well, except for the one pic) as it makes it easy to see and compare.

Now you only have to buy the S&W M&P and a Springfield XD, and a ...


Good job.


Fudd

 

[bushwhacker]

Considering the sight issue, how would you put the 4 pistols in order of accuracy?

 

[Jeff/1911]

Well done!

Ghostie,

FABULOUS job! You have gone to a lot of work to represent this variety of pistols, and I really appreciate it as I suspect many others will too. Your pictures are top notch!!

Best wishes, Jeff/1911.

 

[shelby]

This is hands-down the best polymer pistol comparison post I have ever seen posted on this site. Excellent job!

The question now is...what comparison test are you going to follow up with?

 

[maurice]

nice comparison. The steyr has the most comfortable grip I would think, but the mag well is crappy on it, the USP, and the Walther. Glock has a decent mag well opening. Those trapezoid sights look cool, but I can not imagine trying to shoot a 25M steel plate, it would be a guessing game. The new Hk P30L will have a better mag well opening, and full adjustable grips. The slide is supposed to be lower (not as tall)

 

[Speckfire]

Excellent work Ghostie. This thread should be stickied

 

[Strickland]

Excellent!, waiting for your rage report.

 

[IM_Lugger]

great post!

The steyr has the most comfortable grip I would think, but the mag well is crappy on it.

It’s really not bad for mag changes, I would say pretty good actually. From what you said I’m assuming you never handled one…and yes it’s very ergonomic.


Ghosty great; now I’m wondering if I should really be selling my Steyr…

 

[IM_Lugger]

Looks like M9-A1 (far right) has hands down the best chamber support. Hmmm I thought G17 was fully supported….



btw ghosty you should've included your Beretta in there as well; let it kick some plastic ass...

 

[Ruger30-06]

Good review of all pistols.

I like how you did the pics of the same for all the pistols

 

[Big JD-From the hills]

Judging by the pictures, I should remind myself to not get a walter, and fondel a steyr instead! Is the mag catch on the steyr plastic or steel/metal?

 

[IM_Lugger]

metal of course

 

[FirstBMW]

Very well done.
And so informative too.
Thanks for this.

 

[capp325]

And the winner is?

 

[Cocked&Locked]

And the winner is?

The XD!!!

 

[ghostie]

If you could of, it would of been nice to have added the M&P into the comparison as well.

Yes, the XD and the M&P should really be in here for comparison. I don't own those guns though, so I can't get pictures of them lined-up with the other guns. If anyone owns either of these guns, please post your pics, or post pics of it with a Glock, etc. I would be interested.

Considering the sight issue, how would you put the 4 pistols in order of accuracy?

The way they are right now... accuracy for me is: USP, P99, Glock, Steyr. The Steyr seems to have a lot of promise though. The barrel fits tighter than the Glock and the trigger is a lot better, but all that and more is lost with the sights (for me at least). Some people on Steyrclub absolute swear by these sights as the greatest invention ever. I just don't see how it can work though. I find you have to slow fire everything and over think it in order to get acceptable accurary. Three dots just have a "high low" and "left right" relationship between them... and when you are "off" the distance between the dots is off and your brain will recognize that and you can bring the gun into line. Whereas trapazoid/triangle sights it is either lined up perfectly, or you don't have a sight picture. I found myself alot of the time, before slow firing, tilting the gun up slightly and then bringing it down until I couldn't see any of the top of the slide. That would line it up straight and that worked pretty good. But that is just bizarre really. Way too much work. PT Night Sights makes 3-dot night sights for this gun. I'm ordering some. I'll post pictures when I get them.

i'm hoping that new sights will be a sort of "rebirth" of this gun for me. Everything else about the gun is really awesome. The sights just don't jive with my brain/eyes/shooting style. It has gotten to the point where I don't like shooting it on the public range if there are lots of people around! 8 inch groups at 10 metres is not really the way I see myself as a pistol shooter.

And the winner is?

For me right now it is the USP. I find myself moving away from the striker-fired guns and toward the hammer-fired SA/DA guns. The only lame thing about these guns is when you have somebody telling you to decock before putting it in your holster (that's what the safety is for ).

I like shooting fast, and I like shooting accurate. Single action is great for accuracy. It seems to have a built-in advantage over double action or Glock-style (partial pre-compression) triggers.

A hammer that moves the trigger back is great for fast shooting. "Take up" either reduces accuracy or reduces speed.

USP is the only one of these guns that is single action with minimal take-up.


What review is next? Gotta make some money!