H&K P7M8 info request.

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geeg

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Just got (paid for anyways) a P7M8 from P&D today....to bad I didn't buy it yesterday when there was a slim chance of actually taking it home within a day.

Been doing some reading on it and can't really find to many faults with it.

But still, just wondering if any of you who have experience with it could point out any potential issues that I should look for.

As well, any "required" accessories that I should get? Thought about some extra mags right away, but P&D's price was a bit higher than what I can order from Wolverine.

If anyone's interested, I'll post some pics when I actually get it.
 
I have the P7 PSP, and I really like it. The only faults I can find with these guns are: (1) they heat up, and (2) they foul up.

These are not really big problems though. I find the heating to be managable unless you are banging off like 5 mags in a row. The heatshield on the P7M8 seems kind of pointless to me because the place where I can feel the heat shooting them is on my weak hand thumb, not the trigger finger.

The fouling issue is also pretty minor. All gas delayed blow-back guns have fouling issues. It takes a bit more work to keep them clean than Browning style actions. Also, don't oil on the internals of the squeeze cocking mechanism (underneath the right grip panel). Just keep them clean and use a silicone cloth or something like that. My only failures with this gun, came from too much oil combined with fouling in this area. Since I learned that these are very, very low oil guns, I have not had any such issues. My own view is that you shouldn't be afraid to push out the roll pin at the bottom of the squeeze cocker at the front of the grip. This will allow you to completely clean out the mechanism. You won't need to do this for at least a few thousand rounds though - if at all. I demand (and get) total reliability from my guns - so I try to keep them pretty clean.

The only other failure I had was from pieces of the primer caps from Fiocchi 115gr. ammo being punched out and pulled back into the firing pin channel (or melting and getting in there that way... this issue was covered in this forum a few months ago). That issue is purely related to crap ammo though, and does not occur with quality ammo.

Some people think the 8 round thing is a drawback. I'd say no way. For self-defence maybe, but we won't be doing any of that with our guns in this country. 8 rounds is part of what makes the gun different from our normal world of pinned 10 round doublestack mags.

Extra mags are nice, but they are always expensive for every model of these guns.
 
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some thoughts off the top of my head...

once you depress the squeeze cocker in the front, you can relax your grip a lot as it doesn't take much force to keep the gun 'cocked'.

although i don't recommend it, you can shoot the P7 series of handguns but depressing the trigger first, THEN squeezing the front strap cocker. it is kind of a DA action when you do this, but i personally am not that accurate when i do this...

i don't shoot 'thumbs forward' or 'high thumbs' on my P7M8. the heat from shooting does build up quickly on the receiver. this is about the only downside of the P7 design.

do NOT shoot lead bullets out of the gun. it will plug up the gas port causing you serious grief!

make sure you clean it after each range session. the carbon build up is hard to scrape out if you let it sit too long. also, make sure you have the scraping tool that should come with your P7M8.

if you do decide to break down your P7M8 further than field stripping, make sure you have a detailed manual to help you. this design has a LOT of parts.

when you eject the magazine, be sure to have your hand underneath as the magazines come FLYING out of the mag well!!!

other than getting a holster and mag pouches, i really can't think of any accessories you could get for the P7M8... maybe tritium sights, but considering this isn't going to be a combat weapon, i'd save the money. the chrome plating that some have done to their P7s look great, but if the blue finish is still good, i wouldn't do it.

my P7M8 is one of the most accurate handguns in my collection. enjoy!
 
thanks for the tips and advice...

I've read that dry lube is the best for this pistol as mentioned by ghostie above and the heat issues too (that issue seems really common).

Regarding the 8 stack, yeah, that's not an issue for me either since I won't be doing a CCW with this (or any other pistol).

Part of the reason for me not picking up any extra mags at this point for the P7 is the heat issue. I usually have a "few" extra mags for my pistols for the range, but I'll have to see if the 2 mags are enough for the P7.

Thanks for the Brownell's tip as well ghostie, order is done already....
 
Actually the heat shield on the P7 is usefull. I have the P7 PSP without the heat shield. Your trigger finger gets very hot to the point of burnt without the shield and under sustained firing. But... that's a lot of firing on a summer day.

Overall excellent trigger, very accurate and unique little pistol.
I like mine.

The recoil however does feel more like that of a 40 S&W than a 9mm. But no big deal. Very managable.

One other side note. It's the smallest restricted pistol you can buy that I know of. In fact it's actually smaller than my prohibited S&W 5946.
 
I find the P7 PSP (the one that I have at least) is a very mild recoiling gun. They are built like little tanks, and the recoil is straight back. The gun that I have is a former Landespolizei gun made in 1985, and it shoots very well. I doubt you can really do much to wear them out.

My GF and I were shooting yesterday. I had one really weird group with the P7 that day. In the top group, there are 7 shots into about 3/4 inch and one high one. I believe the high one was the 5th or 6th shot, so at least it wasn's the 8th shot! I would have been choked! But this shows you that, in offhand shooting, this thing will shoot to point of aim if the shooter upholds their part of the bargain. The small circle on that top target is a bottle cap from bottled water traced with a felt marker. So - if you were thinking self-defence/law enforcement - that is not a head shot - it is hitting someone in the eye 7 out of 8 shots! That high shot is obviously 100% shooter "error" (it is still a good shot in my view - at that range, I call within a couple inches of point of aim "good"). The lower grouping is more the typical type of result I get witht he P7 at this range - a tight group clustered on point of aim, but each hit is a distinct mark on the paper.
P1.jpg


This is more of an average 8 shot group from a bit further out. At least I kept them all in the big circle!
P3.jpg


My GF and I also have three videos of this gun on Youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUYciVggDDc&feature=user
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cY0MGu_e2xI&feature=user
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--kH7h0-F2s&feature=user
 
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nice groups...

and for those videos, I did watch them before when I was doing pre-buy research on the P7's.....didn't know it was your's at the time.
 
If you want to protect your invest have Mark from Questar, arrange to have the pistol sent to Robar for the NP3 finsh, I had my pistol sent originally to have the finsh applied along with 8 magazines, and it added lubrication qualities along with a great protective look and finish. Follow the link and read about it, when it was easier to do this type of treatment I sent several pistols to them and had them refinshed.

http://www.robarguns.com/np3.htm


gadget
 
I envy you Gadget,

Questar will no longer arrange to ship guns to US and back. Basically the only way is to buy one in US, finish it, then have Questar ship it in. One way only.
 
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