Heckler & Koch P8 A1 9mm

North_Sylva

North_Sylva

CGN Ultra frequent flyer
Business Member
Rating - 100%
9   0   0
SKU#: 262491.

Stocking Dealers:
- Calgary Shooting Centre
- Red Deer Shooting Centre
- Ellwood Epps
- Firearms Outlet Canada
- G4C Sports
- Siwash
- Tenda

uYhqi71.jpg


gyyjAJB.jpg


5zoUVm8.jpg
 
Last edited:
I love USPs, have a few of them, big fan. However, is the stronger slide and improved corrosion resistance really warrant designating this an A1? I feel they're trying to provide a solution to a problem that doesn't exist. Never heard or read of a USP rusting or slide cracking/breaking. From what I know, the pistol was originally designed around the 40s&w cartridge and the slide was already beefy enough to withstand those pressures as well as pressures from +P ammo. So 9mm and +P 9mm would be a non-issue as well.

Also noticed the safety is now a weird arrangement. The standard USP safety is the similar in operation to a 1911, where up is safe and lowered is fire and depressing the lever further than fire would decock the gun. Now it looks like when the lever is horizontal to the slide (normally fire position), safety is engaged and when lever is depressed lower (normally decock), safety is disengaged. This arrangement seems odd to me. Now if the safety is engaged (lever pointing down), how would you disengage the safety without moving your support hand out of the way to move the safety lever up?
 
^

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heckler_&_Koch_USP#Service

The USP was adopted in Germany by the Bundeswehr (German armed forces) as the P8 in 1994.[15] The P8 has only minor differences from the standard USP model, these being translucent magazines, a reversed safety/decocker lever (on the P8, down indicates 'safe', and up indicates 'fire' — this is the opposite of the standard USP), and the 'S' and 'F' letters being printed onto the frame instead of onto the lever itself. The P8 has a traditional lands-and-grooves barrel instead of a polygonal barrel.[16]
Click to expand...
 
MPower said:
Also noticed the safety is now a weird arrangement. The standard USP safety is the similar in operation to a 1911, where up is safe and lowered is fire and depressing the lever further than fire would decock the gun. Now it looks like when the lever is horizontal to the slide (normally fire position), safety is engaged and when lever is depressed lower (normally decock), safety is disengaged. This arrangement seems odd to me. Now if the safety is engaged (lever pointing down), how would you disengage the safety without moving your support hand out of the way to move the safety lever up?
Click to expand...

The P8 always has a reversed safety direction from the US USP. It is a German thing, since the 90's.
 
Never knew the P8 safety was purposely designed to be the opposite of the standard USP. But it's still weird, no? I mean you would have to move your support hand out of the way, place your strong hand thumb under the lever and flick it upwards, then move the same thumb out of the way and place your support hand back into position!? Or do the Germans just flick the safety lever up into fire position with their support hand?

mebiuspower said:
^

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heckler_&_Koch_USP#Service
Click to expand...
 
MPower said:
Never knew the P8 safety was purposely designed to be the opposite of the standard USP. But it's still weird, no? I mean you would have to move your support hand out of the way, place your strong hand thumb under the lever and flick it upwards, then move the same thumb out of the way and place your support hand back into position!? Or do the Germans just flick the safety lever up into fire position with their support hand?
Click to expand...

You do have a point, the gas filler cap on my car is in the front and the ignition is on the left hand side and guess what... it's a German car!

All jokes aside, it's the requirement of the Bundeswehr to make the safety that way as part of the military contract. H&K has nothing to do with that decision. That being said, all other USP pistols have the "regular" safety.
 
They did it that so that it would follow P38/P1 design and would not mess up muscle memory of the soldiers who used to P38/P1 style safety. USP was designed for the US customers who used to M1911 style safety. Nothing weird about it.
 
kozack said:
They did it that so that it would follow P38/P1 design and would not mess up muscle memory of the soldiers who used to P38/P1 style safety. USP was designed for the US customers who used to M1911 style safety. Nothing weird about it.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the explanation! :)
 
sabel483 said:
http://www.hkpro.com/forum/hkpro-mem...ermany-24.html

P8A1 is a P8 but

- stronger Slide
- improved corrosion protection
- sight with night light


Can anyone confirm the above info about the HK P8A1 is 100% correct?

I can't find anything to confirm this on the HK websites, other than the link above from a member on the HK forms.

Any thoughts?
Click to expand...

The P8 manual in H&K's website shows different part #s for the P8 vs P8 A1 slide. So no argument that they are different.

http://www.heckler-koch.com/en/service/operator-manuals.html

Without doing any actual test nobody really knows if there are extra corrosion resistance.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom