You're gonna love it. For a first gun, it's a great choice. I took a buddy to the range and let him try it. He's never fired a pistol before and yet he still obliterated the bullseye at 7 meters with his first mag. It's really a very natural pointing and easy to shoot pistol.
The H&K SFP9: Initial thoughts and observations **range report added on post 61**
- Thread starter Master-G
- Start date
You're gonna love it. For a first gun, it's a great choice. I took a buddy to the range and let him try it. He's never fired a pistol before and yet he still obliterated the bullseye at 7 meters with his first mag. It's really a very natural pointing and easy to shoot pistol.
I went with Solely Canadian as well. Couldn't be happier. I like it better than even my Raven Concealment holsters.
just a note for the SFP9, do not shoot steel case ammo through this gun, it HATES IT, it will start having a hissy fit after about 100-150 rounds.
on mine the casing will get wedged in the chamber and the slide will no longer function.
this gun wants to eat nato stuff, meaning 124gr, brass cased and THATS IT.
on mine the casing will get wedged in the chamber and the slide will no longer function.
this gun wants to eat nato stuff, meaning 124gr, brass cased and THATS IT.
- Location
- Toronto (GTA), Ontario
Barnaul is some of the worst ammo available. Lots of other people have similar problems from the laquer on the cases coming off and fouling the chamber making rounds stick and causing malfunctions. You bought a nice pistol and now feeding it the crappiest ammo available, steel laquered cased, bi-metal jacket, berdan primed, dirty stuff. I would recommend to stay away from aluminum and steel cased ammo and anything from Russia in general. Stick to quality brass ammo made in USA or Europe.
I had the opportunity to try one two weeks ago. I like it. It is a variation on the GLOCK idea, of course, but it is a solid pistol. The main difference that I see with this one is that the have managed to get most of the mush/creep out of the trigger. Mush/creep is fine once you adapted your brain to how it works (don't get me started on my diatribe on GLOCK, I love the GLOCK 19), but some people don't want to learn to adapt to that, so they design the pistol to try and get away from that. Which is good. Innovation and change is always good.
The trigger on the SPF9 feels a bit stiff to me, but I think you could learn to really use that to your advantage. I would describe the trigger as fairly stiff, with a more defined (than GLOCK) breakpoint, maybe a little shorter reset, and reasonably light... but in a "stiff" way, if that makes any sense. Hard to describe in words. It is an accurate gun though. I was beaning stuff right on the nose with the first few mags. Bullets landing generally no more than an inch from where I wanted them, and lots of them cutting ragged holes with the previous holes in the target, so that was encouraging. The HK-style sight set-up is probably part of that (front dot covers the bullseye), since I am damn good and used to HK style sight set-ups, as a P7 nut.
I had the opportunity to try the Walther PPX the week before, and I really like that one too. It costs half as much, and that is probably the best feature of it. The PPX trigger does creep a fair bit, but I was noticing that more on dry-fire than actual shooting. During actually shooting it felt really good, and was accurate. I didn't get quite the accuracy out of the PPX that I was getting right off the bat with the SPF9, but it was more than acceptable. Finally the other gun makers, 20-30 years later, are catching up and making a striker fired pistol that rivals the GLOCK. Of course, for me, none of these guns can hold a candle to the true classics like the P9 and the P7, but you can't make one of those guns (roller-delayed or gas delayed) at this price point anyway.
I eased the slide into battery in this video for some reason, and that is me feeling around on the break-point of the trigger here too. Maybe not the best video, but I was literally just putting a couple of mags through a buddy's gun to see what I thought.
The trigger on the SPF9 feels a bit stiff to me, but I think you could learn to really use that to your advantage. I would describe the trigger as fairly stiff, with a more defined (than GLOCK) breakpoint, maybe a little shorter reset, and reasonably light... but in a "stiff" way, if that makes any sense. Hard to describe in words. It is an accurate gun though. I was beaning stuff right on the nose with the first few mags. Bullets landing generally no more than an inch from where I wanted them, and lots of them cutting ragged holes with the previous holes in the target, so that was encouraging. The HK-style sight set-up is probably part of that (front dot covers the bullseye), since I am damn good and used to HK style sight set-ups, as a P7 nut.
I had the opportunity to try the Walther PPX the week before, and I really like that one too. It costs half as much, and that is probably the best feature of it. The PPX trigger does creep a fair bit, but I was noticing that more on dry-fire than actual shooting. During actually shooting it felt really good, and was accurate. I didn't get quite the accuracy out of the PPX that I was getting right off the bat with the SPF9, but it was more than acceptable. Finally the other gun makers, 20-30 years later, are catching up and making a striker fired pistol that rivals the GLOCK. Of course, for me, none of these guns can hold a candle to the true classics like the P9 and the P7, but you can't make one of those guns (roller-delayed or gas delayed) at this price point anyway.
I eased the slide into battery in this video for some reason, and that is me feeling around on the break-point of the trigger here too. Maybe not the best video, but I was literally just putting a couple of mags through a buddy's gun to see what I thought.
I don't have a mid-size Glock to try but I dug a few other similar-sized pistols out of the safe
Here's the SFP9
M&P with mid-size backstrap
P7
USP9 in DA mode
STI Ranger 1911
The SFP9 is the smallest circumferentially...even less than the 1911, which is a bit larger front-to-back. Trigger reach is about equal between the 1911 the P7 and the SFP9, and a bit longer on the M&P9. I have shot enough mid-size Glocks to know that for me trigger reach would be longer than the SPF9.
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Sudbury shooter
CGN Regular
Im not worried as much about not being able to wrap my hand around it. My problem is holding it one handed properly and being able to reach the trigger with a flat finger.
I can't fit the pad of my finger absolutely flat on the trigger of the SFP9, but it's closer than other pistol.
I've managed to shoot pretty well (I've won a number of club-level matches...even a couple of one-handed ones) with handguns that are too big for an optimal fit (which is almost all of them). I have to rotate my hand around a little bit so the butt isn't right in the middle of the web of my hand but it's quite manageable.
Sudbury shooter
CGN Regular
Hopefully I can find a polymer gun that fits perfect, the only thing that comes very close is a 1911 with a short trigger.
