Initial Thoughts Walther PPS
I am going to provide some short-run feedback about this handgun. First, I am going to explain why I chose this handgun over the Glock 43 and if I am happy with that choice thus far.
My reasoning behind purchasing this PPS over the G43 was magazine capacity, slim design, and being able to grip the weapon more similarly to a full size handgun. This compact handgun with the 7 and 8 round magazines gives me the feeling of gripping a full size handgun without the bulk, weight, and thickness of an actual full size. I can't say that you will find the PPS to be the same as all of our hands are different in size. Therefore, I highly encourage you to shoot and or hold this handgun or any handgun you intend on purchasing before actually buying it based off of blogs/reviews.
Moving forward--this handgun is very comfortable to carry. I personally carry appendix style, and I do not have any issues with comfort.
Now I am going to transition into more detail about how it shoots, controls, and observations I have made so far.
This pistol is a tack driver! The barrel and chamber combined are the same length as a small OTIS CLP container but the accuracy is there. The night sights are easy and fast to acquire proper sight picture/sight alignment. The recoil is a bit "snappy" as expected from a compact handgun. When it comes to the trigger, I have mixed feelings about it. The initial pull, feel, and break is great. The trigger doesn't have a long over exaggerated travel like the M&P (which I will address later) which is nice. Although my problem is with the trigger reset. I am hoping it improves with more use of the trigger over time. The reset kinda feels "sticky" as if there is some friction in the mechanism. It's certainly not a deal breaker but it did throw me off initially.
The controls--the only safety on this handgun is the trigger safety. The magazine release takes some getting used to. Most people advocate using your trigger finger to press the magazine release. However, I have personally found that using my middle finger is much smoother, faster, and allows me to keep my trigger finger indexed along the slide during reloads. Whichever way works best for you is what you should do, but if the trigger finger doesn't feel right, try the middle one!
Observations--I only have a little over 500 rounds through this handgun as I shoot more than just this one. Which brings me to my next point. Since this handgun is relatively different than say an M&P, you really need to focus on training with both equally regardless of their use. I found myself trying to depress the M&P magazine release with muscle memory of the PPS and vice versa during timed speed reloads.
Remember the trigger reference? Well the travel on the PPS is about 1/2 of the M&P (full size) so if you aren't practicing with each pistol equally, you could send off a round negligently very easily under stress.
Conclusion:
I think this is an awesome handgun. The controls take a little time getting used to at first but as with anything, it just takes practice. The slim design but full size feeling is a great thing in my opinion. Do I wish I would have bought the G43? As of right now, I am happy with my purchase.
