Recently, in this thread https://pistol-forum.com/showthread....stol-woods-gun we had a nice discussion of appropriate woods gun selection criteria. My two main ones were that the gun's caliber be applicable to the circumstances, and that the gun be easily not just field- but also detail- (or semi-detail-) disassembled/reassembled in case of inadvertent exposure to media to the guns action components. Of course an over-arching criteria is that the gun chosen is durable and reliable, and reasonably accurate.
On Saturday, my wife and I had a great hike, and while thinking things through (always potentially dangerous...), I came up with a third, and in this case, somewhat dis-positive criteria: That the gun selected had to be capable of be operated instinctively and effectively by all parties potentially having to use it.
In this case, I ended up choosing my HK VP40, which has certainly proven to be accurate and reliable-but certainly NOT easily detail-dis-assembled (or, frankly, easily taken down much further than field-stripping period, especially regarding the receiver and its multitude of components)-both in the field or in a more administrative setting.
My rationale, FWIW is this: Given that the likely threat was pretty much restricted to black bear, mountain lion/cougar, and humans, I was satisfied with going with a .40, using DocGKR vetted 180 gr Federal HST/Speer 180 gr Gold Dots/Remington 180 gr Golden Saber cartridges.
The ergonomics of the HK VP are excellent, and since I'm running both my VP and P30 with a small backstrap, small right panel, and medium left panel, the HK would likely be a better choice for my small-handed wife, and I preferred its ergos to those of my Glock Gen4 G22, and figured the striker action of the VP would be easier for her to deal with than the LEM action of my P30L
Another thing that resonated with me was Dagga Boy's recent comment here over a trend that he's recently witnessed, women choosing the HK VP due to both its ergos and the charging supports making manual slide reciprocation both easier and do-able.
Another factor in this case was that our hike was a day hike, in clear weather, and over terrain where it was unlikely that we'd be exposed to dumping the gun in water or mud/dust/dirt.
So in this case, ergos trumped the other criteria (and we had a great hike, and only saw 2 other humans along the trails, and zero threatening wildlife).
Had it been a longer hike/camp, or under more arduous/protracted conditions, I might have chosen otherwise (e.g., with my wife, probably the Glock Gen4 G22).
The VP40 cwas carried very comfortably and unobtrusively in an Olen taco-style/single FOMI-clipped kydex holster, with the two reload magazines carried in a Tactical Tailor Fight-Lite Magna dual magazine pouch.
And no, I wasn't particularly concerned over the "Mallet Test" kerfluffule currently discussed on the forum regarding HK VPs (although only VP9s have been discussed to date-no VP40s have fallen, or been tested yet to the best of my knowledge).
Just thought I'd throw this out for discussion.
Best, Jon
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Originally Posted by Grey
