The standard answer: it depends.
I would say by most metrics, the VP9 is in the top tier of striker guns. You aren't going to go wrong with it.
I'd put it with the Gen5 Glocks and the PPQ as the cream of the crop. If I had to crown a king, I'd likely give the nod to the Gen5 Glocks as what I would be most likely to choose or recommend in a total vacuum.
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VP9 is good, but it could use another 2 rounds in the magazine and it really needs more recoil spring and/or a redesign of the slide unlock. As is it's way too easy to push out of battery or have grunge keep it from going back into battery (even using the .40 recoil spring).
When the VP9 came out it was a step up from the mediocre Gen3/4 Glocks and the M&P9 with its accuracy issues.
Now that the M&P 2.0 and Gen 5 Glocks are out, H&K needs to step up and address the VP9's shortcomings.
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Yes, especially it being bigger than a G19.Originally Posted by JodyH
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Many folks know that I'm the guy who loves to hate GLOCKs, but still carries them almost exclusively. I ran a VP9 for several months a while back, and it was a nice pistol, for sure. The fully pre-tensioned striker makes for a "nicer" trigger than GLOCK, and the customizable grip panels/backstrap certainly feel nice. Having said that, FOR ME, it was too large for capacity, and had a lot more muzzle flip than my G19. Folks who haven't had hundreds of thousands of rounds and decades of shooting GLOCKs might not feel the same, naturally.
I don’t know if I got awesome VP9s or crappy gen 5 glocks, but my VP9 triggers (2) stomp the crap out of my glocks (3). I find the VP9 much easier to manage grip wise too with my hand size than even gen 5 glocks. I’m not sure if it’s due to me or the guns but the 25 yard targets with my VP9 are consistently better.
I download my Glock mags by one, and don’t with HK so there’s a 1 round difference for me between VP9 and a Glock 17. Even if it were more, I don’t think I’d care.
Not saying glocks suck at all, but VP9 is definitely my favorite striker fired gun.
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I'm always intrigued by comments that a gun "only" hold 15 rounds (I used to think the same back in the days when the SIG P226 and Beretta 92/M9 came with 15 rounders). Is there a CZ SP01 or STI double stack forum somewhere where the folks comment about the G17/G34 and say, "sure they are nice guns, but they only hold 17 rounds"?
Even the P226 nowadays can run 18-rounds flush with MecGars.
The gripe is about the size-to-capacity ratio. Everyone wants what a Glock 19 can do, but they don’t want a Glock 19. Weird right?
Last edited by HCountyGuy; 07-13-2018 at 04:15 PM.
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I have (2) VP-9's....One has 25,006 flawless rounds and still operating with the original RSA and the other over 3,000 round count. The VP-9 was in R&D for 4.5 years prior to release. That's remarkable and unheard of in today's manufacturing process. HK doesn't BETA test their firearms via releasing to the public and fixing flaws on the fly. Being an HK armorer as well as several other platforms, the VP-9 is in my opinion the best out of the box striker fire pistol produced and I've grown to really appreciate the VP 9 platform. The pivoting striker safety is absolutely ingenious. I could type for awhile on the engineering on this platform. Call someone like a Rick Holm, Robert Burke or James Williamson and ask them these questions. They go into great detail on this platform and it's pure HK German Engineering.
Last edited by HALO51; 07-14-2018 at 08:53 AM.
Maybe we should reprhase that..Everyone wants what a Glock 19 can do, but they don't want a Glock 19 that throws empty brass left, straight up, forward, back at your face, shoulders, back over your head, dribbles out on your wrist, or drop at your feet. Supposedly the Gen 5's have fixed that,(I honestly don't know) but then again, that's what they said about the Gen4 guns too.. If Glock could make a pistol with consistent to- the-right-ejection, then they'd be close to perfection. But, the way I figure it, that would take a whole redesign of the slide, (there's a few needed improvements in there) and they'd need to shit can their Rube Goldberg extraction system, and go with a more conventional spring loaded lever system, that actually works..
But, back to the VP9..I agree, the grip is too long for the number of rounds it holds, had HK decided to use P-2000 mags, and made the grip shorter, that would've been great.. But, they did'nt.. I have a VP9 I'd like to get rid of, but because the market is saturated with VP9's after HK dropped the price on them, I'd have to take a bath on it, just to get rid of it.. So, for now, it sits in the safe taking up space.. Myself, I think it's flippy when shooting it, My PX4 is a much flatter shooter.. The VP9 is a good pistol reliable, accurate, but really, it's nothing special.. I think as far as striker fired pistols go, the CZ P-10c is a better pistol than the VP9..
Last edited by ralph; 07-14-2018 at 11:03 AM.
Interesting about the VP9 possessing more muzzle flip than comparable Glocks-I find the opposite to be true with my VP40 compared to my Gen4 G22 (and I'm pretty sure that a G23 would fare much worse). My VP40 demonstrably fires flatter and faster than my G22 with the same ammunition. Not that it obsoletes the G22 or renders me feeling ineffective with it, but it was a significant difference in favor of the heavy-slided VP40. Hmmmm....perhaps there really is something to what a number of the SME's (Wayne Dobbs and Darryl Boelke come to mind) have recommended about the conceptual validity of using the heavier Glock GAP pistol slides for .40 chambered Glocks...
And it's also interesting to note that the VPs utilize flatwire recoil springs like the "legacy" Glocks, not double or triple nested springs...
Best, Jon
Last edited by JonInWA; 07-14-2018 at 04:52 PM.
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