Tell me about the HK VP9

[rizbunk77]

I am looking at a purchase, interested in the VP9 from Heckler and Koch. It seems like a quality piece. I would be interested in hearing from owners, if there are any regrets and whether this would be a good first handgun for home defense and range for me as well as youth and female shooter. Is it outclassed by anything in its price range?

 

[TTv2]

For a first handgun, I'm assuming you would like something with a safety for safety reasons. That takes out Glock, unless you don't mind a handgun without a safety.

There's a lot of 9's out there, but it's about the features. What features do you want? Do you want something with a good grip? Do you want it to be hammer or stryker fired? Do you want it to be a single action only or a DA/SA so you can have a long first trigger pull then a short trigger pull thereafter?

 

[sigarms228]

I have an HK VP9 and it is just terrific. Never had an issue with mine and it is extremely accurate and a soft shooter. The adjustable back straps and palm inserts are very helpful in getting just the right grip. Trigger is excellent too. I am extremely pleased with my VP9. Mine has been 100 percent reliable and others have 10,000 plus rounds though them with no issue. Typical HK high quality with lifetime warranty to original owner.

If you are looking for a poly frame striker fired pistol IMO it is among the very best.

I don't know your experience with pistols as you said this would be your first one but if you have little experience I highly recommend a basic training class for those who would be using the pistol. Such classes should go over safety and basic shooting techniques such as stance, grip, and trigger control. Most local gun ranges offer such for very reasonable investment.

 

[stchman]

The striker fired polymer framed 9mm pistol market is brimming with choices. Myself I would get one without a safety or magazine disconnect.

In addition to the VP9 you are looking at:

Walther PPQ M2
Smith & Wesson M&P9
Ruger American Pistol 9mm
Sig Sauer P320
Glock 17/19
FN FNS-9
Canik TP9SF/SA/v2
Springfield XD9

There are MANY more to choose from.

Myself personally any of the above I have mentioned will fit the bill, the Canik is going to be the best priced one. As far as reliable, they all are. My advice is to go see if you can put any of these in your hand to see which fits best.

There is also a plethora of DA/SA 9mm pistols out there as well.

 

[Zaydok Allen]

I've had one for a few months and have several hundred rounds through mine.

The grip is very ergonomic and the ability to interchange the grip panels makes the gun suitable for a lot of shooters. I keep the largest backstrap and right side panel in mine to accommodate my hand size. My girlfriend likes the largest right side grip and medium backstrap. Really petite folks can really shrink it down to pretty small sizes.

Mine has been 100% reliable, no malfunctions of any kind with one exception. Occasionally the slide doesn't lock back on the last round. But it doesn't seem consistent, so I believe I'm hitting the slide release with my thumb when shooting.

I have the version with night sights and 3 mags, and I really like the night sites. All my future HK's will have them.

The gun is soft shooting for its weight, though I have shot softer shooting guns. A Beretta 92 variant comes to mind, but that's an all metal gun and a different beast altogether.

The lack of an external safety may be off putting to some, but ultimately you are supposed to keep your finger off the trigger unless ready to shoot, so I don't really see that as a negative.

The trigger is great, and makes shooting the gun accurately pretty easy. Some folks insist on comparing it to the Walther PPQ and insist it has a better trigger than the VP9. To those people I say, who cares? If you prefer the VP9 it has a really good trigger. If you prefer the Walther, it has a really good trigger. So pick the one you like more.

Good for youth? Well, I don't see why not with strict supervision of course. Just make sure you obey the safety rules and make sure everyone is well educated in the use of the gun.

Mine seems to like 115 gr bullets, but 124 grainers feed fine also.

All in all I think it's a great option, but there are a lot of great options out there. Are there other brands that interest you? Are you sure you want a striker fired gun rather than a hammer fired gun? Can you rent some of the guns you are interested in?

 

[tarosean]

I owned one for a while, it was reliable, but it wasnt for me.
(* I am VERY picky)

 

[cslinger]

I owned one for a while, it was reliable, but it wasnt for me.

Ditto for me. Nothing wrong with it just didn't scratch my itch so to speak. I like the PPQ, and have and like Glocks so its not a polymer striker bias or anything.

Mostly I just sort of felt like this was the pistol HK started cutting costs with. It just didn't feel or appear as well made or assembled as my other HK's. Not that it affected its performance and frankly this is just me being a picky gun owner with lots of choices so take it for what its worth.

Also I just didn't like the recoil impulse. It certainly wasn't bad, and you could run the gun really fast I just didn't like it so to speak.

Trigger was good but nowhere near Walther PPQ good IMO but this is one of those are you Baptist or Catholic kinda questions as far as these two guns go.

All in all its a really great gun with lots of modularity from a respected maker. I cannot imagine you HATING it or it sucking.

One thing to keep in mind. If you buy it and get peeved because its shooting low.............its you not the gun. Pretty common complaint with folks who shot these until they figured them out. I found I needed a very light touch or I would drive rounds low.

Chris

 

[tarosean]

Mostly I just sort of felt like this was the pistol HK started cutting costs with.

I didnt feel that way. I previously had a P30L and felt it (VP9) was a much better gun.

For me it was all about the wide rounded trigger guard. When I used the VP9 in a USPSA match. I was all over the place, because I couldn't get my typically high grip with it, forcing my off hand lower than I am used too. I had never noticed it during practice/regular range time. However, I came home from the only match I shot it at, and sold it within hours.

 

[Wreck-n-Crew]

Try watching a torture test on the Military Arms Channel where there were several ftf's with water and mud test. https://www.full30.com/video/2a27ee2e8b764e790707789762f2b380

It left me unimpressed as far as durability and functional reliability under simple adverse conditions not to mention tougher treatment.

If you ask me they, meaning HK have some work to do on the VP9 before i give it a thumbs up.

If your fine with mud and water not being an issue...then arm up and enjoy.

 

[Warp]

I am looking at a purchase, interested in the VP9 from Heckler and Koch. It seems like a quality piece. I would be interested in hearing from owners, if there are any regrets and whether this would be a good first handgun for home defense and range for me as well as youth and female shooter. Is it outclassed by anything in its price range?

Get it.

Yes I own one. It shoots wonderfully.

I have had mine 6 months and have about 1,940 rounds through it. It had one failure to return to battery in the first 150 rounds but has been perfect since. Shoots soft, smooth, straight.

Try watching a torture test on the Military Arms Channel where there were several ftf's with water and mud test. https://www.full30.com/video/2a27ee2e8b764e790707789762f2b380

It left me unimpressed as far as durability and functional reliability under simple adverse conditions not to mention tougher treatment.

If you ask me they, meaning HK have some work to do on the VP9 before i give it a thumbs up.

If your fine with mud and water not being an issue...then arm up and enjoy.

Long story short...that "test" is junk.

Those were not simple adverse conditions, those conditions likely won't ever apply to any of us, and other guns put in those conditions also failed. If you really want you can search up many videos of people putting the VP9 in water and silt and running rivers without malfunctions. In one the guy puts the VP9 in a running river and covers it with silt and it works...in one a Glock fails where the VP9 does not.

Way too many people put WAY too much stock into that MAC torture video.

 

[TTv2]

Try watching a torture test on the Military Arms Channel where there were several ftf's with water and mud test. https://www.full30.com/video/2a27ee2e8b764e790707789762f2b380

It left me unimpressed as far as durability and functional reliability under simple adverse conditions not to mention tougher treatment.

If you ask me they, meaning HK have some work to do on the VP9 before i give it a thumbs up.

If your fine with mud and water not being an issue...then arm up and enjoy.

hey, he's not asking for a go to war pistol that can go a mile in the mud and come out like nothing happened. He wants to know if this is a good first handgun for home defense, range use, and female/youth shooters.

Now that I think of it, TC should look at the Springfield XDM 5.25 competition model. Springfield has good stock grips, a trigger safety, and a grip safety. 19 rd 9mm mags are standard and recoil will be light.

 

[Zaydok Allen]

Long story short...that "test" is junk.

Those were not simple adverse conditions, those conditions likely won't ever apply to any of us, and other guns put in those conditions also failed. If you really want you can search up many videos of people putting the VP9 in water and silt and running rivers without malfunctions. In one the guy puts the VP9 in a running river and covers it with silt and it works...in one a Glock fails where the VP9 does not.

Way too many people put WAY too much stock into that MAC torture video.

I agree 100%. That video was ridiculous. When you try to make a gun fail, and intentionally abuse that gun, what do people expect? His tests were akin to driving a truck into a brick wall and then being angry the bumper is trashed.

I really enjoyed the MAC prior to that video. Now I really don't even watch him. Three days after watching that video, I went and bought my VP9.

 

[71velle]

A friend has one and it shoots great. But, 3 of us got awful trigger bite from it. He shaved some off it and all it well. The PPQ is very similar with no trigger bite but the trigger might be a little light for some.

 

[Wreck-n-Crew]

Get it.

Yes I own one. It shoots wonderfully.

I have had mine 6 months and have about 1,940 rounds through it. It had one failure to return to battery in the first 150 rounds but has been perfect since. Shoots soft, smooth, straight.



Long story short...that "test" is junk.

Those were not simple adverse conditions, those conditions likely won't ever apply to any of us, and other guns put in those conditions also failed. If you really want you can search up many videos of people putting the VP9 in water and silt and running rivers without malfunctions. In one the guy puts the VP9 in a running river and covers it with silt and it works...in one a Glock fails where the VP9 does not.

Way too many people put WAY too much stock into that MAC torture video.

In what way was the test junk? Remember this is an entry foe the military contract? Should it not be to those standards? Heck that test and others where it failed are not as tough as the military tests. FWIW "junk" is a blanket and unsupported statement especially in a military or outdoors role.

Any other torture test I've seen that are there to disprove the failures are more controlled and the video cuts out. Forgive me but what someone does off camera doesn't fill me with hope. I would love to see some evidence that the tests were flawed. But heck I've seen nothing yet convincing and yet more to the contrary.

Have you seen the one where it was done in Alaskan soil? More failures......https://youtu.be/Ghidy-kCR9E


There's no doubt the gun is more adept for a clean environment but many people carry in the woods and when hunting. So the idea that a given scenario where someone may be harmed or killed is highly unlikely is not a fair assessment of its ability. That's a scenario argument.

Maybe in a perfect world or for a scenario where the environment is controlled, but if you ever have to use a firearm you don't always get to choose the scenario! And i would not arm the military with the pistol as is. We did that with the m16 in Vietnam and look where that got us!

You know there's something to be said here about this whole military contract thing too. It makes no since to not give more time to develop and test submissions and do it in stages.

Just to add there is no reason the military should fail at replacing cheap springs in the M9 either. Heck the recoil and mag springs are never a priority and cause most all problems with M9 failures.

Now what I'm getting at here is that the cheapest maintenance beyond clean and lube is spring and anyone that knows anything about semi auto pistols knows that early failure from weak recoil springs and failures to feed from weak magazine springs are just a big no no.

What this means is that being habitually ignorant to the needs of basic maintenance any new submissions or adoptions are suspect to the same lack of attention and i for one don't want to see our less than competent decision makers of military pistols to add more problems to our fighting men.

Granted pistols play little role in actual defense of our guys and gals but that's no excuse for burning up cash in a failure on their part to do their due diligence.

YMMV

Edit to add:
You know many pistols have been subject to tougher test and passed including a cheap Sar B6P and it passed with flying colors. Oh and there are more than one torture test on those.

 

[Warp]

In what way was the test junk? Remember this is an entry foe the military contract? Should it not be to those standards? Heck that test and others where it failed are not as tough as the military tests.

Please reference the test protocols you are referring to. Be specific with links/citations.

FWIW "junk" is a blanket and unsupported statement especially in a military or outdoors role.

It is supported by watching the video.

Any other torture test I've seen that are there to disprove the failures are more controlled and the video cuts out.

Have you actually looked?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJr453erCAc&index=1&list=FLE3IbuOFsaxHXvY44DYOt6w


And here we see the VP9 with superior reliability to the Glock.

I guess because of this one single video example we all need to sell our unreliable Glocks and buy VP9's?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4A_TbpHU1c

 

[cslinger]

I have seen lots of, especially striker fired, guns fail to fire a couple times after being submerged in water. I assume it has to do with water not draining out of the striker channel fast enough and water not compressing and all locks up the striker until it fully drains. I have seen that happen with numerous guns and I suspect some allow the water to drain faster then others and I also suspect some of it is luck of the draw such as how the gun was oriented (did it drain faster or slower depending on how it was removed etc. )

My take away from watching lots of "torture" tests is that in adverse conditions they all fail in some way you just need to be ready to do what is necessary to get them back into action. (Tap rack bang, push into battery past the grit etc.)

I don't think MAC set out to cause a bunch of hubbub or tried to fix results either.

As far as the VP being designed for Military contracts I did not think it ever was, but like most things I could be wrong.

They all have a weakness or issue. Just be aware of what it is and be prepared to deal with it.

My two cents.

 

[Wreck-n-Crew]

Please reference the test protocols you are referring to. Be specific with links/citations.



It is supported by watching the video.



Have you actually looked?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJr453erCAc&index=1&list=FLE3IbuOFsaxHXvY44DYOt6w


And here we see the VP9 with superior reliability to the Glock.

I guess because of this one single video example we all need to sell our unreliable Glocks and buy VP9's?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4A_TbpHU1c

Yes ive looked at both and i looked closely at what one called mud with a sand content. Big particles. They didn't get into works like small ones do. Plus he cuts the video a lot on that video.

Who said sell anything? I mean heck i get some are invested but how did anything i say suggest selling it? That's not even in context.

And specifics is what the gun was subject to as a military entry pistol. Would you send as is to our military? I hope not. Not without further scrutiny and that was my point from the get go.

It's not ready until someone can A: passs military testing and B: share those results.

Right now i see two uncut videos with two different soils and two different failures to fire. That one can dispute but someone else's opinion is not as valuable at this point to me. Because i believe half of what i see and none of what i hear.

 

[cslinger]

As to the mag paddle failure my take on this is twofold.
1- stuff breaks. Hell anvils break. He abused that gun pretty well and it probably hit just right to break the wing. That being said it still functioned.

2- paddle mag releases have been used in military use, ours and others and haven't shown to be a huge weak point at all from a durability point so again I kind of see this instance as a "sh&@ happens" kind of moment.

Remember
All GLOCKS blow up
SIG frames crack after a couple hundred NATO rounds
Berretta locking blocks fail out of the box
XD's will get you killed due to the grip safety
No 1911 is reliable
New Smith Revolver will lock themselves after every shot
Etc etc etc.

Yes hyperbole but a grain of truth to them all. You pays your monies and you takes your chances.

Chris

 

[Warp]

Remember this is an entry foe the military contract?

What is entry for what military contract?

Heck that test and others where it failed are not as tough as the military tests

What military tests are you referring to?

It's not ready until someone can A: passs military testing and B: share those results.

What military testing?

Citations/links/specifics please. As it stands there is no way to know what, if anything, you are talking about or referring to.

 

[mshootnit]

I watched the mac vid just now. I dont feel that the pistol did too bad. After picking up from mud, water, dropping etc, all he had to do was rack or bang it and he was able to get shots off. Just getting off two or three shots could be a great help in a bad situation. Given the treatment was intentionally harsh, and it still could be made to fire, I think it is GTG.

 

[Girodin]

I love mine. The only upgrade I feel like it needs is sights. It's a gun that is easy to shoot well.

 

[Zaydok Allen]

I love mine. The only upgrade I feel like it needs is sights. It's a gun that is easy to shoot well.

Just curious which sights you have on your gun.

 

[Manny]

I have the LE edition like 460Kodiak and it's my "pick of the litter" of currently available 9mm's. I'm just an average joe shooter so my opinion might not carry much weight, but Larry Vickers has some serious cred and he he likes VP's quite a bit. He called it "the SIG 210 of striker fired pistols" when commenting on one he had worked on a bit by HK wizard Rick Wolf. If you know of the fine quality of SIG 210's you'll realize what a compliment that is.

 

[M-Cameron]

Try watching a torture test on the Military Arms Channel where there were several ftf's with water and mud test. https://www.full30.com/video/2a27ee2e8b764e790707789762f2b380

It left me unimpressed as far as durability and functional reliability under simple adverse conditions not to mention tougher treatment.

If you ask me they, meaning HK have some work to do on the VP9 before i give it a thumbs up.

If your fine with mud and water not being an issue...then arm up and enjoy.

honestly, when was the last time you were wallowing around in mud, and needed to use your sidearm?

dont whip your pistol at steel plates like a moron and you should be all set.

MAC lost all credibility with me after that "test"....

 

[Warp]

Edit: To get to the bottom line, the MAC torture video was not a "military test", did not emulate a "military test", is not/should not be a requirement for your defensive pistol, and was failed by other guns...meanwhile it's easy to find tests where other guns (with longer standing reliability reputations) failed and the VP9 did not. Don't pay mind to a single video abusing a single firearm and making it malfunction