Unusual for me, I won a rifle in an auction recently. Unfortunately it was nothing I was really interested in but I opted for a gift card for the value of the rifle. There were a couple of pistols at the Bass Pro that I was interested in, an H&K VP9 and a SIG P320 X-Carry, and the gift card would have paid roughly half of the price of either pistol. Added promotions made it even more worthwhile to choose either one or both of these pistols so I had a decision to make.

I have never owned an H&K pistol, much less shot one. I have several SIGs, including a full size P320 RX, an X5 and an X V-TAC, and have owned a compact, so choosing the X-Carry would have rounded out my ‘collection’ of P320 ‘X’ pistols. Although I really like the SIG pistols and shoot them pretty well, at times I get trigger sting from shooting them. Still, while checking out the X-Carry for the umteenth time I was struck with how great it felt in my hand, and the commonality of mags would be beneficial. I had a decision to make....which to choose.

I went home with the H&K. It seemed to fit like a glove, I really liked the interchangeable back straps and grip panels, it looked great and the price of the pistol with the LE package with the extra mag, mag loader and night sights represented a pretty good value. I took it home, cleaned and lubed it and waited for a chance to take it to the range.

After several days I couldn’t get the SIG out of my mind though. With the promotion Bass Pro was running added to the $50 credit at the SIG store for buying a P320 I would see an added value of an additional $125. Seemed too good to pass up on a pistol I really wanted, and that I have shot pretty well in the past, so I made the trip back to Bass Pro several days later and bought it. Unfortunately all that was in stock was the display model, but it was in great shape so I decided to take it.

The day after I finally made it to the range and I wasn’t disappointed. Both shot great, ran 100% and were very accurate. I installed the large side panel on the right side of the H&K and for the first time that I can recall I didn’t experience the ‘pushing the shots to the left’ phenomenon with a new pistol. It shot very flat and the trigger was very nice. While shooting the SIG I was very happy to discover that I experienced no trigger sting. It too shot very flat and accurate. If I did my part I had very little trouble keeping my shots in the head of a ‘bad guy’ target at 14 yards, pretty good for me considering I haven’t shot much the past several months and have been a DA/SA all metal pistol shooter until lately. I even shot my V-TAC pretty well, not the normal as I find the sights, although great in concept, not as easy to use effectively as I would like. Normally I really have to concentrate on aligning the sights to keep from shooting low with this pistol.

I love HKs but kind of lost interest with some of their post-USP models. The VP changed all that and turned me back into an HK fan boy. Love the trigger. Probably will end up with another one real soon.

quote:

Originally posted by PD:
I love HKs but kind of lost interest with some of their post-USP models. The VP changed all that and turned me back into an HK fan boy. Love the trigger. Probably will end up with another one real soon.

As I recall H&K pistols were always very expensive in the past. The VP9 seems to be a very good value and packs a lot of great features into an effective and easy to shoot package at an attractive price point.

When leaving the range I checked out a P30. Seems to be a great pistol at a good price point as well, made even nicer since it shares mags with the VP9. Unfortunately the DA trigger breaks very close to the frame which often presents a problem for my beat up hands. Maybe I will still try one out in the future at some point. Either that or the new X-Compact......

I love H&K and have a few of them. They are well built and accurate pistols. I really like the way the H&K VP9 trigger breaks quickly and you don’t have that long pull all the way to the frame that is so common among many autos and especially H&K.

One of the reasons I like the P320 so much is the way the trigger breaks quickly. I admit I like the P320 more than the VP9. Even with the grip panels, the VP9 doesn’t feel the same to me as my P30. I find myself gravitating toward the P320. Plus, I’m more accurate with the P320 platform than I expected I would be even more than the H&K.

Definitely coming back to Sigs in a big way.

I picked up the VP 9 when it came out , I like the large grip right side panel also and med on the left . It shot good but I never used it much .

So don't keep me in suspense...I've shot the Veep, which did you like better?

quote:

Originally posted by Blackwater:
So don't keep me in suspense...I've shot the Veep, which did you like better?

Although both shot really well I have to give the edge to the H&K. I liked the trigger a bit better as it was a bit lighter, and the customizable grips are a huge plus.