I’m a contrarian by nature, and I don’t like it, which seems to be the way a contrarian would think. Internally, it’s tough for me to admit that guns like the various Glock models are fantastic. I like things that are different, and that’s why I love the Walther P99.
The Walther P99 is an oft-forgotten Walther pistol. It had a lot of firsts. It was Walther’s first polymer frame handgun and first striker-fired handgun. To put it simply, it was Walther’s take on a Glock.
The Walther P99: Not A Glock Rip-Off
Unlike a lot of companies, Walther didn’t just copy the partially cocked Glock striker-fired design. The gun was designed in 1994, and at that time period, the polymer frame striker-fired guns were growing in popularity. However, DA/SA guns were also still super popular. Walther attempted to give shooters a mix of the two.
The P99 was a striker-fired gun, but it integrated a DA/SA action. It’s one of the only DA/SA striker-fired guns I’m aware of, but I’m happy to be wrong. This means the initial trigger pull is a longer, heavier double-action design, but subsequent shots are a much lighter single-action design.
P99s also featured the anti-stress trigger design. Basically, after you rack a round, the striker is cocked. Still, the trigger has the same distance to travel as the double-action design. The AS trigger is a two-stage trigger; the first is uber-light, and the second is just the P99’s single-action trigger.
The idea was to interject a second trigger stage to prevent police from accidentally shooting under stress. Additionally, the gun had a decocker to revert the gun to double action.
At a glance, it’s easy to tell what mode the gun is in by looking at the striker. A protruding striker means the gun is in a single action, while a lack of a visible striker means it’s a double action.
Sadly, the P99’s attempt to capture both markets didn’t generate a lot of American sales. The gun saw some success overseas. Police and military forces in Finland, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, the U.K., and Ukraine adopted the gun.
It also holds the title of Bond’s final modern Walther.
James Bond’s Last Modern Walther
James Bond famously carries a Walther, typically a PPK. However, as Walther’s guns evolved, he carried the P5, and when Pierce Brosnan took over the role, he picked up a P99. At the end of Tomorrow Never Dies, he gets a P99, and it becomes the Brosnan Walther throughout The World Is Not Enough and Die Another Day.
When Daniel Craig took the mantle for Casino Royale, he also carried a Walther P99, but only in Casino Royale. He ditched it for a classic PPK in Quantum of Solace. Since then, Bond has stuck to the PPK series.
Cloning the P99
While the Walther P99 didn’t see much success in the United States, that doesn’t mean the gun’s design wasn’t a winner. The Turkish company Canik cloned the P99 for its initial run of Canik pistols. It had the DA/SA design and decocker, but that’s been changed to a single-action only design in the last few years.
Walther has officially licensed and partnered with American companies. They partnered with S&W, who, for the longest time, worked with Walther for import purposes. The SW99, or Smith and Walther, was a joint project between the two companies, with Walther producing the frame and Smith and Wesson producing the slide.
Walther later teamed up with Magnum Research to release the MR9. The MR9 features a Walther frame with a Magnum Research slide. The main differences are grip texture, a true Picatinny rail, and a sweet stainless slide.
I’m not ashamed to admit I own both a SW99C and an MR9.
Handling a P99
I own a P99 and two quasi-clones, so you can guess I’m a fan. I love the novel design of mixing striker-fired guns with a DA/SA trigger system. That tickles my fancy, and the P99 is just a nice gun.
The P99 features an amazing trigger. Both the double-action and single-action triggers are excellent, and this gun sets the standard for Walther triggers moving forward. Walther’s ergonomics are also spot on, and the P99 feels fantastic in the hand.
It does have some odd ergonomics that some folks won’t care for. The magazine release is a lever on the trigger guard instead of a button, and the decocker sits on top of the slide, so it’s not as easy to reach as a P226 or similar gun.
The decocker also prevents these guns from mounting optics. It might be able to mount the Leupold Micro DPP if Leupold made one to fit the P99 sight base, but sadly, that won’t happen.
Like any quasi-full-sized 9mm handgun, the P99 is a smooth shooter. Recoil is mild, and the gun’s plenty controllable. With the short single-action design, you can really light some rounds off quickly. These guns are quite accurate and very capable pistols.
I’d carry it daily if I could convince Safariland to make a Schema for my SW99C!
The End of An Era
Walther has discontinued the P99 series. They went out with a bang and a Final Edition gun. The Final Edition guns are Gen 2 Walthers with a sweet green frame, a fantastic Walther-branded box, and a challenge coin.
The P99 might have never reached a high popularity in the United States, but it was successful worldwide. It’s one of my all-time favorites, and as a DA/SA fan, the gun tickles my fancy in more ways than one. If you can’t find a Final Edition, the SW99s and MR9s are a cheap option that gives you the P99 experience.
