08/13/2017
First outing - Had the first outing with the pair of HK pistols, VP9 and VP9SK, yesterday. This wasn’t a serious training session of any kind, went out with my son and my dad to get a short morning in shooting all kinds of stuff, mostly to get my son to the range prior to school starting again.
Trigger Weight - Before doing any shooting, did a trigger pull test with the two guns and the Lyman gauge. What you have is 5 lbs 8 oz on the VP9 and 5 lbs 14 oz on the compact. You could tell a difference before putting them on the gauge, the SK feels a little bit more stiff and maybe more crisp. While I don’t notice it when shooting, there is a little creep in the trigger of the VP9 when pulling real slowly on the gauge. I mostly wanted to get these measurements to see if the guns break in over time. I didn’t clean the guns prior to shooting the first time, only added some l**e to both, when I broke them down to change the sights. The triggers are as good as any Apex Duty/Carry trigger on an M&P.
VP9 First Impression - The VP9’s first drills were run with 68 rounds of Federal 124gr HST +P without any issues at all in function. Recoil is what you would expect from a +P load, no surprises. I did have one failure to lock the slide back and that was clearly me riding the slide release because I grip super high on the gun. After the defensive loads, I switched to my reloads consisting of 125gr Precision Bullets and 4.3gr HP38 running an average velocity of 1080 fps from my prior 5” M&P9L making 134 PF. These loads will likely be slower with the shorter barrel of the VP9. For a comparison the Federal 124gr HST +P in that same M&P9L made 1260 fps for 156 PF. These reloads are my normal match and training rounds. These rounds shot somewhat softer in the VP9 than in the M&P9L that I had prior. Accuracy was good throughout all of the shooting of both ammo. All drills were run on steel plates at 40 feet as well as some smaller knock down steel at 50 feet. No complaints with accuracy issues, the trigger was easy to get used to without it being any kind of a barrier to shooting accurately.
VP9SK First Impression - The VP9SK’s first drills were run with 40 rounds of Federal 124gr HST +P as well and also without any issues and no issues with me riding the slide release. Most interesting was the lack of recoil for a small gun. I didn’t have any issues with the two finger grip and even with the +P it wasn’t bad. Overall I was very impressed with the SK and I adapted to the mag release easier on the SK than on the VP9. When shooting the reloads I was again impressed with the recoil of the gun, finding it very pleasing to shoot mag after mag. Impressive little pistol. I have run full day tactical pistol courses shooting my M&P9 Shield, which is clearly smaller then the SK and been okay, but had sore hands the next day from the recoil of the little gun. I expect the SK would be an all day shooter without any issues or related soreness.
Trijicon HD XR Sights - As seen in the prior video, I’ve swapped the sights on both these guns to the Trijicon HD XR sights, as I’ve become very particular to what I’m looking for in a set of sights over the years. What I want is a front sight that jumps out at me. You can use a fiber optic sight for this, but Trijicon has introduced a set of night sights that have a super bright orange dot (also available in yellow) on the front that I chose to use. The regular HD version as a standard width front sight and the HD XR has a narrow front sight, which is the other thing I’ve adapted to over the years. Having a thinner front sight, especially on a shorter slide gun, allows me to confirm sight alignment faster than a thicker sight were you might loose one edge of the front sight into the side of the rear sight easier, which generally causes me to pause my trigger press and correct the sight picture. I don’t have this happen with the thiner front sights and I find that generally I can acquire the sight picture and make a more accurate shot quicker. My other requirements are that the rear sight have a shelf that you can manipulate the slide with one handed against your belt or boot as needed and that the rear sight needs to not have big obvious dots on the rear which do nothing but distract me. This rear sight as the features I’m looking for. These sights are amazingly bright for night sights in the dark to dusk situation and the orange front dot is very easy and quick to pick up on the draw. Highly recommend these at this point.
https://www.trijicon.com/na_en/products/product3.php?pid=HK610-C-600896
Paddle Mag Release - While I’m not against learning new things like this, it was a little slower than I hoped on the range. Seemed pretty simple at the house and worked well with the thumb, but in actually shooting the gun I had issues with the VP9 activating the release each time. I’m using the thinest and smallest grip panels and still have trouble reaching the release with my thumb. I know many people use their index finger, but the thumb is an automatic thing for me so I’m going to keep working on that and see if I can get it down as well as the regular release. Interesting to note, I didn’t have as much of an issue with the SK for some reason. If you’re thinking about getting a gun with a paddle release and hate learning new things like this, I would consider using a friend’s gun on the range some first.
Magazines - The magazines are way expensive compared to an American made gun. You’re looking at $40 per mag vs $20-25 a mag for American made guns. The mags are clearly well made and German made at that, BUT there is a horrifically sharp point on them on the lips that will tear up your thumb when loading rounds. As a result I refused to load mags by hand and only used my UpLULA loader which resolves that issue. Thankfully HK is doing the four free mags for the Summer with any FULL SIZE pistol.
Loaded Chamber Indicator - I have a habit of chamber checking my guns before holstering. When slipping the slide back a little with a loaded round the VP9 can be a little stiff, but in this process I happen to notice the little red line on the extractor that was showing, indicating a loaded chamber. This was very low key but nice to see. Unlike how R***r does it with a big stupid indicator sicking out of the top of the chamber. Nice addition to the VP9 and it seems to also be a little tactile for low light use.
Overall Impression - For the $500 I paid for each gun they are a bargain. The Trijicon sights were the most expensive sights I’ve ever put on a pistol at $147. The mags are expensive at $40 each but the rebate helps those of us buying now. In the end I have about $750 into the VP9 SK with the gun, transfer fee, sights and two extra mags I paid for myself. I’ll get four more mags in the next few weeks on the rebate for a total of eight mags. Two are always set aside after testing for defensive use only. I would consider the gun done at this point without any need for further modification. I would consider it a good buy for a new shooter as well as someone looking for something different. I’ll keep checking the trigger pull here and there and post any updates to changes as the gun breaks in. I have several more holsters on order, all of which arrive this coming week, so I’ll be posting on those as well as how things go as I increase training with these two guns and shoot some matches over the winter.
Thanks for checking in…
