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Old 06-05-2018, 03:55 PM
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Fastbolt Fastbolt is offline
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Well, now that Walther is offering their own 99 model in .45 ACP, in PPQ format, you might compare the price.

Also, consider that S&W is no longer really supporting the SW99/990L guns, while Walther now offers a limited lifetime warranty on the PPQ (and other lines, finally, versus their previous 1 year warranty). When I was previously ordering some extra parts, I was told that when S&W closed down their Walther America business, they pretty much shipped their parts inventory for the 99's to the new Walther company that was opened.

That said, I've liked the SW99's since their introduction. I went through the SW99/P99 armorer class for S&W 3 times. I carried an issued SW9940 (standard size, Anti-Stress configuration), and I own a couple of my own. I've seen a fair amount of rounds fired downrange through a fair number of them (more than 50 units), and I know some guys who have put many tens of thousands of rounds through them. I've fired several thousand rounds through each of mine, as well as a number of the previous issued models. Nice guns. A few parts required replacement in a few of the guns. Not unusual.

I tend to favor the 99 series chambered in 9mm, and don't mind the .40 models.

I had the opportunity to do some T&E for a couple months with a NIB SW9945 (Anti-Stress model). We didn't try the 990L model, which was basically the S&W version of the Walther Quick-Action/QA model, but without a field-stripping/decocking button in the slide.

The grip was surprisingly tall and thick (compared to some other .45's), although not too dissimilar from the bulky G21 series.

No problems were noted when the T&E gun was tried by a bunch of line staff folks interested in participating in the T&E selection process, nor when the instructors were shooting it. Ammo was a mix of training/qual loads used at the time, including JHP's.

Personally, as much as I liked the regular 99 series in 9/.40, I found the .45 to be a bit tall and thick in the grip frame for .45 that only held 10rds. Reasonably accurate and reliable with the loads I tried, but the cycling was a bit slower and "sproingy" (technical term ) when shooting it. Controllable and nice for recoil management, but just somehow a bit slow and sproingy.

While I could've ordered one for an armorer discount somewhere in the $400 or less range (if I recall right), I just didn't like it enough to order one. (I like my early production '08 M&P 45 much, much better, FWIW.) I decided to keep my SW99's chambered in 9/.40.

Bottom line? You might be able to find a NIB Walther PPQ M2 for the same money, or maybe even less, if you look around. While it won't be in the Anti-Stress config of the older SW9945, or the Quick-Action of the SW990L45 (sans field-stripping button), it'll come with a new warranty and is supported by Walther.

Just my thoughts.
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Last edited by Fastbolt; 06-07-2018 at 03:47 PM.
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