Thanks guys, GunBroker.com has some interesting opportunities at $370-380 shipped to my FFL holder. I need to research the pistols made in Germany -vs- assembled in the US though, any input on that? Worn down nite sights might be a concern if they hamper daytime use, any input on that? Thanks FB and DS for your opinions. And FB I kinda like the older models as opposed to copies so I like your thinking. DP the Canik TP9 might be an option but it's not easy to find it, most are the DA only option it seems. Maybe I'm searching wrong.
The licensed versions of the 99 series produced by S&W were assembled from German frames and all the parts shipped from Walther, with the exception of the stripped slides and barrels which S&W forged, machined and produced.
S&W engineers requested a number of revisions for the frames used in their licensed models, some of which eventually found their way into the Walther models.
S&W made some ongoing revisions and refinements to the barrels they produced, too. I saw changes to the muzzle crowns, feed ramps, beveled front edges of the barrel hood, tighter chamber mouths, etc. The later production barrels made by S&W also incorporated at least a couple differently sized relief cuts on the bottom, where the rear of the recoil spring assembly could rub up underneath the lower part of the barrel. This contact is why another make of plastic pistol can sometimes produce a "scrunchy" noise when slowly hand "cycling" the pistol, as the outside edges of the recoil spring rubs against the bottom of the barrel (and a good reason to put a small drop of lube in that spot).
S&W also requested a stronger slide stop lever spring at one point (long "open end" wire, versus the shorter closed end "looped" wire used by Walther). However, they eventually started sending out the Walther short/closed loop wire as a repair replacement wire to at least one agency when the issued users continued to snag the exposed end of the standard wire spring during cleaning, and ended up bending the wire and damaging it. Moral,of the story? Don't try to pull a shop rag up through the mag well while "cleaning" the pistol, or just vigorously jamming some brush up & down inside it, and you can avoid damaging the wire that slightly protrudes from the inside of the slide stop lever body.
This pic shows the standard heavier slide stop lever spring that S&W requested for their guns, and you can see how the rear of the spring is hooked and sticks out over the inside of the lever body (on top of the lever, above the inner tab that engages the follower). I don't have a pic of the Walther wire, because I've never needed to have any as spares. I've had to replace a couple wire springs someone has ham-handedly bent while being inattentive during cleaning, or mangling when trying to "detail strip" the gun as if it were a Glock, but they've always worked just fine if left along and not subject to owner/users trying to fiddle with them or snagged and yanked on with rough "cleaning methods".
Walther also made some ongoing revisions to the frames being used, but they aren't apparent to the naked eye unless you're removing the sear housing block for some detailed armorer inspection or service. There are a couple of styles of sear housing blocks used for different production S&W guns, since the inside dimensions changed, and I learned SHB's "tube" pin has to be changed when replacing an older SBH with a newer one in the SW99's, as you can from the difference in length of the exposed tube pin in the newer SHB's on the middle & right of the pic. The first time I tried to insert a newer SHB into an older frame it was too wide and wouldn't seat, and I figured out the frames had been revised at some point, and a tech at S&W confirmed the frame dimension change at the SHB location, at that a replacement of the tube pin was required when using newer SHB's in older guns.
The factory (Trijicon) night sight capsules can be replaced by Trijicon, and you can call or get details on their website. This is presuming the SW99 has the "factory" Trijicon night sights, and not some other brand. Removing the rear sight is easy enough if done to the
left (or you trap the rear sight base plunger underneath the sight base if you move it to the right, and then have to remove the windage adjustment screw to free the sight), but the front night sight post requires a tool that can remove the nut. I think Trijicon mentions on their website that you can simply send them the slide, too.
My original SW99 Trijicon night sights (bought from S&W) have become so dim they're almost out. Not surprising, considering I installed them in 2000, I think it was? Maybe someday I'll get around to having them "re-lamped" by Trijicon.
Personally, while I own SW99's in both 9 & .40, I tend to prefer the 9mm models.
Also, while Walther pretty much led the way in the industry when they introduced their replaceable backstrap inserts, the SML/MED/LGE insert profiles they created for the full-size guns (2 sizes for the compact, at least back then) weren't quite as nicely ergonomic as later efforts by gun makers.
I've seen a lot of rounds put downrange in SW99's (having put some thousands of them downrange myself), and I've examined SW99's that have seen upwards of more than 70K rounds fired through them.
Good design. Robust, durable and reliable. Not as simple, from an armorer perspective, as the Glock, though. Not something with which the kitchen table hobbyist, budding amateur "gunsmith" ought to tinker.
If you decide to buy a .40, I'd make sure the mags have the impressed notch and revised followers developed to prevent premature slide lock-back with rounds remaining in the magazine. That issue affected early .40's in both Walther P99 .40's and SW9940's, and revised magazines and followers were crated to resolve it.
Not the best pic showing the change to the left side of the mag body, but the only one I have at hand at the moment. See the added indented "flat" at the slide stop lever window cut on the mag on the right?? That helped keep the .40 rounds from being displaced to the left during recoil, and the noses bumping the slide stop lever tab upward, as the mag stack rose upward. I was told that S&W engineers discovered this using high-speed imaging, and passed the info along to Walther, who gave it to Mec-Gar, and new mag bodies and followers were created.
