There was a time, not all that long ago, when the metal-frame service pistol was lying on a slab, having last rites read over its plummeting sales numbers.
The law enforcement/military market tends to be even more price-sensitive in many ways than the commercial one, since even a $5 or $10 difference in price adds up fast when you’re buying pistols by the container load. When Gaston Glock crashed the party in the 1980s with a polymer-frame, striker-fired pistol, there was just no way for traditional manufacturers to compete on price, and the next 20-odd years of the duty-pistol market turned into a demonstration of the old maxim that states “If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.”
In the late 1990s, even respected, old-school names like Walther were putting out striker-fired pistols with injection-molded frames like the P99. By the time we got to the early Twenty-Teens, pretty much every major pistol manufacturer had jumped into the game of Follow the (Austrian) Leader.
Sometime around the late 2010s, manufacturers began to realize that they could make versions of their long-slide polymer gamer guns with heavier, metal frames. The heavier weight would make the pistols more suited for competitive shooting, and if they were regular catalog items, they could be used in divisions reserved for production guns.
Pistols like Smith & Wesson’s M&P M2.0 Pro and SIG Sauer’s P320 AXG competition guns have been joined by pistols like our test item here, the Walther PDP Compact Steel Frame.
The adjustable-rear and fixed-front sights feature the popular three-dot pattern and quickly draw the eye• In addition to its traditional iron sights, the PDP can also be outfitted with an MRDS, though a separate adaptor plate is required • Sold with three 15-round magazines, the PDP puts more than 40 rounds at your fingertips • Within the hooked trigger guard, the familiar bladed-safety trigger offered a good pull for a striker-fired, defensive pistol • An integral accessory rail makes it easy to incorporate a laser or weaponlight.
This is a pistol that’s slap in the utility wheelhouse of the classic Glock G19: A 4-inch barrel combined with a sizable grip and a magazine that holds 15 rounds of 9 mm. The entire idea of a pistol in this size range is that it’s large enough to shoot like a duty gun, but small enough to conceal like a smaller blaster; this is no gamer gun.
Of course, this is a Wather PDP steel frame. Heaviness is the whole point. Further, when I put it on the scale, I was reminded how years of carrying polymer-frame pistols has skewed my frame of reference. At 38.9 ounces unloaded, the PDP Compact steel frame is almost exactly the same weight as the full-size 1911-pattern pistols I carried inside the waistband for something like a decade.
Taking the pistol from the top, there’s a flat sighting plane between the front and rear iron sights—except they aren’t iron. The three-dot sights feature a fixed front and windage-adjustable rear, and they’re made of plastic, like on a Glock. In fact, they’re so like a Glock that you can use your favorite Glock G17/G19 sights on the PDP. This is “The Way,” as far as I’m concerned. Legacy pistols can have legacy sights, but any all-new pistol should use either Glock or SIG sights to exploit that massive aftermarket. Just forward of the rear sight is a removable cover for the MRDS mounting cutout. Mounting a sight requires a separate adaptor plate, available from Walther.
The PDP Compact features three pairs of aggressive, grasping grooves fore and aft that wrap up onto the upper surfaces of the slide. Loaded status can be checked via a cutout in the rear of the barrel hood.
Down on the frame, things are familiar to anyone who’s spent time behind a regular Walther PDP. There’s the reversible magazine release and ambidextrous slide releases. The dustcover sports an accessory rail like the 4.5-inch full-size gun, but while an X300-size light will fit and function, it protrudes a bit much; a compact Streamlight TLR-7-size light is a better fit on this 4-inch pistol.
The curved trigger features a tabbed drop safety, and the one on our test pistol had a light takeup. The frontstrap has machine-cut checkering. The biggest difference on the frame is the one-piece wraparound grip panel, attached with grip screws.
At the range is where the difference afforded by the steel frame really shows up. I’ve joked that an all-steel 1911 in 9 mm is shooting on “Easy Mode,” and it turns out that a striker-fired pistol with a good trigger and 2.5 pounds of recoil-absorbing mass is similar. If your recoil-control mechanics are decent, these heavyweight nines will make you feel like a rock star with their lack of movement.
The PDP 4-inch steel frame had no malfunctions over the course of 550 rounds of assorted ammo, and it was quite accurate. The downsides?
Well, obviously you’re going to spend more to get the machined-steel frame. Manufacturing advances or no, there’s a noticeable price increase over the polymer frame. The other is that weight is weight. There was a time when I didn’t mind spending all day with 2 or more pounds of steel strapped to my right hip; these days that’s an invitation to getting sidelined with sciatica once or twice a year.
If absolute shooting performance is your goal and you’re pretty sure your lower back is up to the load, this is the heavyweight champion of CCW-oriented Walthers—pun intended.
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