[Gato]

2100 rounds. Fed, Win, CCI, Fiocchi. No cleaning, no oiling, no problems. Will advise when 5000 falls or sooner if it quits/breaks.

 

[gunmanguns]

So,your shooting it untill it gives up huh,thats swell of ya.
Who bought the gun?

 

[gmchenry]

21,000 miles on my new truck. Texaco, Shell, Conoco, Sinclair. No air cleaner, no oil changes, no problems. Will advise when 50,000 falls or sooner if it quits/breaks.

 

[Gato]

I bought it. I've put as many as 14k through a pistol to see if it would quit, just for curiosity. Now, any new gun I get rcvs 3k-5k through it before I feel comfortable carrying it. Just like to learn the gun and it's idiosyncrasies (sp?). High Thumbs good or bad? How does it recoil? Does the grip slide around in my hand? I'm not some spec ops guy, or a mall ninja, just a double income, no kids, work at a range, own a dillon press, kind of guy. Started shooting 8 years ago, got hooked, never looked back. Own 13 Hks (P7x3 USP'sx10) and this is my first Walther. Growing to love some of its characteristics and learning overcome the ones I don't like. I think it is a well thought out firearm, of which I was not familiar with. I point up with glocks, just never got into sigs, used a beretta for years and developed no love for it. So this is something of a new toy.

 

[Ersin]

No cleaning? No oiling? Good God man, do something about that! Give that weapon and good clean and light oil before you put another round through it. I piece of hardware of this caliber deserves premium treatment. Don't you agree?

 

[Gato]

Absolutely.....but not until it lives up to the reputation. I figured with this many enthusiasts on this board there would be at least one person curious to see how far you can push the weapon. We all have heard about Glock and HK tortue tests till we are blue in the face, but I haven't seen or been able to find one on the P99. So I'll be the sacrificial lamb if you will and see just what this Walther will do.

 

[gmchenry]

If you think you'll need to be in a situation where you'll be forced to go for 5000 rounds without cleaning or oiling, knock yourself out.  Otherwise, you're just prematurely wearing out a pistol capable of firing tens of thousands of rounds to see if you can get your first 5K out of it.  I doubt such a pistol will have nearly the lifespan of one cared for properly. The recoil spring isn't even designed for a 5K duty cycle.

How confident can you be in the weapon's reliability when it's going to fail sooner rather than later?

 

[Gato]

Should have mentioned I'll be changing the recoil spring at 3000. Oops.

I understand I will never be in a situation that requires sustained fire of 5000 rounds (and if I am, I do not want a hand gun, I want air support, and now!). I do not carry a dirty weapon.

Speaking of prematurely wearing this thing out, what is the expected, if any body has heard of one, service life with NORMAL care? I would assume it would be on the order of 50k to 70k with spring replacement at 3k intervals.

I have not, nor do I intend to ever fire +p or +p+ ammunition in this gun. Has anybody here done so though? Did you put in a heavier Wolff spring, different guide rod, etc? Impressions?

Gun shows remarkably little fouling with the exception of the inboard side of the transfer bar. Breech, rails, locking block, mag well, and fire control assembly are no dirtier than a normal 200-250 round shoot with moderately clean ammo.

Very, very light finish wear on bbl, bbl hood. No wear or finish removal from slide rail grooves.

Trigger has smoothed up considerably.

2.9k as of this morning.

I've heard, rumor mill only here, that the SW99's were having reliability problems. Any truth to that?

 

[gmchenry]

No truth to the SW99 rumor.

 

[Gato]

I see Smith has a smaller version of the SW99, any chance there will be a Walther variant?

 

[Melvin]

OH MY GOD!!!! THE END IS NEAR!!DOOMSDAY ON THE HORIZON!!!! I think it's great what you're doing! We all talk some serious smack about how this or that weapon is the best or my faves-"The best fighting handgun ever" and "The only gun I'd carry into battle." PLEASE!! If Walthers are a great handgun I think you'll prove it. Or at least you will know what type of preventative maint. that will be required. Oh yeah almost forgot, here's a link with info on the walther compact, P99 Compact

 

[Gato]

3.4K---Trigger is just getting better and better.

 

[NM_P99]

I have over 25k rounds thru mine. Most shots fired between cleanings was 1500 or so. Side lock spring crapped at 10k, but the new spring looks like a better design. Recoil springs last me about 4-5k rounds on average. I change them out when the brass starts getting tossed out to 10' or so. So far zero malfunctions, even with the broken slide stop spring it continued to cycle perfectly.

 

[Catbird]

Gato -

I don't think you stated... is this a 9mm or .40 that you're testing?

 

[Gato]

My bad. It is a 9mm. Sorry about that.

 

[FastSS]

keep up the good work, I'd love to see a p99 torture test

 

[Gato]

3850 and ticking right along. Sorry to have been so distant but I got a new toy (Five-seveN) and the amount of tinkering I've been doing is unreal.

 

[bybon]

Like you stated Gato, I would like to hear just how tough this pistol can be. While I would not do that to mine, I appreciate you giving it a go.

 

[Hermo Gut]

I appreciate what you're doing right now. Testing /torturing a firearm for the purpose of knowing its weaknesses,characteristics (at a certain point) and functions limitation would definitely give us ,Walther P99 users, better insights and understanding of this wonderful pistol.You , having the resources to fulfill this task would definitely help in resolving some quality and reliability issues pertaining to this gun.
I'll wait for the final outcome of your torture test. However , please do describe for us in details what happened on the internal/external parts (barrel ,trigger assembly, striker , springs ,etc.) when the time comes so that first hand evaluation could be made available for us (the main point of this testing ,I guess). Opinions vary but actual experience sums it all ( at least on your P99).
Good luck ! Enjoy your test.

 

[hk-sigman]

Gato, any update?