[Jimmo952]

Walther (Ulm) tends to cater to the police and military market. Civilian sales always seemed to be an afterthought with the products that were coming out of the Ulm plant.

How many police and military agencies are switching to hammer fired pistols lately? Compare that number to the number of agencies switching to striker fired pistols.

I can't say I blame them. It is the market that they cater to, and until demand for hammer fired pistols rises in that market, I wouldn't expect anything hammer fired from the Ulm plant.

Balance is spot on.

Even Walther's recent push into the civilian competitive pistol leverages striker fired technology. Walther's direction seems to be to continue to refine their striker fired mechanism.

If reports on their new Expert trigger are accurate, they are now able to produce striker fired trigger pulls with the quality of high end hammer fired guns.

Of course DUA would say (correctly) HK crossed that bridge years ago with the P7.

 

[Jimmo952]

I think balance pretty much covered it.

These days most military and law enforcement agencies are buying striker fired pistols. If your main business (Walther) is building guns for these agencies you might take that in consideration when designing and building service pistols.

There is a little bit of fashion in firearms. Trends come and go. Right now the popular thing for institutional use is a striker fired consistent pull handgun. They are simple and cheap to build and service. Easy to shoot well enough.

If that were to change I'd expect Walther to adapt. Until then, probably not.

No one is saying hammered fired guns are obsolete. They still work just fine as do DA revolvers. They are no longer the "in thing" for purchases by most militaries and police forces.

I expect companies still making them will continue to for as long as it is profitable for them to do so.

The Springfield XDE is an interesting attempt to reach a certain part of the civilian CC market that I think you are speaking for.

I have no idea how its selling or if its catching on. What do you think?

 

[Jimmo952]

It is true hammer fired guns, at their best have better triggers. The gap had narrowed though.

The current generation of striker guns have pretty darn good triggers. Walther deserves a lot of credit for setting the pace with that.

Walther is again pushing the envelope with their Expert comp trigger. They are not the only ones.

It's also not a given that hammered fired guns have better trigger pulls. I have an HK45 and an HK P30sk. I have absolute faith they will go "boom" when asked. Build quality and accuracy are top notch. But the triggers??? Meh...not very good to be honest.

At the end of the day, the simplicity and cost effectivenes of striker fired guns will rule the day. They are easy to build, operate and maintain.

It's easy to predict striker triggers will continue to improve. Perhaps soon, the norm will be a pistol with a clean, 3lb striker trigger and a manual safety of some sort. Homage to the 1911.

 

[Jimmo952]

Actually, striker guns are more effectively fired like a double action revolver, with the same roll-thru', of a much shorter stroke.
Changing back and forth between the two types is a PITA.
Moon

I agree with this. The technique to fire the a striker gun, at least the service grade variety, is similar to the technique used with a good DA revolver. Both have a lot to offer in a defensive pistol.



Now, as striker triggers get shorted, lighter and crisper that changes I think and become more similar to shooting a traditional hammer fired SA gun.