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Originally Posted by TonyF

I'll have to take a look at yours but it still troubles me because it violates Rule #3. So does field stripping a glock but at least with glocks you're pressing the trigger on a cleared weapon.

I understand what you're saying, but dry fire practice violates rule #1 on a technical standpoint. The 4 rules are layered, meaning they all have to be broken conceptually for any damage to occur. I understand that your position on that is going to be a lot more strict due to your status as a firearms instructor and you have to look at the lowest denominator, but there are a number of things that according to many instructors are not safe and that opinion is based on the idiots and not the norm.

I hear a lot of instructors advising against exceptionally light Single Action triggers for carry, yet if one follows the 4 rules, it's not an issue that an extra pound or two in the trigger can or really needs to solve. There are and have been many that advise against carrying a Glock or any gun without a manual safety. Some seem to cling to the idea that a DAO is the best way to go and all else is only for professionals (and even then sometimes not).

Regardless, again, one doesn't need to pre-set the P99 trigger, most don't, they simply leave it alone or decock it.

I'm trying to conceptualize. One can reach the decocking button with the support side thumb w/o breaking their firing grip?

That depends on how anal one is about what constitutes actually breaking the firing grip and also the hand size or thumb length of the user. Again though, it's not an operation that someone would need to do in real life without breaking the firing grip, it's an academic question, not one with any true significance in the firearm's use. The only practical reason to decock on going to low ready is to follow range rules during training or competition; places where safety standards must be anal due to insurance and accountability standards. In using the gun for real, I know of no reason why one would automatically decock the handgun on going to low ready, at least none that would require that the complete firing grip be maintained.

This was five or six years ago and I really can't recall the particulars. If I had to guess I'd say the only thing we asked him to do was decock on going to Low Ready after a drill as one would with a conventional DA/SA pistol.

Which was probably not at all necessary, but the requirement was given simply because the gun had that feature, not because it was actually imperative that one use it. People that come to training with Springfield XD's or Glocks don't have to do that simply because they can't. Neither of those pistols is any safer when loaded than a P99 would be when loaded and not decocked.

I can understand from a marketing perspective designing in all those options and it's a credit to walther's engineering prowess to have figured out a way to do all that in one platform.

OTOH, they also gave us the P-38 and the rest as they say, is history.

I have no doubt it's a quality handgun but IMO providing that many options was unnecessary in what is essentially a striker fired design. I liken it to the version of the M&P 45 and Glock 21SF with the thumb safety. The only reason for a manual safety was due to it being a design criteria for the new .mil pistol that has yet to materialize.

Except that they didn't build this gun for you or anyone else in particualr. I think both the M&P and the Glock of any variant is garbage compared to the Walther. The trigger is a huge reason for that. I'm glad Walther designed the gun exactly as they did, I use each and every option depending on the circumstances and I wouldn't change a thing about any of them for my personal use. Even though I could personally live without the decocker, some people like it for carry reasons, so to each their own. Some people prefer a thumb safety, some prefer SAO, some prefer light triggers, some prefer heavy long triggers, some prefer a DAO gun and like the HK USP design with all of those variants incorporated. So long as an option doesn't hamper the actual function of the gun, different strokes for different folks.