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Field Ethos
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By Ron Dan
If you follow my articles on guns, you’ll know I’m a simple man. I don’t like bells and whistles on my guns. “Gucci Glocks” have never appealed to me. If you need to change every possible part on your carry gun to make it shootable, you either should have picked a different gun to begin with or you need more time on the range learning from our Christian Craighead or Terry Houin.
For me, there are three main categories for defensive handguns:
- Strictly Carry— convenience and concealment are paramount.
- Do Everything/Goldilocks— versatile guns that are just good enough in a couple categories to play multiple roles.
- Duty/Bedside— fighting guns where more weight and size are an advantage, not a concern.
When a friend approached me and Pat Hemingway to do a class with some Walther guns, I knew exactly which gun I wanted for the class. As we were going for speed, accuracy, building egos, and the pursuit of a Black Belt, we wanted every possible advantage we could get. The natural choice was the Steel Frame PDP. With this being AIWB for the class, the 4” compact version was the best choice.
Walther PDP Steel Frame Compact 4″
The Walther PDP Steel Frame Compact 4” isn’t quite in the category of a Goldilocks gun for me. Although I can (it was in the rotation for a short bit) conceal this gun, its weight puts it just over the edge into the category of Duty/Bedside. The balance and ergonomics of this gun are at the top of the choices in the market. The standard trigger is arguably the best factory striker-fired trigger out there. If you want to take it a step further, they even have a duty-rated performance trigger that rivals the best competition triggers you’ll find and is somehow even better than the standard trigger.
The PDP Steel Frame series shoots like a sewing machine and allows for a very natural learning curve. I didn’t admit this to any of my friends, but my first rounds through the gun were right there at the class and I was still able to hold my own. For a bedside or duty gun, this only needs an Aimpoint ACRO and a Surefire XC3. The steel frame almost entirely eliminates recoil while still being ergonomically superior to most every other option on the market.
Price: $1,899 MSRP.
Pros: If you want the safety and reliability of a German striker-fired pistol for a duty gun or bedside gun, look no further. This is as perfect as you could ask for, backed with some of the finest engineering on the planet.
Cons: If you are going to carry this, it’s a little on the heavy side and suitable holster options have been limited. If you do carry it, it will give you all the confidence because you have a real fighting pistol in your waistband.
Bonus story: In the planning stages of this shooting class, Cody Osborn asked us what Cerakote we wanted for the guns. We responded jokingly with, “I bet you won’t do pink and purple.” Long story short, we got exactly what we asked for when we picked them up from the FFL.
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