[lefaucheux]

Hi, I am a Dutch sport shooter and not yet owner of any H&K.

I wanted to ask some details, I hope some of you can help.

My interest in H&K pistols has started only last week after seeing an online auction from a P9S sport set. I was looking what too buy instead of my 1911 Officers ACP.

What I would like is a 45ACP pistol that is accurate on 27 yards, is friendly to shoot and it would be nice if a 9mm conversion and .22 conversion is possible.
Also I am not a fan of long, heavy pistols. Targe shooting I do best with my 3" and 4" S&W revolvers, the 4" is shortened from 6".
And I am interested in the stranger pistols.

The set I see for sale has a short 45ACP slide, a 45ACP slide with barrel weight and a 9mm slide with barrel weight. Including a standard grip, extra wood grip and the wooden target grip.
I expect it to get expensive so I would like to have a bit more knowledge before I bid.

Now I have used google a bit and read on this forum. I conclude that the P9S owners find their pistols accurate and friendly to soot, so that is covered.

What I would like to know:

- How sensitive are these pistols with ammo (and re loaders) in the meaning of jams.
- I have read that the first 475 items made were SA pistols. I have also read about SAO P9S pistols? I am a fan of SA weapons and have no need of DA. Are there SA sets or is it easily changed?
- Have there been extra accessories like larger slide releases? I like to change and collect, leaving "as is" is not my thing.
- This particular pistol, when was it made? Number 403 659
- Are the polymer buffers still made?
- A .22 set is never made I have read. .22 conversions are also not made by other manufactures?

All advice and input welcome!

 

[Callahan]

This is a great place to ask questions and get information. I don't have and haven't shot the P9S, but I've read a lot of good things about it on this site.

 

[lefaucheux]

OK, did as adviced, thanks.

 

[AGG-closed]

Welcome to the site--- let us know what you get!!! :biggrin:

Tony

 

[airforce1]

I think I would caution a P9S .45 as the buffer carriers may be susceptible to failure and no factory replacements are available. A search on this forum will give you exact answers.

 

[BeachBum]

Welcome! Always nice to see people rediscovering the classics. I'm not at all surprised the Sport Group model of the P9S caught your attention, but based on your comments I'm not sure it's the right pistol for you.

Your pistol was made in 1981. There should be an IB on the right side of the gun. That's the date code.

Because it was made relatively late in the production of the P9S pistol, you should have no trouble feeding it hollowpoints. However, I won't pretend to know how your reloads will function in it. How deeply you seat the bullets, which heads you use, etc. will all factor in. I don't have issues with mine, and mine is an HH date code, so a few years earlier!

That was the good news. All .45 ACP P9S were made as DA/SA pistols. The SA-only model you refer to was the P9, not the P9S. It was not a commercial success and no conversion kits were made to convert DA/SA to SA-only. The control lever will let you cock the pistol without working the slide if you want to simulate having a SA-only pistol. For that matter, about the only after-market accessory that I know about for the P9S was the rubber Pachmayr grip. Ironically, even though they haven't been made in decades, they are still plentiful. It seems like more grips were made than pistols!

There are still plenty of spare parts (including both new old stock, and used from broken up pistols) that keeping your P9S running shouldn't be a problem. Don't count on finding a caliber conversion for .22. A prototype or two was made in that caliber, but no production run was made. The only calibers that were made in volume are the 9mm, .45 ACP, and .30 Luger.

Congrats on finding a real prize. Please let us know if you get it. If you decide to pass, maybe you'll be a nice guy and let those of us here know where it is...

Mark

 

[lefaucheux]

Thanks Mark for the warm welcome

Unfortunately I just lost the auction. I was the highest bidder with about $3100 till the last second.
One of those lesser Sunday's. Now waiting for the next opportunity.
I have done a little investigation and learned that most of these sport groups go for a huge amount.

Jeroen

 

[bettieguitar]

This is an awesome pistol. I own it. As another member suggested, based on your comments, definitely not the pistol for you. You won't be moding nothing on this baby. If leaving it alone is not your thing, save yourself some money and buy a different pistol.

 

[lefaucheux]

Well, Friday I bought two P9S pistols (online). The Colt Officer's is sold.
One on 45ACP with fixed sights and one 9mm with adjustable sights. Will take some time before I have it on my permit till then I have only pictures made by the sellers.
It's a little gamble, I have even never seen one of these live, let alone hold or shoot one.
From the 9mm I will use only the slide as conversion unit and leave the frame at my gun shop. We are allowed a max of 5 guns and I am full.

The 45 is from 1977 (says the seller). Wh can tell me the date of the 9mm? (134 136)

bettieguitar: I will not paint them pink or try to make a 1911 look alike out of it. I will not put a scope on it or a laser on a rail under it. I will not gold plate it.
But I will look into if I can not copy the adjustable sight in alu and then have it black anodized and with the blade part of a more modern LPA TXT sight combined with an other front sight.
And I have seen a member making new plastic trigger guards. I would like to do so in alu or steel. I am 3D CAD engineer, that helps.
So nothing that can not be switched back, just a bit of fun with my gun.

And I will continue to look for sport slides and grips to expand my set but first wait till I have it at home and shoot it! (after I checked the buffer)

Thank you all!

 

[BeachBum]

Congrats Lefauchex! That's a great looking pair of P9Ss. The .45 is really clean. The seller is correct: that's a 1977 pistol. Although there were just under 500 made in 1976, yours falls into the number range for a 1977 manufacture date. There should be "HH" on the right side of the pistol.

The 9mm is also very cool. It looks like it's seen a bit more use than the .45, but its the more desirable Target model with the adjustable sights, trigger stop and adjustable sear. I'm hoping you don't reduce this one to pieces, simply because it is a Target model. The slides and frames may not be perfectly compatible between calibers. There are a few odd pistols that came from HK that featured a 9mm upper on a .45 receiver, but those require modified magazines to work properly.

Your 9mm pistol falls into a gap in my serial # tracking. It may be a late 1982 or an early 1983. If you could check on the right side of the pistol (not the side pictured in your post) you should see either an "IC" or "ID". I would appreciate it if you could tell me which it is.

Mark

 

[bettieguitar]

It looks like you did well. Those are some nice looking pistols. I took my P9S Sport with the target grip to the range yesterday. At the end of the day I tried it two handed with the grip, for the first time, and did very well with it.

 

[rt11002003]

Welcome to the site. Congratulations on your find. I've been lusting for a p9s Sport group since I learned of their existence. I seem to think the last one I heard of being sold went for $6,000+. If importing one wasn't such a hassle, I'd have my daughter who lives in Germany, buy me one.

 

[markg]

i have one from 1976, serial 106859 if that helps
bought it new when i lived in detroit, the only one they had...i love this gun, too bad you cant get parts for it any more...

 

[mrabhorring]

Congratulations! Also no regrets with those. Even if you hate them, which you won't, they will never lose value. You can always sell them for at least what you paid.

 

[lefaucheux]

Sorry for the long silence but I thought better to react again when I have the gun at home.
I now have the 45ACP as complete gun and the 9mm only the upper. The 9mm frame stays at the gun shop. (we can have only five guns)
To my surprise it came with an original case and Nill anatomic grip. A normal Nill grip I bought in the mean time from Nill. It was the last the had, was not even on the web shop anymore.

I find it beautiful made! What a quality. I was not a fan of plastic on guns but these parts are not annoying, maybe plastic is not so bad after all.....
Of course I cleaned it first. Both look little used, the 45ACP I suspect from almost no use. After I cleaned the slides I took most of the frame apart. What a lot of parts! I was glad to got it all together again. And I changed the buffer for a new one.

Can de adjustable sear from the 9mm be switched out with the 45 sear?
@BeachBum: The 45 has a HH on the right side, thus 1977. The 9mm I did not check, thus 1981 or 1982. I will take a look at the frame when I am in the gun shop again. Then I can switch out the triggerbow too for the triggerstop.

When I am very satisfied with how they shoot I may give up an other gun and the 9mm as complete gun. Saturday I can shoot. The anatomic Nill is very good for me, the standard Nill a bit long. I have small hands.

Now some pictures.

 

[BeachBum]

Hi Jeroen!

I'm so glad to hear you are thinking about keeping the 9mm as a complete pistol. That one is a Target Model, considerably more rare and valuable than your .45 which is just a Combat model. Both are desirable and valuable, but your 9mm is more valuable than the 45. Many parts do interchange between the two calibers, but quite a few do not.I believe the sear is interchangeable, but the recoil buffer housing, for example, is quite different and I would not recommend trying to fire the 9mm slide on the .45 receiver. You have two beautiful and sweet shooting pistols. Enjoy them both!

Mark

 

[bettieguitar]

Very nice pistol Sir. Condition is fantastic.

 

[Lamont-closed]

I've been lusting for a p9s Sport group since I learned of their existence. I seem to think the last one I heard of being sold went for $6,000+.

The reason for that is simple, original case/test targets. A collector wants the complete original set. Yes that's worth $2K more to them. If you aren't so picky and can find one without that stuff, it can save you money. There's a joke that when a German buys a nice H&K pistol, the first thing they do is throw the test target(s) in the garbage....