FOG HORN 2017 Twobirds Flying Publication

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Marilynn Henderson
5 years ago
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WALTHER ARMS CREED a Walther creation at a value price By: Sal Palma filling grip, it s the way it fills the hand along with the grip angle. Absent in CREED s design is the interchangeable backstraps.

2 WALTHER ARMS CREED a Walther creation at a value price By: Sal Palma filling grip, it s the way it fills the hand along with the grip angle. Absent in CREED s design is the interchangeable backstraps. Grip angle is more important than many shooters realize. A competently designed grip allows the pistol to sit low in the hand reducing the bore axis to hand height; it also makes reaching weapon controls like a magazine release or slide release comfortably accessible. I have to confess to being influenced by James Bond when I picked up my first Walther, a wonderful PPK. It shot great, felt great and bit my hand regularly, but ahhh it was sexy! The Walther PPK was the personification of a company with 150 years of experience creating some of the world s finest firearms. From that tradition comes Walther s PPS M1 and PPS M2, circa 2007, then the PPQ in Walther s history includes some amazing target pistols, law enforcement and military sidearms, and in 2013 Walther introduced the PPX which was designed to be a low cost duty pistol. In 2017 Walther engineers unleashed the CREED a derivative of the company s PPX. So, what makes CREED a Walther? Grip- Right off the top is its ergonomics which are extraordinary. I ve often said that Walther knows more about the human hand than any other firearm manufacturer and that continues to be true for the CREED. It s not just its hand Continuing with ergonomics, Walther equipped the pistol with an extended slide catch lever that is accessible and can be operated without breaking your grip. The magzine release is also easily accessible, extended and ambidexterous. Trigger- Second on the list of things that are extremely important to me is the trigger. Walther designed the CREED as a hammer fired pistol with a pre-cocked double action only (DAO) fire control system. I was floored by how close the CREED s trigger feels like a striker fired pistol. To be quite honest, I was expecting some grittyness or inconsistantcy in the trigger pull but I was gladly proven wrong. Other than the trigger reset being a bit long for my taste, the CREED has an excellent trigger. Impressive to say the very least. So here s what we have so far. Superb Walther ergonomics and an excellent trigger which addresses the top two major consideration when selecting a firearm. What s next? Sights-

The pistol ships with a steel three dot sight and a 6 inch sight radius. Windage adjustments are made at the rear sight which is drift adjustable.

Defensive shooting occurs at relatively short ranges and depends heavily on effective use of the front sight post, so being able to easily pickup the front sight to engage your target is important.

I think they re important because under certain lighting conditions it s quite probable that slide reflections will interfere with the front sight picture problematical.

3 The pistol ships with a steel three dot sight and a 6 inch sight radius. Windage adjustments are made at the rear sight which is drift adjustable. Walther provides a wide space rear sight for faster target acquisition. Defensive shooting occurs at relatively short ranges and depends heavily on effective use of the front sight post, so being able to easily pickup the front sight to engage your target is important. One feature that Walther omitted, and I have to believe it was cost related, is top slide serrations. I think they re important because under certain lighting conditions it s quite probable that slide reflections will interfere with the front sight picture problematical. Two drop safeties, a firing pin block and a Picatinny accesory rail. What s missing from this package is an ambidexterous slide release and interchangeable backstraps. No big deal! Everything Else- We all get very excited about ambidexterous controls but let s be honest, unless you re a southpaw who cares, certainly not me. Ambidexterous comes in handy when you are lefthanded or an organization that recycles weapons among a number of shooters i.e. military organizations and departments that issue firearms to their members. So, yeah, you won t be able to talk about all of your The Walther CREED is not a pistol that you shoot groups with, it s a robust, reliable and extremely well designed working pistol that will go BANG every time you pull the trigger. At an incredibly low M.S.R.P. of $399, you get a Walther pistol with a capacity of 16+1 rounds, a slide with front and rear slide serratations; finished in a non-slip corrosion resistant Tenifer coating. There s not a right angle anywhere on the pistol s geometry, so even as a full size pistol conceal carry won t be ambidexterous controls but you can sure as hell talk about saving $300 without compromising ergonomics, robustness, combat accuracy and reliability. CREED s polished feed ramp is

revealing of Walther s comitment to quality, and it s unlikely you ll find a sub $400 pistol with that level of attention to detail. Is Walther s CREED perfect?

over it; instead I ll take the money I save any day of the week.the CREED pistol is designed to be a cost effective entry point to Walther s extraordinary line of fullsized polymer pistols.

4 revealing of Walther s comitment to quality, and it s unlikely you ll find a sub $400 pistol with that level of attention to detail. Is Walther s CREED perfect? No, but it s not intended to be perfect, and I ve already pointed out my personal desire for serrations at the top of the slide, and yes the grip texture could be a bit more aggressive, but I ll get over it; instead I ll take the money I save any day of the week.the CREED pistol is designed to be a cost effective entry point to Walther s extraordinary line of fullsized polymer pistols. comfortable that I have enough diversity so that any issues will be statistically significant. During my live fire session the only issue I experienced was with the Federal AL. This aluminum case ammunition produced a failure to extract two rounds into the live fire and accounted for the 9 o clock hit from the right shoulder 4 point zone The remaning 15 rounds behaved just fine. As a side note, a couple of months ago I reviewed Blackhawk s Omnivor multi-platform holster. So, just for drill, I decided to see how the CREED would do with a Streamlight TLR-2 and the Omnivor. Voila! This isn t the place for me to say that if you don t own an Omnivor you should kick yourself in the derrière. But, there, I said it! Shooting Experience For my live fire testing, I ran through an assortment of ammunition consisting of Winchester White Box, Federal AL (aluminum case), Tula, Hornady Critical Defense and Perfecta. I didn t have 147gr 9mm to test so I ll have to run with 115gr and 125gr 9mm. I m All other ammunition performed well and there were no issues with ball, hollow points or steel cased ammunition. Winchester white box, notoriously flakey did very well with no hickups through the Creed.

5 Taking the CREED down for cleaning requires only four steps. 1. Clear the weapon. 2. Lock back the slide. 3. Rotate the takedown lever 4. Release the slide Walther marketing placed the CREED as an entry level offering, personally they re selling the pistol short. The CREED shots well, feels great and operates reliably. It s an ideal beginner s firearm due to its utter simplicity; it also makes a great working or duty pistol for organizations needing reliability, accuracy, high magazine capacity and excellent ergonomics. One thing is certain, it won t strain your budget. As I mentioned earlier in my review, grip texturing could be more aggressive, but the Creed is quite frankly an amazing offering and to think you can pick one up for $370, street price, is remarkable. With the introduction of the Creed, Walther Arms has set an industry standard for value. Check it out, I think you ll be as impressed as I am! -SP This precocked harmer fired Double Action Only trigger is easily the envy of many of its striker fired competitors. Trigger reset is a hair longer than a Glock but quite acceptable. Sights too are excellent; allowing the shooter to pick up the front sight post quickly, an important attribute in conceal carry or combative applications. CREED s bore height is high which results in a bit more muzzle rise than its competitors with lower bore height; however, recoil is relatively mild and aggressive slide serrations make reloads and clearing malfunctions a snap. This gun simply feels good in the hand!

LAW ENFORCEMENT & MILITARY PISTOLS

1 LAW ENFORCEMENT & MILITARY PISTOLS Top-quality weapons for armed forces and police use. Today WALTHER is one of the leading manufacturers of weapons for police and military use. They have the highest