Last fall, Walther announced a promotion that offered 100 rounds of Sierra THD 124-grain, hollow-point ammunition with the purchase of a Walther PDP handgun. Walther offered to send me the ammunition for the PDP F-Series in my possession. When someone offers to send you good, reliable ammo to test in a great gun, how can you refuse such an offer?
Sponsored by Walther Arms
At The WON, we have been working with the Walther PDP, F-Series, since it was first released in May 2022. Walther designed the PDP F-Series, based on recommendations from female shooters (including its pro-staffers Gabby Franco, Tatiana Whitlock and Michelle Waldran), to fit a woman’s hands. Three specific features make it female-friendly. First, Walther paid attention to the grip angle, changing it to allow smaller hands to get a higher grip on the gun. Second, it narrowed the grip circumference slightly. Third, it shortened the reach for the trigger.
Walther sent me on loan the 3.5 inch version of the PDP F-Series in July 2022, shortly after its release. For my review, I ran six types of 9mm ammo through the gun. The ammo came from Fiocchi, Hornady, Remington and Federal – all top shelf companies. I walked away from range time with this gun thinking that it’ll work especially well for people (not just women) with smaller hands.
In February 2023, I focused on learning to shoot the PDP F-Series well with a red-dot, and attended training, which went smoothly and included shooting at multiple targets.
Then, in March, writer Nancy Keaton got her hands on one of these guns, and she also got advice from Gabby Franco on three good drills for shooting this gun. She had seen it on the range at Industry Day in January 2023, and really wanted to try it out. As of this date, Nancy still has that PDP in her safe, and is primed to work with it even more this year. She likes it.
In June 2023, another of our writers, Colorado firearms instructor Julie Park, switched from another brand of firearm to a Walther PDP F-Series for concealed carry. And, she added a red-dot. Julie then meticulously trained to be able to confidently carry this firearm, and you can read about that process here. I believe she purchased the gun after reviewing it – which often happens because we writers cannot bear to send some firearms back.
Later (August 2023) Julie added real stress to her training with her Walther and completed Level 3 of the FASTER Colorado course. In her post, she takes us along as she works her way through demanding scenarios. She described it as such: “This summer, I got my Level 3 certification and it took me very much out of my comfort zone. First, you must prove your skills by passing the CO POST qualification with no misses in the morning session. My Walther PDP-F series in 4-inch with the Holosun Optic really performed well. Then we start really doing more moving and shooting from various positions, and a LOT of moving targets.”
We anticipate further success of this well-designed firearm, and frankly, the coupling of this gun with premiere ammunition was a great promotion.
Billed as “multi-purpose performance,” the Sierra THD (which stands for target, hunt, defense) is 9 mm Luger, 124-grain jacketed hollow-point (JHP) ammunition. It’s tough to find anything about the ammo online, so maybe it is just a promo. The closest match is the Sierra Outdoor Master 9 mm Luger 124-grain JHP.
The 100 rounds came in five 20-round boxes, packaged in a neat plastic box with a carrying handle that make it easy to carry it down to my pistol range for testing with the PDP-F.
At the range, I shot ten rounds over a Kurzzeit PVM-08 Chronograph, positioned so the first screen was 6 feet from the gun’s muzzle, at a target 7 yards downrange. It was a cool, calm and sunny morning, with the temperature starting at 39oF, warming to 43oF and the wind picking-up by the time I was finished. The average velocity at 7 feet (the distance from the gun muzzle to the center of the chronograph) was 1071.0 feet per second, with an extreme spread (ES) of 40.7 and a standard deviation (SD) of 13.5 out of the PDP-F 3.25 inch (measured breech face to muzzle) barrel. Sierra lists the muzzle velocity on the ammo box as 1090 feet per second, so it’s not unreasonable to have about 1070 from a short barrel at 7 feet away. The large SD and ES are likely due to the short/small barrel heating up after the first couple of shots.
There were no firing failures, and even though I wasn’t doing an accuracy test, the ammo grouped well at 7 yards.
The Walther PDP F-Series is available with either a 3.5-inch barrel or 4-inch barrel. The MSRP is $699.00.
Publisher/Editor Barbara Baird is a freelance writer in hunting, shooting and outdoor markets. Her bylines are found at several top hunting and shooting publications. She also is a travel writer, and you can follow her at https://www.ozarkian.com. View all posts by Barbara Baird
