Posted: 8/30/2026 9:32:34 AM EDT
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I was in one of my favorite spots for buying used guns and was expecting to buy a few pistols like 3rd gen smiths, I was told were there - I also came across an SW99 in .40 for $150! so I picked it up. Its an older police trade but this one wasn't too beat on for wear and clean. It was discounted because it has what appears to be a 3D printed back strap on it as a replacement and .40 and just a forgotten and not well praised gun. I'm a sucker for cheap handguns that are different, functional but ugly - this fits that description. It shoots great and trigger is actually not bad for a DA/SA striker gun. I have plenty of .40 on hand and don't mind shooting it - I certainly don't prefer to shoot 40 - but it's an acceptable caliber in its own right. Mags aren't too common but I found a few. This a fun Smith - certainly more fun than expected and an interesting one to add to the collection. |
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Originally Posted By JohnGA: Good price on a Walter P99 clone. Yeah - its interesting the frame is marked "made in Germany" so I suspect at least the polymer part of that is made in Germany by Walther and read its metal work is stainless machined and nitride/melonited made by Smith - but I am rather confused by the strange arrangement that Walther had with S&W in that time frame. Did Smith think a US-branded version of the Walther P99 would sell better to Agencies back then vs Walther? Perhaps the US manufacturing costs were substantially more favorable? The SW99 seems to have some redeeming features for a Police gun arriving in that era- I can follow the thinking that a DA/SA might have some interest for departments leaving 3Rd Gens and the striker release may have been perceived as a significant safety benefit and offering something different than Glock. Certainly has some curiosity about it and its short history. |
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Are extra magazines available anymore? My son has my old Gen 1 P99 and we never accumulated an appropriate quantity of magazines for it. What other brands use P99/SW99 magazines? Canik? |
The “Three Stupid” Rule: “Do not go to stupid places, with stupid people, and do stupid things”
Religion is a handy device for keeping the philosophically deficient in line.
Religion is a handy device for keeping the philosophically deficient in line.
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I owned a SW99 in .40 S&W back in the day. Paid $99 for it. Traded it off for something else. The frame and internals were all made by Walther in Ulm, Germany. That was when S&W and Walther had a strategic partnership. S&W was the sole importer of Walther made products into the US and Germany was the sole importer of S&W made products into Germany. That's what led S&W to make the PPK/S in the US for Walther. And Walther marketed a S&W Model 66 revolver in Germany as the Walther R99.  Anyways, part of that strategic partnership was the SW99. Big Blue's attempt to make another striker fired polymer framed pistol to get into the US LE market after GLOCK dethroned them. The slide and barrel were made by S&W to their own contours. The gun was mechanically a first generation P99. Again, the SW99 series are mechanically identical pistols with slight cosmetic differences built by S&W. They are available in a .45ACP version, which the P99 did not offer. The SW99 corresponds to the P99/AS, the SW990 corresponds to the P990/DAO, and the SW990L corresponds to the P99QA. The NJSP had a contract for the SW99 as their duty gun to replace the HK P7s that they issued. But NJ in all of their retardation wanted a SW99 without the ability to decock the gun. Yup, NJ wanted the big decocker button removed from the slide. It led to a number of mechanical issues with the gun. 3,200 were ordered and 3,200 were basically broken. Even though S&W told NJ that it would cause issues. NJ wanted 'em and then had the issues and blamed S&W. That basically destroyed the reputation of the gun and ruined their LE marketability. Recall, S&W by this point was broken and broke. GLOCK, Beretta, HK, and SIG absolutely crushed them in the LE and civilian markets in the 1990s. Plus, the boycott caused by their Clinton HUD agreement left them in shambles. My SW99 was an original in .40 S&W. Mec-Gar was the contract OEM for the magazines. There were unofficial recalls on the magazines since they would cause misfeeds and premature slide locks. Also, the floor plates were known to crack and break. The trigger was ho-hum and nothing to write home about. The "ski-jump" in the trigger guard sucked and pinched my trigger finger all the time. A GLOCK is by far the better gun. The magazine issue was mostly fixed. And the SW99 had a better trigger when the SW99QA and SW99L came out. During the tail end of the Clinton AWB, when S&W released the SW99 in .45 ACP and I was interested in a SW99 in .45 ACP. But then when I discovered it was a nine-shot mag. I wasn't that interested anymore since I had 1911s with similar capacity and also a pre-ban GLOCK 21. I got my SW99 in .40 S&W in the late '00s to early '10s for pennies on the dollar. It was used police surplus stock from Lou's Police Supply in Hialeah, FL. It sat there forever and finally at one point. They basically told me "hey, for $99, get this out of our store." I bought it, tried to like it, and never could. For a while, it sat in my kitchen underneath the dish cabinets, attached via a magnet. Figured I'd keep it as a stash gun. Well, at some point, I traded it off for something else. Got $250 in store credit at some shop in Tallahassee. Don't even remember what I used that credit on anymore.  |
CMPD flirted with them after the 4046. A buddy of mine left while they still used the 4046, but he heard from a few of his former co-workers and apparently the bastard child of a gun was not well received  https://smith-wessonforum.com/threads/s-w-99-cmpd-issue.692358/ |
Froot Loops are all the same flavor. They just taste like froot. Whatever the heck that is.
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there is a R99 for sale at Rock Island Auctions Originally Posted By Miami_JBT: r. And Walther marketed a S&W Model 66 revolver in Germany as the Walther R99. https://images.gunsinternational.com/listings_sub/acc_109203/gi_102360157/WALTHER-PAIR-R99-NEVER-IMPORTED-TO-THE-U-S_102360157_109203_750C26ADFAD3EB28.jpg The NJSP had a contract for the SW99 as their duty gun to replace the HK P7s that they issued. But NJ in all of their retardation wanted a SW99 without the ability to decock the gun. https://tse3.mm.bing.net/th/id/OIP.eZXXRYw_CqJp6zm20n0A-wHaE8?r=0&rs=1&pid=ImgDetMain&o=7&rm=3 |
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Nice score. I had one of these and shot it probably more than I originally intended. I liked it over the Walther because the trigger guard hump was deleted. It (and the P99 in general) tended to develop an issue where the trigger bar would often miss the striker in “DA” mode. So you’d lose the DA mode but it would still work fine in SA mode. Later I happened into another P99 that suffered the same problem. |
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Originally Posted By JellyBelly: Are extra magazines available anymore? My son has my old Gen 1 P99 and we never accumulated an appropriate quantity of magazines for it. What other brands use P99/SW99 magazines? Canik? Yes spare mags are still available. The last ones I got from GunMag Warehouse. You can also use PPQ gen 1 mags. |
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I can confirm that Walther PPQ M1 mags fit and function in the SW99. I picked some up on GunBroker and they fit function perfect and 12 round "high" capacity at 12 rds vs what I find mostly as 10 round for full size for SW99 vintage - probably pre 2004 ban era? The PPQ "M1" has the same latch as P99 and SWUU but not the M2 version - so be aware only to look for the "M1" version mags if you need them. |
