Gun Review: Heckler & Koch USP40

Ok. It’s time for a gun review. First up is the Heckler and Koch USP .40 pistola. The USP in the name stands for “Universal Selbstlade Pistole” in the original German, or Universal Self-loading Pistol. The HKUSP is the official store gun for 3rd Millennium Comics. Jon and I both own one, as do several of our friends. All employees are expected to practice at least once with a USP, and those seeking managerial positions are expected to master the fine art of dual pistol target shooting as seen in the below picture of Kim from Steelgirl.  

The USP was first introduced in the early nineties and has seen issue with several agencies. The gun uses a modified Browning action, and is composed of a polymer frame, ala the Glock for all you homies out there, with a metal slide/barrel/etc. H&K was the first company to introduce a pistol with a polymer frame with their VP70 way back in 1968, the summer of love. The USP’s metal bits are all coated with a special corrosion resistant finish, and there’s a set of molded grooves in the underside of the slide for mounting optical accessories/lasers/flashlights/etc. It’s currently available in 9mm, .40, and .45 in 10 different versions, plus there are several variant models offered by H&K as well. The Compact series, Match, Custom, Elite, Expert, and Tactical variants offer a pistol for just about everyone from the citizen looking for a concealed carry gun to the IPSC competitor looking for a tricked out race gun.  

I’ve owned my USP40 for close to 3 years now, and I’ve put a little over 2000 rounds through it. In all that time I’ve only had 5 misfires with it, and 3 of those were due to cheap reloaded ammo. My personal pistol has been carried through all types of weather, left uncleaned for weeks, dropped in the dirt,snow and on concrete, and traveled through 4 states. It’s got a little bit of wear on some parts, but nowhere near what you would expect. H&K knows how to build good shit, and the USP proves it. I’ve bought the H&K UTL, or Universal Tactical Light for my USP. I know it may not be as cool as a fancy fucking laser, but I don’t think that a laser is very useful. If you need a little laser to tell you what you’re pointing at you’re a fuck. A flashlight, on the other hand, is extremely useful. At night it lets you see what you’re trying to kill. It can be used to blind people quite effectively as well. Light=Good. I’ve also picked up a recoil compensator for my USP, which is a device that ports the gasses from the round upwards, making it faster to bring the gun back on target after a shot. But sadly while it looks very cool it doesn’t work that well.  

Perhaps the only disadvantage to the USP is the fact that it came out just before the ban on high capacity magazines, so the very few legal ones that have made it into the country tend to be rather expensive. If I only had access to the 10 round mags I’d probably go with one of HK’s Compact USP models, as they’re a wee bit smaller for concealed carry, and they’ll only accept a 10rd magazine.  It’s a great gun, and comes highly recommended. 3^rd Millennium Comics gives it five out of five stars!