Difference between USP and P8?

[.357SIG]

I'm new here (one of the "loonies" from Glock Talk). Most people from GT know that I'm a big fan of the USP and have owned almost all of them at one time or another.

I bet this has been covered before, but what is the difference between the P8 and USP? I don't really know the history too much.

 

[Jason Kitta]

The P8 is a USP9 with a conventionaly rifled barrel, the safety works in reverse (down is safe, up is fire), and I belive that it also uses a clear polymer magazine. It is now the standard German army pistol.

Jason

[This message has been edited by Jason Kitta (edited August 20, 1999).]

 

[Ulfilas]

...which also means the decocking lever works in the opposite way as well. That would seem to make the pistol a little more difficult to operate--good for safety reasons, not so good in stressful combat situations, in my opinion.



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[Cawdor]

Both the USP and the P8 can be seen at
http://www.heckler-koch.de/homeuk.htm

 

[George Hill]

The Clear Mags are a German thing too - like on the MP-5. They just do things a little different over there. The bassackwards safety and decock I guess are what they are used to over there - where as we over here are used to it being DOWN is Go... IE 1911 type.

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[Sambonator]

That's strange... up is "fire" and down is "safe" on my German made Walther PP. My Walther P99 has no safety so I can't compare...

 

[spark@onestopknifeshop.com]

I personally like the P8 arrangement better than the USP, it seems like it makes more sense to me. Maybe I'm weird like that.

Way I see it is when you are drawing, your thumb is moving from down to up anyways, so you can sweep off the safety that much easier.

Again, maybe I'm weird like that.

Spark

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