Walther SSP or Benelli MP90S

[Phantom3D]

Hi, I am going to finally buy me a real target pistol, my only "real" targetpistol now is a modified Mark III target.

I have been looking at MG's, Pardinis, Walthers and more. And now I have finally decided that it will be either the SSP or Benelli MP90s.

Questions Walther SSP:
The walther has an advanced recoil system, does it work?
In some posts people claim that magazines had been fixed, and that the trigger has been reworked to not feel like a glock triger.
Is this true?
How can I find out if the pistol I am buying has all these updates?

Questions MP90s World Cup:
I see that the MP90S also has had a rework, and I guess this is easely seen by the silver triggerguard?
Is there an official list of what was updated on the new MP90, and when did these updates come out?

[crankythunder]

make sure you do not overlook the pardini

Regards,

[Leon]

Hi, I am going to finally buy me a real target pistol, my only "real" targetpistol now is a modified Mark III target.

I have been looking at MG's, Pardinis, Walthers and more. And now I have finally decided that it will be either the SSP or Benelli MP90s.

Questions Walther SSP:
The walther has an advanced recoil system, does it work?
In some posts people claim that magazines had been fixed, and that the trigger has been reworked to not feel like a glock triger.
Is this true?
How can I find out if the pistol I am buying has all these updates?

Questions MP90s World Cup:
I see that the MP90S also has had a rework, and I guess this is easely seen by the silver triggerguard?
Is there an official list of what was updated on the new MP90, and when did these updates come out?

I have both a Walther SSPE ( SSP previously ) and the MP90S you have described.

Changes to the upgraded MP90S are - new Lothar Walther match barrel, new trigger system, upgraded rear-sights. The MP90S was upgraded about 18 months ago. It is a superb high quality piece.

Walther: I had the mechanical trigger SSP before which I did not really like that much. The electronic trigger SSPE is very nice. I believe the SSP/E magazines were modified after the initial release of the gun, yearas ago.

I have found that there is no spectacular difference between the two in terms of recoil recovery.

Which one do I prefer? : I like both of them but am currently using the MP90S more.

[jbshooter]

Hi Leon,
I had an older MP90S in 32WC and enjoyed shooting it. Is there a whole new trigger mechanism in the newest MP90S guns. Has adjustability changed?

[Leon]

Hi Leon,
I had an older MP90S in 32WC and enjoyed shooting it. Is there a whole new trigger mechanism in the newest MP90S guns. Has adjustability changed?

It has a whole new trigger system..

[Gwhite]

I went to their web site to see if they had posted an updated manual showing the new designs, but the PDF they have posted is only a few pages, and clearly not the entire manual. From looking at the photo, the rear sight looks like it may have adjustments for notch width & depth (possibly copied from the Kite air pistol). The trigger housing is silver instead of black, but the few details visible look similar to the old design.

One area that Benelli has tinkered with in the past is the disconnector system. The original design had a small disconnector behind the hammer that the center rib of the slide pushed down. They decided that wasn't reliable enough, and added a lever that was activated by the cross pin in the slide that retains the firing pin & recoil spring. Depending on the exact vintage, that lever has undergone a couple iterations. Some versions wouldn't dry fire easily, and the ability to quicky remove the slide was also lost. With luck, they've addressed all of that, and come up with a system that reliably allows dry firing, and makes disassembly for cursory cleaning possible without removing the grip. That may also require changes to the bolt.

The team I help coach has 20 Benellis, some MP90s & some MP95s. They were bought over the course of 15 or 20 years, and we have a few of almost every design variation I think they ever tried. The modular design generally makes it fairly easy to swap in bolts & trigger assemblies.

[deadeyedick]

Which one do I prefer? : I like both of them but am currently using the MP90S more.

I also have owned both, however I should not have sold the Benelli. In my mind it is the better and most "forgiving" of the two by a large margin.
And yes Doug the rear sight now has width adjustment on the rear sight..however not wide enough for a 5 mm. front sight.

[Phantom3D]

Thanks to all of you.
I know the Pardini is good, that is why it is all over olympics ;-)
If I were to choose from common sense alone, it would without a doubt be the pardini, then the mp90s and I would not even consider the SSP.

However beeing intrested in engineering, the SSP has gone straight to my heart. I love the long barrel, all the ajustments, the magazine at the top and the look of the thing.

So if I were to chose an SSP, they would all be updated with magazine fixes, no other fixes were done to it?

[jbshooter]

I wish I still had my SSP. Changed to a Rink grip as factory grip wasn't right for me. Beauty about the rink grip were the four stop-screws that meant it would go exactly back to where it was before taking it off. The mechanisms in the SSP can be challenging for some but no more so than a MG2.

[Leon]

Which one do I prefer? : I like both of them but am currently using the MP90S more.

I also have owned both, however I should not have sold the Benelli. In my mind it is the better and most "forgiving" of the two by a large margin.
And yes Doug the rear sight now has width adjustment on the rear sight..however not wide enough for a 5 mm. front sight.

I told you not to sell it.

As I said before - I have quite a few match .22s - Walther SSPE, FAS 602, FAS 607, Walther GSP, Sig-Hammerli P240, Unique 96/U, Sako TriAce etc- but the Benelli MP90S is the one I use the most.

As deadeyedick said, it's very forgiving, the factory fitted Nills grip is superb, it's ultra-reliable, likes every sort of .22 ammunition, beautifully made, the factory manual is very well-written, is coherent and well-illustrated. The whole package exudes quality - toolkit etc - putting the Walther to shame. Another think I really like about it - to do trigger adjustments, the whole assembly just drops out of the pistol and each trigger adjustment screw has a locking screw at right angles to it - so the adjustments stay set !

I would prefer if the rear sight adjustment could open a little more ( mine maxs out at 4.2mm ) but that's a very minor quibble.

Benelli also make a "rocking rapid fire weight" similar to one supplied for the Walther SSP/E - and I have one of these on it's way to me from Larry's Guns. I'm eager to try it.

[deadeyedick]

I told you not to sell it.

A painful reminder... just when the sellers remorse was easing......

[deadeyedick]

However beeing intrested in engineering, the SSP has gone straight to my heart. I love the long barrel, all the ajustments, the magazine at the top and the look of the thing.

If you are a true engineering aficionado then the MG2 is in a class by itself.
The SSP is a sweet looker though, and is acceptably accurate....however back to the Benelli which as Leon has pointed out has no real vices and the recoil matches the MG2.
It has one more quality that others don't have.....the ability to be forgiving.
I ran a test with several shooters using the standard pistol 10 second series for our test. I included the MG2, AW93, SSP, SP20 and the Benelli.
All shooters grouped better with the Benelli than the others. It was extremely forgiving whereas the others were not.
All pistols were fairly equal in the precision series, however when the need to fire more quickly arrived there was only one winner. This was regarded by all of us as points for free.

If pistols were women I would...

Like to be seen with the SSP
Sleep with the MG2
Go to war with the AW93
Be married to the Benelli

[rmca]

If pistols were women I would...

Like to be seen with the SSP
Sleep with the MG2
Go to war with the AW93
Be married to the Benelli

All fine women... but they still can't reach the class, style and performance of a Pardini.
She's good enough to perform all four of those stages and still have some left over.
Guess I am a one woman kind of guy! ;)

Now seriously, if you pretend to do some rapid fire matches don't overlook the Pardini.
Chose the gun you want based on performance and function and not on looks.

Check the data on Igor's blog and you'll see why:




Hope this helps

[Phantom3D]

deadeyedick; Very nicely put!
And yes rmca I know they are the most popular, and probably for good reason. I just cannot get used to the look of it..

I was 75% towards the SSP, but now it is down to 50-50 betwen the MP90 and the SSP. I know that too is wrong and my reasons are plain stupid ;-) The Benelli is also much cheaper..

My brain will try to concinve my heart until I get my licence for this sort of pistol. Hope to have it by the end of this week!

Thanks to all of you, very good advices to get! This seems like a awsome forum.

[Leon]

I told you not to sell it.

A painful reminder... just when the sellers remorse was easing......

You could always buy another one :)

I'm still thrilled with mine .... and I marvel at the many nice touches that the Benelli designers have employed - like putting barrel weights in a special compartment under the barrel so the visual lines of the pistol are not disturbed. So Italian.

[Leon]

deadeyedick; Very nicely put!
And yes rmca I know they are the most popular, and probably for good reason. I just cannot get used to the look of it..

I was 75% towards the SSP, but now it is down to 50-50 betwen the MP90 and the SSP. I know that too is wrong and my reasons are plain stupid ;-) The Benelli is also much cheaper..

My brain will try to concinve my heart until I get my licence for this sort of pistol. Hope to have it by the end of this week!

Thanks to all of you, very good advices to get! This seems like a awsome forum.

If you have your heart set on a SSP instead of the MP90S, I would recommend that you get the electronic trigger SSPE instead of the mechanical trigger SSP instead. Adjusting the SSP trigger will drive you mad and the manual is no help whatsoever....

[Phantom3D]

Well, I am sitting here with my brand new SSP. Have not had the chance to fire it yet, and I connot use it in tomorrows competition because I do not have 6 shot mags (That we use in many events here).

Thanks for help and suggestions, and sorry for ignoring some of them ;-)

[deadeyedick]

Congratulations phantom..enjoy the SSP.

[rmca]

Thanks for help and suggestions, and sorry for ignoring some of them ;-)

No problem...

Now you just have to outshoot ALL the pistols you didn't buy to prove us wrong! ;)

Congrats on your new pistol!

[Gregbenner]

Leon, Deadeye, and others, are your MP90 comment re: the earlier version, or the later, more recent one with the revised trigger?