The new face of Walther has become far more that just a legacy of James Bond’s Walther PPK: Walther is a company offering real innovation. The new Creed is an inexpensive great-shooting handgun, and a great choice for a first-time buyer. Read why!
by Major Pandemic
Walther has created cutting-edge designs which some gun buyers get right away like the fabulous little PPS M1 and M2. Other designs are a bit tougher to understand for the seasoned shooter…that is, until they handle them. The PPX was one of those guns which could not be fully appreciated until it was handled, gripped, shoot and then really drive the living crap out of it. The PPX was probably the best values on the market, but most shooters felt the blocky looking PPX was not a particularly pretty gun and visually it looked huge. The PPX worked awesome and felt great and was street priced under $400 but it needed a facelift to keep pace with shooter expectations. Walther heard the feedback and retooled the PPX into the Creed, which is essentially a resurfaced and even less expensive PPX with the pleasing look and feel of a PPQ. With a very well done remodel of the PPX into the new Creed, this is likely to be a very hot-selling gun for 2017. PPX magazines are 100% compatible with the new Creed.
ABOUT THE WALTHER CREED
When I interviewed the Walther team at the 2013 SHOT show about why a sub-$400 Walther was created and now competing amidst their line of premium $600-$800 Walther firearms. The response was the same as this year regarding the Creed, Kevin Wilkerson (Walther Marketing): “The PPX and Creed models were developed so we could provide a full-length, full-sized, and fully-featured Walther at a value price. We really didn’t have a feature-rich gun at a value price. The PPX did well in the market as will the Creed. We didn’t sacrifice quality in making the PPX or Creed, just some of the features that add a lot of cost. With so many new shooters coming into the sport, we wanted those folks who were just learning to shoot to be able to have a quality firearm with a lot of features at a price they could live with.” After testing, it is now my perspective that this might be the best value in a home defense/full-sized handgun a first-time buyer could reach for if price is a primary consideration.
The Creed has a few features which well-seasoned shooters will appreciate but are useful for the newer or less practiced shooter. New shooters have a hard time developing proper trigger control and pull. The Walther pre-cocked double-action trigger helps easily develop and train good habits with a clearly-defined but soft initial trigger pull take-up followed by a crisp second-stage break. This trains new shooters to start thinking about proper trigger staging instead of trigger slapping. Many firearms have dubious-feeling stacking trigger stages which can be tough for even great shooters to control. The trigger delivers confidence to a new shooter.
The overall design feels extremely comfortable in the hand, and the updated Creed design makes me think that I actually have a high-end PPQ in my hands. I am a firm believer that a defensive firearm should not have any external safeties as I have seen shooters forget to disengage them or accidentally engage them during high stress drills. The Creed design did it right and integrated the three safeties into the trigger-actuated firing control.
The Creed is super easy and smooth to charge due to the ergonomics and smooth action. The simple but effective 3-dot sight system has become industry-standard and provides the beginner the perfect sight system to learn by. The gun is very accurate as well.
The maintenance routine is targeted perfectly to the novice. To disassemble the Creed for routine cleaning, simply lock back the slide with an empty magazine in the gun and turn the take-down lever and then press the slide release and the slide will slip right off. Pull off the captured slide spring, lift out the barrel, and the parts are ready for cleaning. To reinstall the slide, simply reassemble the barrel, spring, and hold down the slide release then slip on the slide, lock it back, and flip the takedown lever back. Everything about this gun screams “make it easy on the newbie” and give the pros an inexpensive gun to fall in love with for not a lot of money.
FIT, FINISH, FEEL, & FEATURES
Side-by-side testing of a Creed and PPQ confirms there is only a slight difference in feel and fit between the notably differently priced guns. It still has all the super-precise molding, highly detailed grip texturing, and the metal parts are all still finished with a durable Tenifer finish just like other Walthers in the higher end lineup.
So why is the gun less expensive if it looks and feels like the higher and models? Walther noted the pre-cocked double-action trigger is less expensive to produce and assemble than the striker-fired models. The absence of the interchangeable/adjustable grips and no ambidextrous controls reduce manufacturing costs as well. Add in a stamped vs milled slide release and a few other polymer-based internal parts and you have a $400 street-priced gun that’s not really sacrificing any essential quality.
More about the action mechanism: Where most manufactures have focused exclusively on standard striker-fired designs, Walther has developed a “pre-cocked double action” firing control system that blends the best of striker- and hammer-fired mechanisms. Like nearly every striker-fired system, the striker/hammer is partially pre-cocked by either manually cycling the pistol or automatically pre-cocking after a round is fired. In this case, the Creed has a small snag-free hammer which is partially pre-cocked just like a striker would be. As the trigger is depressed, the three internal safeties are disengaged, the hammer is pushed to a fully cocked state (extending only 1/4-inch from the rear of the gun) and the hammer hits the firing pin to detonate the round. The end result is a handgun with an awesome trigger pull, probably the best of any striker-fired or pre-cocked firearm I have handled. It has a positive 1/2-inch of take-up and then a sharp crisp 6.1-lb. break.
Creed features are impressive: 3-dot sights, 16+1 round capacity, a 360-degree beveled chamber for reliability, two magazines are included with a hard TSA-approved case, Picatinny accessory rail, front and rear slide serrations, excellent grip texturing, and even a reversible magazine release for the lefties out there.
FUNCTIONS & ACCURACY
The Creed shot and spit out over 400 rounds of my worst reloads. The Creed slipped into my Glock 19 Crossbreed Supertuck holster for testing just fine.
Federal and Hornady were nice enough to spare me a few rounds of really nice defensive ammo for accuracy testing. The PPX is very accurate for a defensive semi-auto 9mm. With the Federal Guard Dog, and Standard Hollowpoints, and Hornady defensive rounds, I was able to consistently deliver 1.25-inch 25-yard groups firing rested off sand bags. At defensive 7-yard distances, I was able to essentially deliver single ragged-hole groups during slow controlled offhand shots. A big part of what enables the accuracy is that incredible trigger…
FINAL THOUGHTS
For under $400 the Creed is arguably one of the best gun values on the market. It delivers superb quality and features well above many standard firearms lines with proven Walther reliability and accuracy. The Creed is a significant make-over from the legacy PPX improving looks and ergonomics while preserving all the great aspects of the original design. Exactly what you would expect from Walther.
Check it out, click HERE
