No fashion statement here: HK's colors match the gun to the environment of the mission.
By Patrick Sweeney
HK's colorful triad takes advantage of the nature of polymer frames.
Who says a polymer gun has to be black? HK has announced a limited run of its USP pistols with polymer frames in one of three colors: tan, green or gray. The colors are designed to blend in with desert, jungle or urban environments.
Those of you who haven't been paying attention may have missed the introduction of the Universal Self-Loading Pistol (USP) back in 1993. HK, using its experience with earlier polymer pistols--notably the VP-70 and the P9 series--brought out the USP in 9mm and .40 S&W. Since many Americans view .45s as the only real handguns, the .45 ACP version followed two years later.
The USP was offered with nine different trigger-mode options. You could have a dizzying array of safety and trigger packages, from DAO to traditional double action to cocked-and-locked, to combinations. I don't know how well that has gone for HK other than making inventory stocking a real problem, but what was right was the basic package: a durable, reliable, accurate handgun.
In the interests of keeping Handguns readers up to date on all things new and cool, I prevailed upon HK to send me a representative sample of the colorful USP series of pistols. The color frames are not yet available in 9mm, but .40 and .45 fans have a whole new set of toys to play with. The variations currently offered are these configurations: Gray: USP .45 and USP .40 Compact; Green: USP .45, USP .40, USP .40 Compact and USP .45 Tactical; Desert Tan: USP .45, USP .40, USP .40 Compact and USP .45 Tactical and the Mark 23. Suggested retail prices for the color-frame models are the same as the black-frame variations.
Let's review the HK family of pistols in order from small to large, covering the features as we go.
The Compact came in gray, with a definite blue tinge to it.
Compact USP
As compacts go, this one isn't very compact. I'd hate to have to be working in a hot climate, in light clothing and issued the Compact USP. There are a lot of pistols that are smaller, but not all of them hold 12 rounds of .40 S&W. (The compact sent to me had a pair of ban-era 10-round magazines.) The grip is very comfortable, with molded checkering front and back and a stippling-like pattern on the side panels. With standard .40 ammo it was almost sedate in recoil. With the hottest ammo it felt a bit harsher, and the squarish profile of the tang started to become apparent. As a uniform sidearm, the Compact's size is convenient and comfortable.
The Compact I received was in gray, and I had to wonder what gray looks like in Germany. In one of my earlier careers, I learned to use a printing press and become more aware of colors. My first impression on pulling the Compact out of its carry case was that this gray has blue in it. Just out of curiosity, I pulled out a Pantone Matching System (PMS) color chart. PMS charts tell you what base colors to mix, and how much, to get a particular color on the chart. With a little bit of work I was able to get a pretty close match, and PMS 428 was it. The mixture calls for five-eighths part black, three-eighths part reference blue and 32 parts transparent white. A definite, if subtle, blue tinge shows up in many kinds of light, but it disappears under fluorescent lighting.
SPECIFICATIONS: USP/MK 23 LIMITED-EDITION COLOR FRAME SERIES
Locked-breech semiautomatic pistols with various triggers
CALIBER
.40 S&W, .45 ACP (in colored polymer)
CAPACITY:
Compact
Standard
Tactical
MK 23
.40 S&W
12+1
13+1
(.45 only)
.45 only)
.45 ACP
(.40 only)
12+1
12+1
12+1
BARREL LENGTH:
Compact
Standard
Tactical
MK 23
Inches*
3.58
4.25
5.09
5.87
OVERALL LENGTH:
Compact
Standard
Tactical
MK 23
*Inches
6.81
7.64
8.64
9.65
WEIGHT:
Compact
Standard
Tactical
MK 23
*Ounces
23.5
26.4
30.4
38.7
SIGHTS:
Compact
Standard
Tactical
MK 23
Three dot:
Fixed
Fixed
Adjustable
Adjustable
FINISH:
Blue steel slides, colored polymer frames
TRIGGER:
Varies by model and trigger type
GRIPS:
Cast polymer stippling and checkering
PRICE:
Compact
Standard
Tactical
MK 23
$799-$874
$769-$839
$1,019-$1,115
$2,412
*Varies by caliber. Calibers 9x19 and .357 SIG may be offered.
Standard USP
The full-size USP and the Compact are not just "chopped and channeled" versions of each other; they are different in proportion, shape and contour. First, the slide is longer, both in the barrel-length direction and in the slide behind the ejection port. The triggerguard is larger. The grip portion of the frame is larger and not as comfortable as the Compact to hold and shoot. The Compact is smaller in circumference, and I find it to be more comfortable to shoot despite its smaller size. Also, the magazines are not interchangeable. The Compact was shipped with steel magazines while the Standard had polymer magazines. Neither would fit in the other, and despite its larger size, the Standard held one more round of .40 than the Compact did.
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