As I promised a few days ago, here is the range report from taking the Walther PPS, Winchester White Box, and Winchester SXZ (both variants) to the range a few days ago.

1. I miss my magazine loader. It is scant more than two little pieces of plastic and a spring, but it saves you so very much thumb pain. And it is worth however little I paid for it.

2. The PPS is a blast to shoot, figuratively and literally. It is well-balanced, and despite having its barrel at an arguably higher offset from your hand than similar firearms, the recoil is more than manageable, making follow-up shots quite easy, even for me. It is kind of annoying to have to reload every seven rounds, but that is what I get for a compact firearm. The grip, however, is very different from both my Baby Eagle and the Beretta 92s / M9s I trained with in the military... just a different way of holding my hand and the grip, and placing the area between my index finger and thumb. Mostly the latter, really - the PPS seems to like you tucking that part of your hand up deep into the area made for it on the grip. Otherwise, I had an annoying left-handed drift on my shooting, but something tells me that will correct with practice and time on the range... now I just need to make the time, and find the funds for the rounds. Oh, and as for the literal aspect of being a blast, the shorter barrel makes the gun a wee bit louder, at least in my limited experience.

3. SXZ is definitely different from White Box. In terms of geometry, mass, and range performance, they seem more or less identical. However, the White Box rounds had a definitive yellow flash on firing, and I am tempted to say the muzzle flash created a six-pointed effect as well. The SXZ, on the other hand, had a very red flash, and it came out as something of a ring. From my naive and uneducated point of view, I would venture a guess that the two different rounds use different powders. The differences between the training and personal protection variants of the SXZ, however, were not noticeable, if there even are any. I was just as accurate with one than the other, and both had the same kick, flash, and everything else (at least as far as my hand dyno (which is about as accurate as my butt dyno) could tell).

4. Boresnakes are gods among cleaning devices. That is all that needs to be said on that topic.

And that is about that. Next up, my holster got here... shiny!