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Maybe it shoots as well as an Erebus, but I can’t get over the “Block Glock” slide. At least Atlas has some artistry put into it. Not doubting it’s ability, but I just can’t wrap my head around spending that money on a Glock look alike
Who got in on the Zermatt Waltz 9 Pre-order?
- Thread starter ShootFirstFirster
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That's like saying someone can't wrap their head around, spending Atlas money on A1911A1. Look alike.
It’s definitely a more polarizing look. Very industrial/space gun esque? I think it looks a lot cleaner with no iron sights on the front or optic plate and a standard size magwell. But, yah, it’s purely a gamer gun in this iteration and the designers seem to be prioritizing function and performance over form (not that I think it’s ugly, but it’s also not as good looking as many 2011s in my opinion).
At the end of the day though, I was looking for a specific niche gun and use case and also in part am just burned out on every new crazy 2011 that’s come out over the past 3 or so years. I’ve been shooting them over a decade and the hype took the platform and ran with it for a while. Consumer fatigue has set in for many.
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Except the Atlas actually looks better than an A1. But that’s subjective… as is the way I feel about this gun. Believe me, plenty of people have said I was stupid for buying into Atlas. I guess I’m that guy now for this gun.
SilverEndless
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I’m with you on this one. I’m prepared to eat my words on this, but I feel like I saw the same hype from the Laugo Alien. They’re interesting, flat shooting guns, but they're also a pushy heat sink in your hands. In the end, I’m putting my money on another Atlas over this.
I think the alien suffered from the wrong sort of evaluators and they probably should have noticed the heat issue during T&E. IDK how that made it into the production version and they thought it was going to do well as a potential competition gun.
The Waltz9 has had, since the beginning, some of the best competitive shooters and high-level instructors shooting them a ton (several tens of thousands of rounds or more), taking them to classes, having people there shoot them with all kinds of ammo and conditions, purposely not cleaning or replacing parts to see where and how they wear down, many iterations on the tolerances, etc. They have at least one or two guns over at Federal being used as a test fire gun thats only job is to fire whatever they feed it as they do their own internal QC and batch tests on the ammo they're producing and selling. I think that one was supposed to come back after 100k rounds or until it breaks down.
I can't think of many other high end guns that have had this level of input design and thorough testing/transparency on the testing process. Mass produced guns? Sure. But nothing high end.
Once I shot both versions of the Waltz9 I was sold that it was as good as all of the Atlases I've owned (except the Hades and Chaos) and preferable to somthing like the Artemis to me. It's about on par with the Erebus, but I need some dedicated time to figure out what kinds of spicy loads I can source to work the zermatt comp better. Didn't have any hot 147g JHP ammo that day with me to test it on.
I'm not saying people should blindly go in on this, but if you're not going to miss the money it's not a bad bet and as safe as any new design and release I've seen in the past few years. Doubly so in the higher end space. But, I'm also tired of Atlas and most upper mid tier - low high end 2011s and was actively looking for something different, so take that into account too.
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This is a carry gun? USPSA rulebook makes little sense
You're not the first and you'll not be the last to be deeply confused by divisional rulesets and differences. "Carry Optics" or CO is just the name of the division. At a high level - It's any DA/SA/Striker Fired Gun that is on an approved production list (usually 500 units or more produced), equipped with a slide mounted red dot, not comped or ported, without a magwell, and certain mag size restrictions. It's one of the two most competitive divisions in USPSA alongside Limited Optics (basically where SAO guns can reside like 2011s) and that also have red dots and magwells but not comps and ports.
In practice, it's where you'll find guys competing with everything from stock and custom glocks to M&Ps, Walthers, and a lot of the time heavily cajunized CZs like the Shadow 2. Many feel that the differences are so minor and people already gamify their guns so hard in CO that they should just merge the two or at least exclude the CZs and probably the waltz9 eventually from competing with polymer framed striker fired guns and stuff like glocks.
This version of the waltz9 isn't their actual "carry" (CCW) model, but it is technically carry optics division legal once they figure out a replacement for the magwell. The combination of the accuracy, weight of the platform, having a sight blocked barrel, and the light and tactile trigger has a lot of people thinking this will be the new platform to beat in CO (cost notwithstanding). I tend to agree, but, as always, gear is secondary to skill, stage planning, mental game, performance under pressure/controlling nerves, how you move and transition, and the other huge portion of actually shooting that matters way more.
We just saw the other weekend that skill in the right shooter's hands (Eric) beat a similarly skilled competitor shooting one of the best built 2011s ever made (EMG in the hands of Christian). Obviously that was a single event and snapshot in time based on their condition and performance that day, but there's also a sizeable age gap between them and they go back and forth historically on who's come out on top. The only sad thing is an American lost to a Frenchmen.
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