GUNS Magazine The HK VP70Z

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The blowback operated HK VP70Z is the very image of simplicity. The recoil spring telescopes around the barrel.

Dieter Wiess had been an auto mechanic in Frankfurt before the world ended. The Soviets swarmed across the border just after midnight on a Thursday in February of 1974, literally paving the way with tactical nuclear strikes on communications and logistics nodes in his hometown. His being out of Frankfurt on holiday was the only reason he had survived. Everybody he cared about died in the fireball.

NATO finally stopped the Warsaw Pact armored spearheads in western France with its own nuclear weapons. Now six weeks later both sides paused to catch their collective breath. In Soviet-occupied territory the NKVD was an omnipresent threat.

Dieter had literally nothing for which to live for so he unleashed his insensate hatred on the invaders. He killed his first Soviet soldier with a shovel. Then he met a few like-minded patriots and got organized. An American Special Forces team had been operating in the area until they were compromised, captured and shot. Before they were caught, however, they had passed on a cardboard box filled with strange plastic pistols.

Each Heckler and Koch VP70 sported a detachable shoulder stock and a radical polymer frame. The box contained five pistols, spare magazines, and a case of 9mm ball ammunition. It warmed Dieter’s heart these partisan guns were actually made in West Germany.

Dieter struck out after curfew with the sleek ray gun-looking weapon stuffed into the pocket of his trench coat. He didn’t really have a plan. He would kill the first Russian he found and take his weapon. He would keep on going until he got to the Kremlin, at which point he would figure out something else.

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The otherwise unadorned HK VP70Z was sufficiently radical to earn itself a billet as the issue handgun
for the U.S. Colonial Marines in the James Cameron sci-fi epic Aliens.

We Came Terrifyingly Close …

The HK VP70 was originally designed as a partisan weapon equipping unconventional operators like Dieter in the event of World War III in Europe. These sleek polymer pistols were designed to be cheap to make and easy to use. Thank the Good Lord we never had to use them.

The revolutionary HK VP70 debuted in, you guessed it, 1970, at the apogee of the Cold War. Originally intended as a machine pistol, the VP70 came in two variants. The VP70M (Militar) features finger grooves on the front of the grip and is cut to accept a detachable polymer shoulder stock. The stock contains a fire control mechanism offering semiauto fire along with a 3-round burst function. In burst mode the gun cycles at 2,200 rounds per minute.

The VP70Z (Zivil) variant is semiauto only, has a smooth front strap, and will not accept the shoulder stock. There were 400 VP70Z variants chambered for 9x21mm and marketed to the Italian civilian market. The Italian government severely restricts guns chambered for military calibers hence the 9x21mm. These Italian pistols would accept the shoulder stock but would not fire bursts.

The safety on the VP70Z is a simple crossbolt oriented just behind the trigger. What looks like a safety on the military version is just a non-functional plug. The detachable buttstock also serves a holster in the manner of the C96 Broomhandle or stocked Browning Hi-Power.

The VP70 is lightweight at 29 oz. empty and thoroughly reliable. It runs via unlocked blowback, so there really isn’t much to fail. This does, however, result in a fairly impressive charging weight to get the gun into action. The recoil spring telescopes around the barrel in the manner of the Walther PPK.

The double-column, double-feed 18-round magazine operates like a submachine gun and was paradigm shifting. The magazine release is a thumb-activated paddle after the European fashion, but it still runs okay. The slide does not lock back over an empty magazine.

The gun also features a revolutionary sighting system. The rear sight is conventional enough, but the front sight consists of a hollow ramp with a groove cut in the center. The end result is a weird negative space sort-of affair that runs well and is indestructible.

The gun’s rakish lines landed it several sci-fi movie roles. The most memorable was as the standard-issue United States Colonial Marine handgun in the epic James Cameron movie Aliens.

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The HK VP70Z eventually spawned such rarefied polymer-framed handguns as this ZEV OZ9. The VP70Z
featured a simple crossbolt safety behind the trigger.

The Unpardonable Sin

Remember, the VP70 was designed to be an inexpensive but reliable partisan weapon with which to prosecute World War III. As a result the gun was designed to be as simple as possible. This meant a radical double-action-only striker-fired trigger. While this same basic concept would be perfected 12 years later and monetized by Gaston Glock into the most successful combat handgun of the modern age, the HK version was way too much, way too soon.

The trigger on the VP70 is conceptually awesome but functionally hideous. The pull weight is measured in short tons. No kidding, I can’t get through a full 18 rounds without taking a breather. The trigger is long but consistent and stacks noticeably at the end. One final massive grunt at the terminus finally drops the striker and fires the weapon. It’s the worst trigger I have ever squeezed.

Shooting the VP70 is neither fun nor particularly satisfying. The VP70 pioneered the striker-fired ignition system and polymer frame we all enjoy these days. However, the wretched trigger doomed the gun to obscurity.

Pulling down on the latch located within the trigger guard allowed the slide to be pulled back, up and off.

Ruminations

HK has a gift for combining mass production techniques with impeccable quality to produce some of the finest combat firearms in the world. The MP5 is a perfect example of a stamped steel SMG incorporating both precision and reliability. The VP70, however, was an epic fail.

VP stands for Volkspistole (“People’s Pistol”) and it was indeed a valiant effort. Had the Soviet hordes come pouring through the Fulda Gap, the VP70, despite its many manifest flaws, would have no doubt wrought holy heck on the Russian dogfaces forced to do the Politburo’s dirty work. Fortunately, the VP70 is little more than a curious Cold War trinket.

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