The rear of the frame comes back far enough to protect your hand from the slide--always a concern on compact pistols.

Changing the backstraps is easy. Remove the magazine. Remove any ammo from the chamber because you'll be handling the pistol. On the bottom of the backstrap, inside the mag well, there's a latch. With your forefinger on the backstrap, pinch the latch and pull the backstrap down and away. Press the new one up and in until it latches.

The trigger on the PPS is a revelation. The pistol is a striker-fired design where you cock the striker as part of the trigger stroke. On the PPS the trigger feel is simple: You take up the slack (which is the cocking part of things), and then you press through the clean, crisp pull that feels a whole lot like a 1911 trigger. Let it forward to reset, and repeat. The out-of-the-box trigger on this PPS is better than some custom guns I've shot. We may have had to wait a while for it, but someone has finally made a factory striker-fired pistol with a really good trigger on it. Those of you who are familiar with PPC competition, think of a light and smooth DA where the trigger stop is a little rubber bump: Pull out the slack, then finish while refining your aim. The trigger is so good it would serve well in competitive shooting. The literature says it is 6.1 pounds, but hand it to someone (I did) and you'll get guesses from three to five.

The magazine release is the latest in Germanic design. The lower part of the triggerguard has a hinged lever, and you press that lever down to release the magazine. It takes some getting used to. However, it is ambidextrous, unobtrusive and, considering that there is absolutely no room on the frame for a customary (to American shooters) magazine button, pretty clever. Not new but still clever.

The ejection port looks like something iron-chewing beavers might have had a hand in designing. Looking at it, it appears pretty radical. However, the engineering aspects of it are quite clever. The forward-angled lower part of the port clears live rounds when you need to unload. The angled part on top and in front strengthens the slide. The depression at the rear provides a good view of the chambered cartridge, thus qualifying as a loaded-chamber indicator for importation. The barrel is your standard tilt-drop modified Browning type, simple in design and easy to fabricate to precise dimensions.

VELOCITY COMPARISON
LOAD	BULLET WEIGHT (gr.)	AVG. VELOCITY (PPS)	AVG. VELOCITY (BHP)
Black Hills JHP	115	1,150	1,244
Zero JHP	115	1,138	1,209
Winchester Silvertip	115	1,096	1,173
Winchester FMJ	115	1,050	1,123
Hornady JHP/XTP	115	1,060	1,133
Black Hills JHP	124	1,106	1,152
Remington Golden Saber JHP+P	124	1,102	1,189
MagTech JHP	124	1,026	1,076
Hornady XTP/JHP	124	1,046	1,109
Remington Golden Saber JHP	147	930	952
Zero FMJ	147	902	940
Hornady XTP/JHP	147	948	977
Pistols used were an A&W PPS (3.2-inch bbl.) and a Browning Hi-Power (4.7-inch bbl.) Abbreviations: JHP, jacketed hollow point; FMJ, full metal jacket

Taking it apart is easy: Drop the magazine. Work the slide to remove any chambered cartridge. Close the slide; depress the two locking latches, one on either side of the frame; and slide the upper off of the lower.

The slide and barrel are steel, given the latest high-tech Germanic surface finish, while the lower is one of the many wonder plastics, impervious to all known solvents, including New Jersey tap water. In the course of thrashing the poor little beast, I tried a dozen different factory loads and ended up putting a case and a half of ammo through it before sending it off to our studio photographer. (Sorry about the casual cleaning job, Mustafa.)

In all that ammo the PPS never failed to function properly. The ejection pattern was quite interesting. With some loads, the brass would be flung far and fast and out to the right and back. Other loads, the brass wouldn't go more than 10 feet, and some went forward a bit. A few empties even landed to my left, but I think they got there from bouncing off the nearby post. The brass is obviously hitting the slide at some time in the cycle, with the peculiarities of each load affecting the timing of each ejection. Reloaders will just have to get over it. Most important for those who carry, they all got out.