Your thoughts on Walther ppk

[Timberland]

What are your thoughts on the walther PPK, Im concedering one of the new S&W ones, I like the feel, but have heard they are jamomatics with HPs, and still not %100 with hard ball. What are your thoughts on this pistol? Are there others I should consider in their price range?

[hoffmang]

Pluses:

1. They look very cool.

2. They are pretty fun to shoot.

3. The are very concealable and .380 is a decent round if you know where to put rounds.

Minuses:

1. There is this one spring that is a bit of a pain to get back in after field stripping.

2. If you don't get that spring in right you can have FTEs.

3. The slide will only lock back on an empty magazine.

4. Can cause some web of thumb forefinger fatigue.

This is an excellent gun to CCW and look cool to the few people you let know you CCW. Don't make it your only handgun, but its a nice part of the collection and reliable enough to have some trust in in dangerous situations.

-Gene

[bwiese]

I have a Sig P230 which is a tad bigger than a PPK.

380s are 'mouseguns'. They are better than no gun, or a 25ACP.

If you are of any physical stature at all, a small "Officer's ACP" 1911 with 3" or 3.5" bbl is not really that much bigger and is indeed Big Medicine.

[bobfried]

I really liked them several years ago, that is until I got into Mak's and their variants. Up until a few years ago 9x18 Mak was relatively scarce, not anymore obviously. The performance of the round favors the Mak's over similarly sized .380 PPK's. It takes the hottest .38 load to get to the level of a Mak, only thing better are 9x19 Luger and the .38 Special +p+ rounds. Both of the latter not available in a PPK's sized package.

The best part is the recently availability of CZ-82's as C&R eligible. I got my hands on one awhile ago and it's a beautiful little gem. Cost 1/3 of a PPK's, fires a hotter round and has all the ergonomics of a modern CZ in a comparable size package.

AIM will send one to your 01FFL, or you can drive to AZ, UT, NV and pick one of from a shop as a C&R if you have an 03.

http://www.aimsurplus.com/acatalog/Czech_CZ-82_9x18_Pistol.html

For something small woth actual punch I'd stick to a .38 +p+ or a .357 snub nose.

[hoffmang]

Enh... I'm confident that a correctly loaded PPK/S would sufficiently see one through a jam.

That said, I do think that the Sig P230 is slightly more reliable. If I didn't have such personal affection for the PPK, I'd carry the P230 in its stead. I also tend to like the Sig "Operating System" better than most anything else (all my other beloved handguns are Sigs...)

-Gene

[ts]

I never seen james bond's gun jam. haha... never shot one, just wanted to throw that in there.

[aca72]

... I also tend to like the Sig "Operating System" better than most anything else (all my other beloved handguns are Sigs...)

-Gene

+1 on SIG P230 and/or P232.

[JAFGO]

I liked my old Interarms PPK.

I was surprised at just how accurate it was.

It was 100% reliable with everything I fed it. FMJ, JHP, RNL.

BUT, the back of the slide always tore up the web of my hand after 3 or 4 magazines.

And it really was too heavy for what it was. All steel, old world technology.

So in the end I got rid of it. Replaced by a Keltec. I'm much happier with the P32. The PPK is one the few guns that I am NOT sorry I got rid of.

[saki302]

What's the spring you're refering to during field stripping? Is it only on the new S&W guns?

All my old Walthers field stripped into the slide, recoil spring, and frame.
There's the slide release + spring, but it should stay on unless you want to remove it.

-Dave

PS- a big help for the harsh kick of the PPK series is a stiffer Wolff recoil spring- a lot of that recoil is from the slide battering the frame on recoil. With a stiffer spring, it absorbs the energy much better.
I sold my PPK/s when I got a P3AT, but I kept my blued Interarms PPK.

[hoffmang]

It is the spring on 21 in this parts view:

http://www.gunsworld.com/exploded/walthppk.htm

On my PPK/S it has a tendency to pop off when I'm cleaning the gun regardless of whether I want it to or not.

-Gene

[Miltiades]

Attractive little gun

I have an Interarms PPK that I bought used about 9 years ago. I don't shoot it much, but it has never jammed on either hollowpoints or practice ammo, through about 500 rounds. It is surprisingly accurate in single action, although the double action trigger pull is heavy. It has never harmed my hand in shooting, and this seems to depend on the shape of your hand and how you hold the gun.

The gun is very flat and concealable, measuring about 0.80 inches thick and weighing 21 ounces empty. It holds 6+1 rounds of .380. I would agree that .380 is a fairly weak caliber for self defense.

The strong points of the gun are an attractive design and the fact that it is still produced after being introduced to the market in 1928. Not many guns are still commercially viable after 80 years. Here is mine:

[supergimp]

I purchased a used (I think I was the third owner) S&W PPK/S a year or so ago and really like it. That said, I had continual FTF's and was very frustrating when I first got it. I called S&W and they sent me a shipper and returned it in about a week or so. Never had a problem with it since, regardless of ammo.

Now I'm glad I bought it.

+1 for S&W

[Coastey]

I've had my Stainless Steel PPK for over a decade. Since it's a blowback, the hotter the .380 round you use, the snappier the slide return gets and I used the hotter .380's for everything but target shooting. The web of your hand can take a beating after a while at the range. I use to shoot it a lot, but now it sits mostly in the safe because there are lighter guns to carry with more effective cartridges. I still like the way it looks ... guess that's why I keep it.

[461]

Teh Walther PP-PPK-PPK/s are all great guns and I've enjoyed them all over the years. I've never had jamming problems with any ammo and the accuracy is very good, I'm also not prone to having hand biting problems.

All that said, the design has a glaring problem that you need to be aware of, the pistol has no external slide lock so if you do end up with a jam you need three hands to clear it. Jams are a fact of life in any pistol and the ability to clear one quickly is obviously important in a defensive weapon, the Walther does not lend itself well to clearance techniques.

It'll be interesting in 25 years when people say the .357 Mag is "weak for defense" and you really need the .44 at a minimum.

[E. Fudd]

My Interarms PPK stainless took awhile to break-in. When new, would sometimes slide lock w/ rounds still in mag. That eventually went away (?). Been okay since. It had lots of super sharp edges. However, being stainless steel, was not too hard to take off the more offending edges, especially under the slide where it hits the web of the hand. Before, it would seriously give you slide bite.

The newer S&W distrib. ones have a 'beavertail' extension on the back of the frame that should resolve this problem. However, I read nothing but complaints on various Walther forums about the poor reliability of these S&W/Wather PPK's. Maybe they've corrected the problems by now (first year teething problems?). Thought I read somewhere that the warranty folks were replacing some under powered spring, but don't recall the details...

Anyway, fun little gun. I don't find the recoil as snappy as some of the aluminum frame DA/SA .380's I've had in the past.

Plus, you can send it off to Cylinder and Slide and pay beaucoup bucks to get yourself an Uber-PPK... Very cool package, but the price...