Walther PPK Review

The Walther PPK, let’s check it out.

 

The Walther PP was designed in 1929. It stands for police pistol and it was made for police units, but it was also adopted by the German army in World War II for officers.

It was a very popular handgun, predominantly in 32 ACP, but also made in 380. But in 1931, the PPK was introduced. It was a shortened version of the PP and made for undercover police agents and those in plain clothes.

But it was also adopted by the German army as a military sidearm for officers. But what really led the PPK to fame, at least here in the U.S., was James Bond. Bond, James Bond.

And he carried the PPK in many of the movies. Originally starting out with a Beretta Model 418, which was in 25 ACP, they upped the game with 380. Now my original PPK I had for years and I gave it to my father.

He was in a car wreck and the gun was in the glove box and it was completely crushed. And just recently I was at a gun shop and I picked up another PPK because this is a legendary pistol. But we’re going to take a look at the PPK, all the details, but also we’re going to look at pros, but we’re also going to look at cons.

But the biggest appeal of the PPK is Elvis Presley carried one for self-defense. Not a bad look for over 80 years in production. The Walther PPK.

Of course this isn’t a stainless steel. It originally came in a blued steel. Has a rich history behind it and it’s still carried by a lot of people even today.

Just a very classic look. This is definitely a barbecue gun, maybe something you would take out to dinner with your wife. And it’s just a very sleek, beautiful gun.

All metal frame, all metal slide, and it’s definitely weighty. It is a blowback action which actually increases the recoil or the felt recoil. Now before we get started let’s go ahead and drop our magazine.

We have a magazine release here at the top which is different from a lot of the European early designs. And then we have a six round magazine. In today’s standards that’s really low, but that’s what it came with.

And let’s go ahead and check to make sure the gun is unloaded and it is. Now the hammer comes back. It is a double single action.

With the hammer in the rear position it’s a very short trigger pull. With the hammer down you have a double action trigger pull. So as we pull it it’s a very heavy but super smooth glide to it.

Also with the hammer in the rear position you can take and just decock it. And now it’s on safety so it deactivates the trigger. But then if you push it up it’s ready for double action.

And so you can carry it very safe in this mode. Now one of the things about the PPK again is that it does have a history of warfare. It has a history of police and it also has a history of self-protection.

And of course James Bond again made this extremely popular here in the U.S. A lot of these were coming back as war trophies right after World War II. The GIs were bringing these home and you know it was just really a nice pistol just on its own. But once Ian Fleming’s books came out and this was the main pistol that was used, it became legendary.

Of course the big brother of the PPK is the PP and for police pistol. It has a little bit of a longer barrel. It actually has seven rounds, a little bit longer grip.

And you can see that it definitely is just a slightly larger handgun. But this made it just a little more concealable. This was carried as a sidearm by a lot of police forces and was carried for a number of years.

My brother had a Manurin PP and it was licensed under Walther. It was a great gun. He still has it today.

I mean it’s just a very quality handgun. One of the things about these guns too, it has a fixed barrel design and so it lends to really good accuracy. But of course this is in the blued steel versions and they still make the PPK in a blue version.

But the stainless steel seems to be very popular. PPK does stand for police pistol criminal. Now why they named it that, I don’t know.

But again, a lot of people thought that it is curse, which I thought it was curse, which means short. And .380 ACP is nine millimeter curse. So you know it kind of led me to think that.

One thing about this pistol too is it was really prominent in .32 ACP and then moved up to .380. And it’s really no longer made in .32, it’s only made in .380 ACP. But it is made in .22 and a lot of times the Walther PPs that you find on the used market, especially police trade-ins, are .32 ACP. But the 1968 Gun Control Act limited importation of smaller firearms.

And so the PPK did not quite make the cut. It was a bit smaller than what was required to be imported. And so Walther started making the PPKS.

And this just has a little bit of a longer grip. And that’s pretty much it. It does have a little bit more of a tang with the beaver tail.

This is actually a little more pleasant to shoot. One thing about this little beaver tail, the nub here, if you’re not careful, you get some slide bite. Even though I have fairly medium hands.

If you have large hands, it’s really kind of devastating to shoot this. Mainly because we have such a high ride grip on our handguns now. I’m used to getting it up as high as I can and with that you have a danger of getting that slide bite.

And so really it takes a little bit of conscious effort to hold it to where you’re not going to get that. And some people have actually experienced hammer bite. And that is if you have really meaty hands that can be an issue.

And it’s one of the reasons why the PPK is not as popular as it could be. Because a lot of guys that have bigger hands shy away from the PPK. Many will go to the PPKS, which definitely helps.

But even this can give you a little bit of slide bite if your hands are pretty meaty. Now they typically come with the black carbonate plastic type grips. You have a commander hammer.

Of course the stainless steel finish is really nice on these. I mean this one has been used. I bought it at a local gun shop and you know I paid fairly premium dollar for these.

There’s a little bit of texturing here on the back strap. It is a full wraparound grip and there’s no texturing here at the front. The finger groove definitely helps when you grab the pistol.

It just kind of locks that pinky in. Again for smaller hands. It’s going to be easier to shoot this with larger hands.

It’s going to be difficult to get that. This particular model was made by Interarms and they were the first ones to start producing these in Virginia under license of Walther. Smith & Wesson did for a number of years and then Walther opened up their own facility in 2018 and started producing them right here in the U.S. Low profile sights.

So you have a little orange here at the back and you have a little white dot at the front. It does have some serrations all along the top just to cut off the glare. And of course being stainless steel it can be a little bit shiny.

But it has a matte finish at the top and then it’s more of a polished on the flats and that goes all the way throughout the pistol. But while it’s not a very high polish it’s more of a little bit of a satin polish to it. It’s not ambidextrous.

You get what you get. But man I’ll tell you it just fits really well in the hand and that’s one of the reasons why this handgun has lasted as a self-defense option for a long time. The magazine release is really high up though on the grip panel.

Typically you’ll have them about right here right behind the trigger guard. And so while it’s better than having it as a heel type mag release it’s definitely a little bit of a switch to get it up there and to hit it. But that keeps you from inadvertently hitting that mag release.

The serrations with the decocker allow you to be able to grab hold very easily and pull back. Now once you pull back there’s no slide release. So you have to remove the magazine first to be able to drop that slide unless you have a round in the chamber and then it’ll just go forward.

Again hammer’s in the back position. We just drop it. To ring off our safety it gives us that double action trigger pull.

Front end is fairly rounded off. There are a few sharp edges but it does give you some area right here to make this a little more rounded. And of course you can see this area that kind of covers the barrel.

Barrel length is 3.3 inches in length. It’s one inch in width. I mean it is super thin, easy to carry.

And it’s about 6.1 inches in overall length. I mean it is a great concealed carry size. But again you do have that all steel frame and so it gives it just a little bit of weight.

Weight on the PPK. One pound five ounces. Weight on the Glock 42.

14.2 ounces. But the PPK is also a much copied handgun. Here we have a number of different options that are pretty close and the Sig P232 is definitely in a class by itself.

It’s a little bit larger. Excellent shooting gun but it is single stack 380 ACP. Then we have the Polish P64 which again in fact this has even less of a nub right here but it drops it down lower.

So when you’re firing it it still has that blowback action and it still has a quite a bit of recoil for 380 ACP. Then here we have just a Beretta and this is the Model 70S. It’s actually single action but it is in 380.

And then we have a but pretty much carry the same design as the PPK or really more like the PP because it’s a little bit larger. We really appreciate Fiocchi for sponsoring the ammo. All made in the USA.

Shooting some 95 grain 380 full metal jacket. It’s going about 960 feet per second. Well the PPK used during World War II by officers especially the PP model.

This is a very small compact pistol but really what put it on the map again is James Bond. I mean definitely a very classic firearm. 380 ACP while it’s not really you know a highly ballistic round for self-defense it’s capable.

And the one thing about the PPK is that it’s very accurate. It’s got a fixed barrel blowback single stack mag but you just get those shot placements that’s what counts. Really thin and that’s one thing about it you know even with the micro nines it’s not as thin as this.

All steel frame so it gives a little bit of weight but man it just shoots extremely well. 380 ACP doesn’t put out a lot of recoil but with the blowback it does give it a little more recoil than some of your striker fire or you know standard pistols. And so you’re going to have a little recoil.

The steel frame helps but you’ll notice that it’s a little bit more than a lot of the modern 380s. Well the target camera was off. This is our first group.

This is our second group. It is shooting to the left just a touch but not a bad group for six rounds. Now for disassembly.

Now we’re going to drop our magazine. Check my gun. Make sure it’s unloaded.

This is a fixed barrel design so it disassembles differently than a lot of other pistols. The trigger guard actually comes down. Now one thing about this with the trigger guard is that typically it’ll rest right on the frame.

In fact here with the PPKS you can see that it’ll just rest but for some reason this isn’t doing it. Okay so what we want to do is is drop our trigger guard and then we’re going to bring back our slide rearward and then lift up. So you just lift up and then it comes right off and then you have your recoil spring.

And again the barrel is fixed to the frame which lends a really good accuracy and PPs and PPKs are known for good accuracy. But very simple design. Just that double action in a really small package.

And then here we have the slide. You can see firing pin. The decocker right here.

And the finish is a matte finish inside. These are very well done and just beautiful craftsmanship. Now for reassembly.

Just bring in your recoil spring. Put it back over your barrel. Bring your slide over your barrel and drop down on your trigger guard.

Bring it all the way back. Drop it back onto the slide rails. Insert your magazine.

Test for function. And we’re good to go. Very simple.

Now a very comparable modern option is your Glock Model 42 and 380 ACP. Six rounds. About the same size as your PPK.

I mean they are very close. One of the big pluses for the Glock is that it is a polymer frame striker fire pistol and the way it’s set up it does have a tilt barrel. So it’s going to give you actually less felt recoil with the handgun.

This is a very soft gun to shoot. Again with the blowback action it’s going to give you a little bit more recoil. Other thing is that it’s a lot heavier than your Glock 42.

And so this is just going to give you a lighter weight option, less recoil, still the same amount of rounds. But honestly even when it comes to the LCP or the LCP Max which we have right here. This is a 10 round option and yet it’s actually smaller than the PPK and it’s lighter.

And you can see it is a smaller gun but with the higher round capacity this is one of my concealed carry options if I really want to go deep cover. And so this is just a great option and honestly the recoil is actually a little milder than it is on the blowback of the PPK. But it sure doesn’t look as good as the PPK and neither does the Glock 42.

This is just a beautiful gun. We also have the Walther PPKS in .22 long rifle. We did a review on this one.

It is just an excellent shooting little gun. It gives you that classic PPK look and yet it’s .22 long rifle so it’s really cheap to shoot. If you want to up your game there is the P365 in .380 ACP and it carries 10 plus 1 so it’s definitely about the same size as well and it gives you more capacity with less felt recoil.

Now when it comes to price, manufacturer suggested retail is $850. Honestly on the used market these are running about $800. Gun shows, gun shops, wherever.

In fact they had about five or six at the local gun shop where I bought this one and they all were in that $800 range. Some were a little bit more expensive. There was actually a German PPK there that was much more expensive.

And really collectible as far as war trophies and different guns from overseas the prices can really get extravagant when it comes to the PPK. So why buy a PPK? Well it definitely has a big pedigree. For over 80 years this pistol has been a concealed carry option also used by the German military but one of the big ones is that it is one of the guns James Bond used and that’s really what makes this legendary.

Hitler actually had a 32 PPK that he allegedly committed suicide with and so then you have the infamous going on and again Elvis Presley beautiful engraved PPK that he carried. It’s very reliable, it’s very accurate and the craftsmanship is just beautiful. But some cons.

It’s definitely a little bit heavy. It only holds six rounds in the magazine but the blowback action actually increases the felt recoil. But the PPK is unmatched in beauty, craftsmanship.

I mean it is old world craftsmanship over 80 years in production and it just is legendary and that in itself is the reason why I love the PPK. But the biggest plus of carrying a PPK is you can order a dry martini stirred not shaken and you can say I’m Bond, James Bond and I have a license to kill. So guys just the historical significance of the PPK make it very appealing.

As far as a self-defense firearm it is capable but there are again some drawbacks. It’s a very classic design. It’s one of those legendary firearms that you really want in your collection.

I mean if it’s good enough for James Bond, Hitler, Elvis Presley, I mean that’s the triple threat.

 

Be strong, be of good courage. God bless America, long live the Republic.

 

-Don