James Bond's Walther PPK?

Thanks for the explanation. I guess adding a PPK in 380 wouldn't be to much of a change. I'd just have to buy a load of 380 to stock up on.

Also, rangerover_95, the Daniel Craig bonds have used the PPK, just not exclusively. The most recent Bond scene where he falls down the scaffolding and gets tangled up in the rope is one example.

Here is the internet movie firearms database page for the PP series:
http://www.imfdb.org/index.php?title=Walther_PP_Pistol_Series
 
The PPK slide does not have enough mass or length of slide stroke to be re-chambered in 9mmP. However, there was a "PPK" clone chambered in 9mm. Called the "Pocket Nine", it was made by a company called Detonics in the late '80's. Basically a scaled up PPK made of cast stainless steel, it used a blowback design, but added an annular ring in the chamber for the case to expand into and delay the slide opening. Of course, this also increased the amount of recoil. Tough on the shooter and the gun.

Hard to shoot, prone to breakage and hard to take apart, the "Pocket Nine" did not last long on the market.......

TR Graham
The Glocksmith
 
I have an early '70's PPK .380(9MM Kurtz) that I carried for many years. It is slim,comfortable to carry,accurate, reliable, and easy to shoot. It was sought after by police officers in that era for off duty/on duty back-up piece.

The .380 is an anemic round, best shot placement is the head at close range; so not a big stopper. I re-evaluated a lot of things after 9/11 and upgraded to a .45 1911.

All that being said, the PPK is a beautiful pistol with a lot of mystique.
 
The PPK is a flawed near obsolete design. The infamous PPK "bite", where the slide cuts the hand webbing, was "solved" by adding an extra long beaver tail. This renders its ccw status less than the older models. The safety's operation is backwards for anyone used to the common sense 1911 safety design, and the safety nob is small and easy to miss when operating under pressure (like in a self defense scenario). Unless the latest version has been changed, the single action is near dangerously too light in my opinion.
Also as was already mentioned, it is quite heavy for what it is.

A Kahr in .380 or 9mm, or 40, or 45 would be a better choice.

KP3833 (2.5" Barrel)
Black polymer frame, matte stainless slide
Specifications (.380 ACP Polymer Frame Model) Model P380
Caliber .380 ACP
Capacity 6+1
Operation Trigger cocking DAO; lock breech; "Browning - type" recoil lug; passive striker block; no magazine disconnect
Barrel 2.5", Premium Lothar Walther Match Grade Barrel
Length O/A 4.9"
Height 3.9"
Slide Width .75"
Weight Pistol 9.97 ounces (w/o magazine)
Grips Textured polymer
Sights Drift adjustable, white bar-dot combat sights
Finish Black polymer frame, matte stainless steel slide
Magazines 2 - 6 rd, Stainless

Model-: PPK
Caliber-: .380ACP
Barrel Length: 3.35"
Dimensions, L/H/W: 6.1"/3.8"/.98"
Weight (without Mag): 20.8 oz.
Sights: Fixed
Magazine Capacity: 6 Rounds
Trigger: DA/SA
Trigger Weight: 13.4 lbs./6 lbs.
 
I have a PPK/S that I bought in ~1976. German made I think, or at least not US. The S means that it has a longer butt that is supposed to make it less concealable. It was made in response to a US regulation about concealable arms. I don't remember the details.

I will confirm the increased "felt recoil". I will also confirm that it is not good for long range plinking. But it is a well made gun with a couple of features I really like.
- has a pin that protrudes when you have a round in the chamber. Day or night you can immediately tell if there's one ready to go.
- from full cock you can put on the safety and the hammer drops and you are in Safe with a block of steel between the pin and the round. Nice.

.380 isn't the best stopping round, I know. But it's not horrible. As for reliability, I have fed a few of boxes of hollow points through it over the years and haven't hung up yet.

It's still a nice gun.
 
TR Graham said:
The PPK slide does not have enough mass or length of slide stroke to be re-chambered in 9mmP. However, there was a "PPK" clone chambered in 9mm. Called the "Pocket Nine", it was made by a company called Detonics in the late '80's. Basically a scaled up PPK made of cast stainless steel, it used a blowback design, but added an annular ring in the chamber for the case to expand into and delay the slide opening. Of course, this also increased the amount of recoil. Tough on the shooter and the gun.

Hard to shoot, prone to breakage and hard to take apart, the "Pocket Nine" did not last long on the market.......

TR Graham
The Glocksmith
Click to expand...

i have a pocket nine FWIW, got it new in '85 or so, to say i liked the detonics .45's better would be an understatement lol, i still dont understand how i sold the combat master and kept the pocket 9 not a smart choice by me, well my wife bought me the thing so i couldnt hardly get rid of it, right? but its kinda like a big bulky heavy PPk with funky sites, mine had the trough thing vs a std rear site but it worked ok i suppose, my pocket 9 seemed reliable, i only put a box or 2 thru it but no problems with ball anyway.

my dad collected walthers and had several, .22 PP, .22 PPk, .22PPk/s, .32 PPk, and a .380 PPk, couple of P38's too, i used to carry the .32 PPk for a while, i chose it as the .380 wasnt real reliable unless ya shot ball, the .32 was ok i suppose, accurate enough and reliable, one of the PP's i got from my dad someone installed adjustable sights and its a great little pistol for the woods, a lot more accurate than ya would think, the walthers in there day were as good a pocket pistol as ya could get imho, of course nowadays a kahr PM9 is almost the same size and weight and imho blows the PPk's away for a SD pistol and i havent shot a PPk for some time now, and yes the slide used to get me some lol.

as far as PPk vs PPk/s the PPk butt wasnt long enough so they put the PPk slide on the longer PP frame and voila ya have the PPk/s, IIRC the std PPk wasnt imported after '68, my PPk .380 is a '68 model FWIW, i never liked the PPk/s's as much as the std PPk or PP i think they look better.
 
Last edited:
Ian Fleming's Bond character dates back to the early 50's. Much of fleming's inspiration came from WW 2. I think a lot of us tend to overlook the fact that a lot of today's ccw choices weren't available then, putting the ppk in a different context.
 
1A---I like the PP and the PPK also.
A State Trooper shot a hog, to be butchered, with his PPK .380. The .380 would not knock the hog down. So a .22 was then used and that did the job.
 
I seem to recall that one Euro manufacturer tried to make a 9mm parabellum design without a locked breech by employing super-heavy springs. So heavy, in fact, that they had to include a disconnect lever so that the action could be cycled by hand.
By all accounts, it didn't work too well; inertial mass of the slide being more important than spring strength.
I hope they had a disconnect from that lever to the trigger.....
 
Ahh, Mr. Bond. Is that not a Walther BB Pistol? By jove, it is!

Picture8-2.png


Take care, lest you put your eye out. That would never do.

In the world of Double Naught spies, not everything is as it seems: http://www.mi6.co.uk/sections/articles/history_transsexual_bond_girl.php3

Walther PPK
(Dr. No -> Tomorrow Never Dies)
Gadget: Walther PPK
Movie: Dr. No -> Tomorrow Never Dies
Owner: James Bond
Status: Standard issue prior to Walther P99
Bond's classic gun, the Walther PPK is introduced in Dr. No when 007's Beretta is replaced by Major Boothroyd, the armourer of the secret service, after a nasty incident when it jammed. Ever since, it has become legendary as the weapon of a secret agent. It's small size with a flat design make it ideal for concealment and the 7.65mm calibre with a 6 round magazine pack a powerful punch. The PPK was introduced in the early 1930's and was initially marketed as a pistol for the German "Criminal Police" (undercover detectives). Ian Fleming chose it as Bond's weapon after consulting with a weapons expert named Boothroyd.

Use
The Walter PPK has been Bond's weapon of choice since the Dr No mission. However Bond had previously been using a Berretta, which was not up to MI6 standards. The PPK has saved Bond's life on a countless number of occasions.

The first victim to the PPK, and Bond's trigger finger was Professor Dent during the Dr No mission who was shot twice also using the silencer. Bond's PPK has not left his side for seventeen missions, it has been replaced a number of times as it was lost or damaged.

Specs

The Walther PPK meets to the following specifications:

Calibre: 7.65mm
Capacity: 6 rounds
Length in total: 6.7 inches
Height: 3.93 inches

That's .32 a.c.p.
 
Last edited:
Oh, I forgot to mention this about my PPK .380.

The first round is double action, subsequent rounds are single action.

You need to flip the safety lever with your thumb to decock it.

This manual of arms is not the best for a self-defense gun and takes lots of practice to get proficient with.
 
knarfeng said:
I have a PPK/S that I bought in ~1976. German made I think, or at least not US. The S means that it has a longer butt that is supposed to make it less concealable. It was made in response to a US regulation about concealable arms. I don't remember the details.
Click to expand...

The Gun Control Act of 1968 decreed that the PPK was 1/10 of an inch (!) too short to be imported into the US.

God, I feel so much "safer"......don't you? :barf:

Walther did not want to lose the US market, so they simply took the sightly longer PP frame and mated it to a PPK slide and barrel. This hybrid pistol was called the PPK/S.

TR Graham
The Glocksmith
 
I have lusted after a .380 PPK for years, but given the drawbacks to the gun in terms of accuracy, reliability, safety and stopping power compared to other more modern choices, there was just always something else on my shopping list that seemed like a better use of my gun-buying funds.

It's still on my shopping list for some day, though... :cool:
 
mwerner said:
I seem to recall that one Euro manufacturer tried to make a 9mm parabellum design without a locked breech by employing super-heavy springs. So heavy, in fact, that they had to include a disconnect lever so that the action could be cycled by hand.
By all accounts, it didn't work too well; inertial mass of the slide being more important than spring strength.
I hope they had a disconnect from that lever to the trigger.....
Click to expand...

Yes, you are correct. The pistol was called the "Dreyse", and was issued in small numbers during the First World War. One of the first blowback pistols chambered in 9mmP. A "clunky" design that could disassemble itself when fired, and quite rare today.

A heavy recoil spring will not significantly delay the opening of the slide - the slide must have sufficiant mass as well....

It took some time for this to be proven. In fact, Smith & Wesson's very first automatic pistol, the .35 caliber M1913, used the same type of action. (a heavy recoil spring and disconnecting "button" on the side of the slide) And yes, I wrote .35 caliber. A strange pistol.

It did not last long on the market......

TR Graham
The Glocksmith
 
Planterz said:
That looks more like a Walther P38 to me.
Click to expand...

It is a Walther, but not a P38. Its a Walther airgun called the LP-3. .177 caliber single shot. Not very useful for a spy.......

Good 'ol Hollywood.

TR Graham
The Glocksmith
 
TR Graham said:
It is a Walther, but not a P38. Its a Walther airgun called the LP-3. .177 caliber single shot.
Click to expand...
Good eye. I guess the barrel does look rather narrow and longer than the P38.

Not very useful for a spy.......

Good 'ol Hollywood.
Click to expand...

Ah, but you're forgetting the cyanide pellets.;)
 
MVF said:
I believe you can get a PPK in .380- still not good stopping power. I've also read and been told they have reliability issues. Really bummed me out because it fits my hand well and points very naturally (for me).
Click to expand...

Chuck Hawks has this on his website(now I don't know Chuck, but the statement below confirms what I have read elsewhere, and was quickly accessible):


The snub nose .38 revolver makes an interesting comparison with the compact .380 ACP semi-auto pistol. Both have about the same stopping power (67-70% with good ammo), and are similar in size and weight. When I found that I could carry the Cobra, literally in every way, interchangably with my Colt Pocketlite .380, I got rid of the little auto. I could shoot the Cobra better, and it proved to be more reliable ("six for sure" with a revolver is no idle boast). For the person who prefers to carry a revolver, a .38 Special snubby is hard to beat.

I own two Colt Mustang pistols(one lightweight, one stainless steel), and with Cor-bon, Silvertip or Hydrashock cartridges, I never felt outgunned. I like the safety setup, construction of the weapon itself, and the triggers are both set around 3 lbs.

.380 acp is certainly not a whalloping round, but if you do your job, it should render a relatively quick resolution to the issue at hand.

Best Regards,

STeven Garsson
 
brizbane said:
Oh, I forgot to mention this about my PPK .380.

The first round is double action, subsequent rounds are single action.

You need to flip the safety lever with your thumb to decock it.

This manual of arms is not the best for a self-defense gun and takes lots of practice to get proficient with.
Click to expand...

the manual of arms is the same as any other DA/SA pistol be it berretta, S&W, ruger, etc etc. and isnt hard to learn imho, i guess its more complicated than a glock or kahr but its no big deal, i really only used the safety on mine as a decocker which might have a drawback or 2, if i dropped the thing, maybe, possibly, but it aint no big deal.

PP= polizie pistol (police pistol)

PPk = polizie pistol kriminal (police pistol detective)

as far as the effectiveness of .380 vs .38 spl they are pretty close but i would probably prefer the .38 spl myself, the PPk is a lot easier imho to carry than most any snub though being thinner and more compact, imho with good ammo the .32 ACP an.380 are pretty close too, a kahr PM9 is a better choice than a snub or a PPk though.
 
I remember a lot of comment about the air pistol when that movie came out. The producers said (rather lamely) that they were trying to show Bond as familiar with all sorts of weapons.
More likely, they just didn't have an appropriate prop gun handy when they did the publicity shoot.

Speaking of props..... In the novel, The Man With The Golden Gun, the bad guy Scaramanga has a highly-decorated .45 colt SAA revolver. He had been a "trick shot" artist in a circus.
In the film, for some reason known only to the producers, they decided to give the Scaramanga character that utterly silly-looking prop gun that looked like a small box with a pipe screwed into one end.
A proper Colt would have been much sexier.... Likely they had trouble getting one.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top