James Bond's Walther PPK?

mykulmorris

mykulmorris

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James Bond prefers the Walther PPK (I know it's just a Movie but hey...). Is anyone familiar with it's stopping power/reputation/reliability? Mods feel free to move this to the right forum if this isn't it.
-Michael
 
Bond's PPK is a .32 which is a pretty anemic cartridge--especially for such a big and heavy gun. Today you can get a 9mm that weighs just a tad more than half what a PPK weighs. While cool, the PPK is yesterdays technology. (I used to own a PPK/s.)
 
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).
 
In the newer Bond movies, he no longer uses the PPK but the P99 instead, which IIRC, is a .40 cartridge. There are other models, some using 9mm, and the S&W version, the SW99, that uses .45 ACP rounds as well.
 
mykulmorris said:
James Bond prefers the Walther PPK (I know it's just a Movie but hey...). Is anyone familiar with it's stopping power/reputation/reliability? Mods feel free to move this to the right forum if this isn't it.
-Michael
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Reputation - As it was one of the first "double-action" pistols, the PPK has been a popular pistol world wide since its introduction in 1931. Walther's reputation for quality is well known. The pre-world war II PPKs in particular are very, very well made.

Power - PPKs have been chambered in .22LR, 6.35mm (.25 ACP - very rare), 7.65mm (.32 ACP - by far the most common chambering) and 9mmk (.380ACP). The PPK is a blowback design, not a locked breech, and is not suited for use with more powerful cartridges. All of these rounds are very weak compared to 9mmP, .40 S&W and .45 ACP.

Reliability - The pistol itself is very robust, and few parts will break even with extended use. However, the PPK was designed to use full metal jacketed ammunition of a certain weight and overall length, depending on the cartridge. (the lead bulleted .22 would be the only exception to this) "Modern" hollowpoint designs can sometimes give trouble in feeding.

Ian Fleming "armed" his creation Bond with the PPK (chambered in 7.65mm/.32 ACP) because it was a widely available (especially after WWII) and was a more powerful pistol than what he had Bond originally carry - a .25 ACP Beretta M418. However, Fleming rated the PPK "fourth after the Japanese M14, the Russian Tokarev and the Sauer M38...." (Dr. No, chapter two, "Choice of Weapons")

Even though there were designs as good or even better than the PPK, (Mauser HsC and the already mentioned Sauer M38 for example) the lasting popularity of the Bond books and films made the Walther PPK a iconic pistol that is popular even today. (Another example of an "iconic" pistol would be "Dirty Harry's" S&W M29 .44 Magnum .....)

TR Graham
The Glocksmith
 
You can search the internet and find lists of all the guns used by James Bond - the books and the films.

I'm a huge fan of the PPK - it fits me like part of my hand. It's easy to fire and aim, and the metal construction gives it a 'feel' of quality. FYI, they're made in the USA now by Smith and Wesson.

Stopping power? I have no doubt that even the smaller caliber could be lethal, and the .380 ACP is the same diameter as a 9mm.
 
Scott Free said:
Bond's PPK is a .32 which is a pretty anemic cartridge--especially for such a big and heavy gun. Today you can get a 9mm that weighs just a tad more than half what a PPK weighs. While cool, the PPK is yesterdays technology. (I used to own a PPK/s.)
Click to expand...

Bond had a .32 Beretta which he liked and was given / forced to take the PPK in .380 by 'M'. 380 acp is a small round but it is not what I would call anemic, it has about 2/3 rds the power of a 9mm. When it comes right down to it I would not want to be shot by either of them.

As far as a .380 goes I don't like the PPK because of the slide mounted safety lever. I would use the SIG P230 if I wanted that type of pistol.

.380 would not be my carry choice but probably neither would 9mm; I'd most likely carry my Glock 20 in 10mm. It's amazing how much difference that one little millimeter makes.
 
In the books up until FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE Bond's Beretta was a .25, after which (DR NO, I think) he was forced to trade it for the Walther.
I was surprised that in the newest Bond movie he's back to carrying the PPK!
S
 
Ian Flemings brother wrote a hilarious book about a trip to the Amazon !! If you can find it it 's a great read !!
 
Gargs said:
I was surprised that in the newest Bond movie he's back to carrying the PPK!
Click to expand...

That made me so happy. Not that there's anything wrong with the P99, it's just not the sexy kind of gun Bond should use. The P99 is a large, full sized gun, way less concealable, plastic, dull, and lacking any style.
 
I forgot to say it made me happy too!! Probably the 'world's most photogenic gun!' Of course, I believe he picks up a SIG or two along the way when he's fighting, but still...a good old PPK! How cool is that?
 
Off the Gadgets & Gear. :rolleyes:
 
Bond had his pet Beretta .25, then had the .32 Walther forced on him. :)
Two marginal choices, but both very concealable.
They each fit nicely between the covers of every Bond book they appeared in. :D

Denis
 
I owned a stainless .380 PPK/s back in the 80's and liked it. Obviously, concealability is its main strength, and 25 years ago, it was one of the premier semi-autos in that role. Today, however, as has been already pointed out, there are several other pistols out there of equal quality that pack more punch in a lighter package. Ths closest thing to a complaint I could muster with mine is that the D/A trigger required a good bit of muscle.
 
I wanted a PPK, but at the time I was hot to get one, they had instituted all that import nonsense and the price was through the roof.
So, I bought a PP. Same gun, longer barrel. It was in .380. I actually carried it for a while, but I kept reading stories of shootings with the little thing that didn't go well...

Not a lot of decent ammo available for the .380 back then; I fooled with some handloads.
Nice little guns; as the guys say you can get a 9mm in about the same package nowadays.

Fleming, like many Brit authors, had a rather sketchy knowledge of firearms. Odd, he was a military/intelligence type after all. In one of the early books, he describes Bond's .25 (the one they took away from him) as having a "sawn" barrel and "skeletonized" grips. Hard to imagine on a .25.... He evidently thought the .38 special from a 2" barrel to be quite a powerful weapon.
 
Here's what I want to know: Why is the PPK not offered in 9mm Luger? I don't want to add another caliber to the stable. Couldn't it handle the recoil today? Anyone do conversions?
 
A friend of mine had a PPK (.380) that I shot several times. As far as stopping power goes, I'd pack it with glasers or similar rounds. It was fun to shoot, but I gotta tell you, We're both decent shots and we had a heck of a time getting any meaningful accuracy at any distance. Close up is ok, but forget about any long range plinking. Just my experience... my two cents. Hopes this helps.
 
xdshooter said:
Here's what I want to know: Why is the PPK not offered in 9mm Luger? I don't want to add another caliber to the stable. Couldn't it handle the recoil today? Anyone do conversions?
Click to expand...

With few exceptions, self-loading semi-automatic pistols use either a blowback or recoil operated action to cycle each shot. Generally, .380 (9x17mm) and smaller use blowback, and 9x19mm (9mm Luger) and above use recoil. The Walter PPK in all calibers use blowback. 9x19mm is too powerful for blowback actions, and designing a PPK to use recoil would basically be designing an entirely different pistol.

The reasons for using blowback and not recoil on a lower-power cartridge pistol is that the pistol by design and intent would be light, meaning that there's not enough mass in the slide to overpower a stiff enough spring to cycle the action. Also, a higher powered cartridge might just be too much power; ironically .380 blowback pistols tend to have more "felt" recoil than 9mm recoil pistols.

The reasons for using recoil (and not blowback) on higher-power cartridge pistol is that recoil is sufficient to knock the slide back cycle the action, and blowback would simply be too much oompf.

The one notable exception is the Heckler and Koch P7 series (9x19mm or .40S&W), which while using a blowback action, uses a gas actuated piston to delay (reduce) the blowback. And then there's the H&K P9S, but that's a different mechanism altogether.
 
Good point about the recoil of blowback style centerfire pistols. As I recall, the recoil of the .380 PPK, while certainly not unmanageable, was not insignificant either.
 
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