Recoil- Airweight J-frame vs. .380 PPK

If you like the PPK sized guns, try either a east german or bulgarian makarov. I think they're a bit heavy, but they're insanely reliable and very accurate. 9x18 makarov is a bit more powerful. With after market grips and a stronger recoil spring, the recoil is very manageable. You can easily convert them to .380 too. And i've never heard a complaint about the bersa .380s. I'm to understand their CCW .380 is one of the best .380s out there.

I have and carry both a PPK/S and a 642. As far as recoil, the PPK has less, but that edge on the beavertail will cut. I'm going to do something about mine.
I don't see that as a reason not to carry the PPK/S over the snubbie, though. Reliability would be the other factor, though. Most PPK/S take a few boxes to "shoot in," and some never do, going by the anecdotal evidence (or people just give up on them.).
As far as stopping power, the .380 in the hottest loads (Buffalo Bore, Corbon) is essentially as strong a the .38 +P with the smaller bullets (barrel length figure in here). But the firepower favors the auto. I can put eight shots on target in less time than I can five. Double taps with the PPK/S are very fast and accurate. Try that with a snubbie! I can also carry 15, or even 22 rounds in magazines and pistol, ready to deploy pretty quickly.
So, for me, it's pretty much a wash. If I could only own one, I suppose I'd keep the 642, just because it should be ulitimately more reliable. But the PPK/S is an outstanding piece.

PPK >< J-frame

More or less everything I could add has already been said, but I'm willing to share my own experience with both my Walther PPK .380 and S&W mod 640 (steel, not airweight).
It would be a painful choice but if forced to, I would prefer to keep my 640 and let the PPK go.

DA trigger pull on the Walther actually feels not bad at all, even better than that on my CZ-75B 9mm.
Also, I don't have large hands, so the PPK never "bit" or cut me.
It's just about as accurate as my 640, & has higher round capacity.
It does however recoil sharply and unpleasantly.
I blame that on the grip shape : with the factory (flat, plastic) grip panels I can hardly shoot it at all. So far the only substitute I found are wood NILL grips , which are beautiful but very expensive & do not really fit my hand perfectly.
(Someone mentioned Pachmayrs that wrap around the backstrap, but my PPK doesn't have any backstrap at all )
My biggest problem with my PPK is its less-than-100%-reliability. Failures to feed are too common fro a SD pistol, about twice tot three times per 50 rounds.
The 640 on the other hand has an unblemished reliability history, and with Pachmayrs compac grips or Uncle Mike's, I can control it better than the Walther,even when shooting rather -for me- stiff .38 spl loads (158 gr. swc & 5.3 gr W-231).
Therefore, although I have no experience with Airweight J- frames, strictly for SD, I would opt for the S&W.
On the other hand, I think my PPK is way cool, & I' m keeping it anyway.

Chriske raises an interesting point re: reliability/dependability. If your life may depend on something going "bang" absolutely every time (999/1000 or better), then I think ANY autoloader is NOT the choice. Even super reliable .45s I own CAN misfeed; revolvers, unless there is a timing issue, bad ammo, or severe operator error, go bang every time.

That said, the PPK/S is an interesting autoloader. Some people say the Bersa is more reliable, and I've not tried one, but the PPK/S, from what I've read and experienced, needs to be "shot in." That is, it needs at least a couple hundred rounds through it before it settles into a completely reliable pattern. It's also my experience that the factory mags come with springs that are way too tight - you can hardly get the last couple of rounds in! I believe this contributes to nearly all the FTFs I've had (3 or 4), most of which were upon initial charging of the pistol from a full mag.
Hence, I would suggest that reliability for the PPK/S shoud be measured ONLY after the break-in period, say, after a couple hundred rounds, and the magazines being left loaded for a couple weeks.
Since the first week and 75 rounds, mine has been perfect.
Just a thought...

I have a PPK/S and a J frame. Frankly, I don't see much difference in the recoil. But I am more accurate with the Walther. It has better sights. Of course, I'm not sure that makes much difference in the typical self defense situation. My Walther is heavier and while I like to carry it in my back pocket, it is too heavy to be comfortably carried in my front pocket.

I love the PPK, in principle and on paper but I find my 442 much easier to shoot well. I was going to buy a PPK right up until the day I finally shot one.

I do not have a Walther PP, but I do have a Bersa Thunder .380. The Bersa is supposed to be heavily "inspired" by the Walther PPK, but it's half the price of a Walther. Oddly enough, people really seem to like the cheaper Bersa better! And from what I'm reading, they don't just prefer it because it's cheap. It sounds like people would buy the Bersa .380 instead of the Walther even if they were nearly the same price.

My Bersa is reliable and accurate. I can't really say whether or not the recoil is "snappier" than a S&W Airweight, because I don't own an Airweight to compare to the Bersa. What I can say is that the Bersa's recoil does not punish my hands. I can go through a couple of boxes of ammo at the range, and the only thing left hurting is my wallet.

I saw a used Airweight at the range a few days ago and I've been seriously considering putting it on layaway. When I picked it up, it was almost instant love. It literally felt like there was nothing in my hand. I'm just afraid that I won't like it after I start shooting it .38spl +P rounds out of it. How could the recoil NOT be rough?

I have a PPK/S and don't find the recoil to be too bad at all. It's a popgun. I can see where the slide might bite, but it never has bit me, and I have fairly large hands. That gun feel good in my hands.

I have an airweight too, but haven't shot it much. My mother has it in her nighstand. Out of the box it spit a lot of lead around the cylinder, and wasn't very pleasant to shoot. Had to go to the gunsmith.

I really like the Walther better. As someone mentioned above, It's a very tight and well built gun, and the more I've shot mine, the better it's been.

I have a PPK/S, and I don't find it particularly annoying to shoot. UNJAMMING, however, is not something I'd want to be faced with anywhere off the range. The lack of a slide stop (unless you deliberately carry an empty mag) plus a 20-lb recoil spring makes things complicated. I like it, though. No real problems, after mucho rounds.

I've shot an Airweight with 38 Special. I found it harsher tahn the PPK/S. I've also fired one with .357's. I will not do that agian unless my life depends on it.

Here is my $0.02 of comparison between an Interarms PPK/S in .380 to a S&W 642 in .38+P.

Walther - beautiful weapon, slim feel, factory plastic grips, beautiful fit in my hand, pointed where I wanted it and was very accurate out to 21'. I never felt the need to carry it with the safety on due to the heavy DA trigger. Totally reliable assuming I started the day with a chambered round. The only issue I ever had was short stroking the initial round by hand. Never any ftf, fte, or misfires of any kind. Practice however was punishing. After three or four mags my web of my hand would sting or even go numb. Never any problem with railroad tracks, just a stinging sensation. Finally, weight became the ultimate issue. I couldn't hold this IWB without sagging my belt. I could use it with a nice OWB holster but at that point my Glock 26 became the better alternative. I eventually sold it in favor of the 642.

S&W 642 - also a good feel using factory grips, relative recoil is less, even with Speer GD 125+P and at practice distances under 7 yards accuracy was fine. The weight became the final issue - as a pocket gun or simple IWB gun there is no comparison. The j-frame is simply easier to holster, hold, and carry due to its size, weight, and form factor.

I still miss that PPK/S, nothing fits my hand like that one did but in the end I couldn't afford to keep everything and it lost.