James Bond and his Walther PPK

[Brubz]

Saw the first James Bond movie Dr. No on tv last night. Love the scene where his boss scolds him for carrying a Berreta which he calls a ladies gun.
Gives him his iconic Walther PPK that he says is a 7.65mm. I know the PPK is still made but I think it is in .380.
Anyway was this true that the Walther had much more stopping power than the Berreta?

 

[Piranha451]

Yes, about double as the Beretta is a .25 ACP and Bond's PPK is a .32 ACP.

 

[hannstv]

In Europe, the PPK was very popular in 32 ACP. I have a PPK and a PPK/S, both in .380, I would like to find one in 32 ACP, that I could afford.

 

[.455_Hunter]

One lucky day at the LGS, I spied a blued PPK with brown grips in the used case. Turned out to be a '61 production 7.65mm example, about as James Bond as you can get. The finish was a bit carry worn, but I about hurt my arm getting my wallet out. The action is smooth and 100% reliable with warmish Fiocchi 73 gr FMJ.

 

[Riomouse911]

James Bond used a whole bunch of different guns in the books, but the swap from the Beretta “with a skeleton grip” to the PPK is an iconic moment in gun lore.

Neither would be considered much of a “ man stopper” in their FMJ guise, which was about all there was back then for those rounds. But it makes good cinema for Major Boothroyd (Q) to say so.

Stay safe.

 

[Carl N. Brown]

Book and film, Bond originally carryied a Beretta 418 in .25 ACP (6.35mm), a common civilian defense pistol in Europe, which had failed him in his previous mission.
Q replaced the 6.35mm Beretta with a 7.65mm (.32 ACP) Walther PPK (which as a commercial and military war trophy pistol would also be common even if possessed illegally).
The .32 ACP is more powerful than the .25 ACP.

The novels were more realistic than the movies. Bond often posed as a representative of an import/export company as an excuse to be overseas and when armed for his self defense, would carry a weapon commonly found available to civilians in the shops or on the street. In Europe the 6.35mm (.25 ACP) Beretta 418 and the 7.65mm (.32 ACP) Walther PPK would not blow his cover as quickly as a fancy specialist weapon.

Then in "From Russia With Love" (the movie) Q gave Bond an ArmaLite AR-7 rifle in 6.35mm in a qimmick filled briefcase. Which would have been hard to explain if he'd been caught by civilian police. In the movie he was allied with Turkish intelligence so that might have given him a pass.

 

[Brubz]

One lucky day at the LGS, I spied a blued PPK with brown grips in the used case. Turned out to be a '61 production 7.65mm example, about as James Bond as you can get. The finish was a bit carry worn, but I about hurt my arm getting my wallet out. The action is smooth and 100% reliable with warmish Fiocchi 73 gr FMJ.

Wow that's one of those great finds we all dream of when we go to a gun show. Good for you!

 

[Brubz]

What is interesting about the first film that I never noticed before is Bond is disarmed of the PPK not long after going to Dr. No's island by the guards.
He is basically unarmed the last third of the movie.
Don't think that ever happened in a Bond film again.
At least for that long.

 

[Havok7416]

What is interesting about the first film that I never noticed before is Bond is disarmed of the PPK not long after going to Dr. No's island by the guards.
He is basically unarmed the last third of the movie.
Don't think that ever happened in a Bond film again.
At least for that long.

You mean like Octopussy, Die Another Day or basically any of the other films? He's disarmed all the time.

 

[Brubz]

You mean like Octopussy, Die Another Day or basically any of the other films? He's disarmed all the time.

You're right he is but I'm talking about for that length of time

 

[unclenunzie]

Bought this one used in 2017 for the princely sum of $280 USD from a favorite LGS. Made in the USA in about 1994. It runs brass FMJ like a sewing machine and stupid accurate. Doesn't like Aluminum cased or at least the blazer I tried a mag of. Never tried any JHPs. The cool factor is off the charts and makes plastic 380's cry.

 

[5-SHOTS]

I'm not 100% sure it was a Beretta 418 or a Brevetto 1919 as it was originally designed.
I seem to remember it was only mentioned as a Beretta .25 in the book.

 

[Carl N. Brown]

Off the OP, but .32 ACP with Winchester silvertip hollowpoints is supposed to be more effective than .380 ACP FMJ.

 

[NIGHTLORD40K]

Ya, I did the PP/PPK thing for a while. My .32s were (somewhat) more reliable than the .380s, but wouldn't trust my life to any of them. Its strange some folks report theirs to actually run perfectly....and there's no consistency between manufacturers or chambering I can discern. If you have a good one, you have a good one, and if not, not.

There actually were a few PPs chambered in .25acp, they command huge collector premiums.

In my experience, the best PP is a SIG P230......

 

[JERRY]

My PP in 7.65mm gets fed the hottest FMJ I can find.

 

[trackskippy]

I had both the PPK and the later Interarms PPK/s. The PPK was German and worked reliably and shot well. The PPK/s was constant trouble.

Both were blood thirsty critters too, and I rarely ever shot them without having grooves peeled off the web of my hand and bleeding all over myself.

I agree with NIGHTLORD40K too, the P230 is the better choice.

 

[Carl N. Brown]

While Q issued Bond a Walther PPK in "Dr. No" (the first movie) and CIA agent Felix Leiter (Jack Lord) also carried a Walther PPK on the movie, the prop guns were full-size Walther PP (Polizei Pistole, police pistol) rather than Walther PPK (PP Kriminal, detective special). One theory is the PPK looked ridiculously small in the hands of Sean Connery and Jack Lord.

In "From Russia With Love" (the second movie) actual PPKs were used as PPKs.

 

[Riomouse911]

Regarding Dr. No, this is a good rundown of the guns used in the film

https://www.imfdb.org/Dr._No

Stay safe.

 

[Steve762us]

Don't know about the stopping power...

Why, it's like a brick through a plate glass window!

 

[Old Dog]

While I still love the Walther PP and the PPK for the inestimable cool factor, I have to agree with this

In my experience, the best PP is a SIG P230..

And the 232.

 

[JERRY]

Regarding Dr. No, this is a good rundown of the guns used in the film

https://www.imfdb.org/Dr._No

Stay safe.

In one of those shots where hes firing at the dragon he does not have a PPK he has some sort of 1911 looking gun. But then... it changes back to a ppk!
Right after he shoots the dragon's eye out and the woman runs up to him he has some other gun in his hand not a PPK.

 

[AlexanderA]

I fell for the Bond mystique when I bought my PPK/S. It turned out to be one of the worst pistols I have ever owned.

 

[JERRY]

I fell for the Bond mystique when I bought my PPK/S. It turned out to be one of the worst pistols I have ever owned.

In the early nineties I did the same thing with the Walter PPK .380 it was only reliable with full metal jacket and it gave me slide bite. The recoil was more than it should be for a gun that light of caliber. However my Walter PP .32 is a dream but I can still get slide bite if I'm not careful.

 

[JohnKSa]

I've owned a Ranger, AL Interarms .380ACP PPK for a few decades. It's always been accurate and reliable for me but I won't recommend it for others without giving them the entire rundown on the gun.

1. Chambering it from a full magazine was quite difficult. The design of the stripper rail tended to hang up on the cartridge rims. This wasn't a problem when firing, but getting that first round chambered manually could be a real problem. After owning it for many years, I finally analyzed the issue and did a mod on the gun that mostly took care of this problem.

2. The sights are off significantly and although the rear sight is drift adjustable, the amount of drift that would be required to get it on for windage would be unacceptable in a compact gun. It's also off for elevation and altering the front sight to deal with that isn't really feasible since it's actually part of the slide.

3. I've carried it in a belly band a lot and had to spend a good deal of time rounding off sharp edges. It's a stainless gun, so there was no need for a refinish, and the results were actually pretty subtle, but given that it was obviously meant to be concealed, one would think a detail like that would have been handled by the maker.

4. Finding magazines for the gun that don't have a finger rest is just about impossible.

All of that said, I like the gun and would buy another one if I could find one.

 

[CapnMac]

It's always interesting to contrast the MI-6 Ian Flemming fictionalized versus what Hollywood fictionalized out of Flemming's books.

Flemming was writing about some serious operators (6 degrees of separation: Christopher Lee may have been exactly who Flemming modeled Bond upon). The deal about being in a secret service is to keep it secret. Using a firearm is a serious sign that everything is pear-shaped, a "last resort." And not the movie version, first resort. So, actually, a .25acp behind the ear of a sleeping bad guy is entirely in character. And not plinking bad guys with automatic weapons off at 300m like in the movies.

Cubby Broccoli created a wildly successful franchise out of turning spy novels into a cross between "cop shows" and "cowboy shootouts."

Few remember Roger Moore in Live or Let Die, toting that S&W in 357mag.