engineer88
Member
- Joined
- Feb 2, 2009
- Messages
- 147
I thought that I would chronicle my experience with the Walther PPK/S as when I was studying up to purchase one I did not see a ton of in-depth reviews on them. I had been wanting one of these for a long time. I love the looks of the weapon, and I find the stainless model to be especially useful in the beautiful yet often muggy state of Florida. I know the pistol is mostly impractical I have 9mm's and even 45ACP's that have less weight unloaded. Yet there is something elegant about the design, no I am not a huge James Bond fan, yes I have seen a movie or two, but I was certainly not influenced in my purchase of it. I would like to point out a few things about it:
Dec-ocker/Safety: Gonna be real honest, this is not my favorite design. Every time I dec-ock the sucker it makes me nervous, the action of doing so is much more violent than say a SIG, yet it works well. Also, unlike the FEG, the Walther needs the safety on to be drop safe (I am anal and called S&W to confirm). I am not a huge fan of manual safeties such as this, but it won't kill me I guess...I hope.
DA/SA Trigger: I have no issues with stiff DA triggers (not counting my FEG which is just a cruel joke) and actually prefer a 6-8ish pound smooth DA pull. I like Glock triggers as well and shoot accurately with them. I also enjoy my revolvers, Keltecs, etc. That said the DA pull is smooth and not too heavy (10ish lbs. if I had to guess) and the SA is amazingly light and crisp, almost sub-$1000ish 1911 good. So no complaint there.
Size/Weight: Yes it is very heavy for a single-stack especially. Yes it in only 7+1 rounds of the .380ACP (considered by most to be the bottom of the list for adequate ballistics) and it is a little large for pocket carry if not too heavy. Without the extension it is a 2 and a half finger grip for me. In this respect the straight PPK model may have been better but the PPK/S were on sale for $449 and I bit. I also like a wee bit longer barrel as these tend to be arse heavy and a little more barrel and sight radius never hurt.
Recoil: Believe it or not my 9mm's that weigh less have less recoil. Yep, sad but true. I mean it is not like shooting a P3AT/LCP/TCP but even though those weigh much less they are locked breech so the recoil is not a whole lot worse in those tiny power-houses since the PPK/S is a blowback operated handgun. However the PPK/S is easier to hold onto due to size and the extra barrel ups the FPS (giving you closer to box advertized ballistics) of any bullet fired from the platform compared to the small pocket rockets. Although increased recoil seems to be a fault it is actually a trade-off as the fixed barrel does seem to increase the overall accuracy and this is a definite benefit of the design in my opinion. Excellent accuracy even out to 20-25 yards is not too difficult with this little paperweight.
Sights: They are the bar-dot style you stack for alignment. I prefer three-dot or even the Glock football post style to these but I can live with them and get used to them very quickly transitioning to them naturally without having to think about it, so it is not an issue.
Magazines: They have a rib on them that makes clearing jams more difficult it seems. They are solid and stainless steel however, so I do not have too much to complain about them as they work well and I got two to start with (a minimum for any gun I own, actually I prefer 3 and will eventually get another).
My overall experience started off cruddy, after almost 200 rounds I was still experiencing issues with the slide not returning fully to battery (was just a sheet of paper short once or twice a mag on average). Off it went to S&W, 5 weeks later I received it back with a note that the entire slide was replaced. I have since then put 100 trouble free rounds through it including double & triple taps and even a couple of mag dumps. Not a single hitch since it came back so far. I am very happy with that. I even tried to limpwrist it. No problems.
Final Thoughts: All in all it seems like there are more modern designs out there...there are. It seems like there are lighter and more powerful designs out there...there are. But this is a solid and yet elegant handgun. It is a classic design, rather like the European version of the 1911 if you think about it. I personally feel safe with 7+1 rounds of .380ACP (even better with another spare 7 rounder or other small BUG along for the ride), especially in a platform I shoot well out to 25 yards. I hate all the writing on the slide of the S&W versions but I do appreciate the extended beaver tail and *now* the reliability of the platform. The loaded chamber indicator I find to be worthless (I believe in press-checks) but I it does not uglify the pistol so nothing lost in my opinion. This is essentially a small heavy gun that performs like a full-size service handgun.
This pistol is definitely one bought mostly for style, however I think it is still very serviceable as a ccw and I have to say that I would recommend it if someone is looking for a stylish handgun, especially if they enjoy DA/SA handguns. I will still probably get a SIG 232 down the road, but it is not high on my list of must-haves now that the PPK/S has started to prove itself out at the range.
Dec-ocker/Safety: Gonna be real honest, this is not my favorite design. Every time I dec-ock the sucker it makes me nervous, the action of doing so is much more violent than say a SIG, yet it works well. Also, unlike the FEG, the Walther needs the safety on to be drop safe (I am anal and called S&W to confirm). I am not a huge fan of manual safeties such as this, but it won't kill me I guess...I hope.
DA/SA Trigger: I have no issues with stiff DA triggers (not counting my FEG which is just a cruel joke) and actually prefer a 6-8ish pound smooth DA pull. I like Glock triggers as well and shoot accurately with them. I also enjoy my revolvers, Keltecs, etc. That said the DA pull is smooth and not too heavy (10ish lbs. if I had to guess) and the SA is amazingly light and crisp, almost sub-$1000ish 1911 good. So no complaint there.
Size/Weight: Yes it is very heavy for a single-stack especially. Yes it in only 7+1 rounds of the .380ACP (considered by most to be the bottom of the list for adequate ballistics) and it is a little large for pocket carry if not too heavy. Without the extension it is a 2 and a half finger grip for me. In this respect the straight PPK model may have been better but the PPK/S were on sale for $449 and I bit. I also like a wee bit longer barrel as these tend to be arse heavy and a little more barrel and sight radius never hurt.
Recoil: Believe it or not my 9mm's that weigh less have less recoil. Yep, sad but true. I mean it is not like shooting a P3AT/LCP/TCP but even though those weigh much less they are locked breech so the recoil is not a whole lot worse in those tiny power-houses since the PPK/S is a blowback operated handgun. However the PPK/S is easier to hold onto due to size and the extra barrel ups the FPS (giving you closer to box advertized ballistics) of any bullet fired from the platform compared to the small pocket rockets. Although increased recoil seems to be a fault it is actually a trade-off as the fixed barrel does seem to increase the overall accuracy and this is a definite benefit of the design in my opinion. Excellent accuracy even out to 20-25 yards is not too difficult with this little paperweight.
Sights: They are the bar-dot style you stack for alignment. I prefer three-dot or even the Glock football post style to these but I can live with them and get used to them very quickly transitioning to them naturally without having to think about it, so it is not an issue.
Magazines: They have a rib on them that makes clearing jams more difficult it seems. They are solid and stainless steel however, so I do not have too much to complain about them as they work well and I got two to start with (a minimum for any gun I own, actually I prefer 3 and will eventually get another).
My overall experience started off cruddy, after almost 200 rounds I was still experiencing issues with the slide not returning fully to battery (was just a sheet of paper short once or twice a mag on average). Off it went to S&W, 5 weeks later I received it back with a note that the entire slide was replaced. I have since then put 100 trouble free rounds through it including double & triple taps and even a couple of mag dumps. Not a single hitch since it came back so far. I am very happy with that. I even tried to limpwrist it. No problems.
Final Thoughts: All in all it seems like there are more modern designs out there...there are. It seems like there are lighter and more powerful designs out there...there are. But this is a solid and yet elegant handgun. It is a classic design, rather like the European version of the 1911 if you think about it. I personally feel safe with 7+1 rounds of .380ACP (even better with another spare 7 rounder or other small BUG along for the ride), especially in a platform I shoot well out to 25 yards. I hate all the writing on the slide of the S&W versions but I do appreciate the extended beaver tail and *now* the reliability of the platform. The loaded chamber indicator I find to be worthless (I believe in press-checks) but I it does not uglify the pistol so nothing lost in my opinion. This is essentially a small heavy gun that performs like a full-size service handgun.
This pistol is definitely one bought mostly for style, however I think it is still very serviceable as a ccw and I have to say that I would recommend it if someone is looking for a stylish handgun, especially if they enjoy DA/SA handguns. I will still probably get a SIG 232 down the road, but it is not high on my list of must-haves now that the PPK/S has started to prove itself out at the range.
