PPK having been made by Interarms, Smith & Wesson and now Walther USA. Reliability varies with the different manufacturers. Wondering about current version made by Walther? Want a metal 380 and considering and the PPK is one of the choices.

The ones I've seen lately have ungodly heavy DA pulls. Otherwise quality looks pretty good.

My Fort Smith PPK is really nice. Machining is fantastic. Fit is very good. Trigger is heavy in DA (but not bad at all for a PPK) but very clean and smooth. Single action is nice. I wish the tang was a bit shorter (maybe between the original and this one), but otherwise I'm pleased.

I had 2 failure to feeds in the first 50 rounds, but they were commercial reloads of questionable quality. No failures in roughly 500 rounds since. I don't shoot it much past 15 yards, but the rounds land in a fist sized group right on top of the front sight at that range. Recoil is brisk, but manageable. After about 50 rounds the tang does start digging into the web of my hand.

I don't really have a practical need for this gun, but I like it far more than I probably should and find myself making excuses to carry it from time to time.

quote:

Originally posted by Lefty Sig:
The ones I've seen lately have ungodly heavy DA pulls. Otherwise quality looks pretty good.

^This has been my experience as well.

quote:

Originally posted by abnmacv:
PPK having been made by Interarms, Smith & Wesson and now Walther USA. Reliability varies with the different manufacturers. Wondering about current version made by Walther? Want a metal 380 and considering and the PPK is one of the choices.

If you’re just looking for a metal .380, have you considered the SIG P230/P232? To me, those are the way to go in a metal .380. Both function and form.

Is there such a thing as a PPK without an ungodly heavy DA pull? I have one from the 90’s, Interarms. Cool gun. Not a very good gun by most standards. There are a lot better choices. The triggers are just bad, period. Mine isn’t as reliable as we have come to expect modern guns to be. It’s got charisma out the door though.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: pedropcola,

quote:

Originally posted by Lefty Sig:
The ones I've seen lately have ungodly heavy DA pulls. Otherwise quality looks pretty good.

The DA trigger pull of my 70s Interarms .380 PPK/S is ungodly heavy too. 17 pounds as I recall. Viscously sharp recoil too. A beautiful little pistol, but it’s a safe queen. My SIG P238 (SAO) is much better on both counts, and has a firing pin safety, which my PPK/S lacks.

Kudos to the PPK/S LCI though. I can see it, but the BG can’t. And in the dark I can easily feel it with my thumb without shifting my grip. It’s the only LCI that I know of that I actually like.

quote:

Originally posted by abnmacv:
PPK having been made by Interarms, Smith & Wesson and now Walther USA. Reliability varies with the different manufacturers. Wondering about current version made by Walther? Want a metal 380 and considering and the PPK is one of the choices.

If you really want a metal .380 PPK-like pistol I’d recommend the Bersa Thunder 380

They are made in Argentina and IMO are one of the most overlooked and underrated .380’s out there.

I had the 380CC model a while back and it was a cool little gun to shoot, reliable and accurate as all get out. Some people sneer at them as “budget” or “junk” guns but while inexpensive compared to your typical PPK
or P232, they are hardly junk.

I'm drooling over one right now. Nothing says "Bond, James Bond" quite like a PPK.

A woman who I shoot with every week has one of the PPKs and it's become her EDC.

I shot it once just after she bought it and was surprised at the good SA trigger pull and the accuracy. The DA is definitely a bit on the heavy side though.

I prefer the .32 versions of the Walthers. Recoil is less and they tend to be more reliable.

We have a recent arrival .380 stainless version constructed by Walther USA that we have to send back for a broken magazine catch. Pretty sure all the pieces are in place, but whatever spring is used to get the button to rebound correctly to the rest position is improperly installed to cause the mechanism to bind (i.e., press the catch button and about 50% of the time it stays pressed). Last year we had a stainless .22LR version that had a dead trigger. Crap happens I suppose, but out of last eight or nine different PPK/S pistols to have two that required a return to the mothership...perhaps an anomaly but then again...

That said, we've been seeing more problematic guns from other manufacturers as well. A Tomcat recently came in from Beretta with a dead trigger. They also shipped a half dozen Italian 92FSs to us that I swear felt like the slide rails were made from sandpaper. I won't even discuss the issues we had with a couple of A400 waterfowl shotguns that came in late last year; because the bad juju and subsequent lost sales due to those are too painful to recall. A CZ P-10C that arrived with the slide completely frozen in place, with zero ability whatsoever to take down the gun. A Shadow 2 with a dinged rear sight. Several S&W revolvers with loose front sights. Shields in .40S&W shipping with 9mm magazines. A Taurus Judge also with a very loose front sight. And a number of problematic Rugers of varying severity across several handgun and rifle models. All of this since last summer. Surprisingly nothing negative out of S&W's Performance Center during this time (usually the worst at QC monitoring). This doesn't include any of the recalls that have taken place, like for the SIG Cross rifle and the E-Z Shields.

As I said, stuff happens. But usually not in this kind of frequency, especially from the big boys.

quote:

Originally posted by maxwayne:
I prefer the .32 versions of the Walthers. Recoil is less and they tend to be more reliable.

And they have a delivery like a brick through a plate glass window.

quote:

Originally posted by Pipe Smoker:
The DA trigger pull of my 70s Interarms .380 PPK/S is ungodly heavy too.

Mine was also, until I got the Wolff hammer spring kit for it. Picked one that gives it a reasonable DA pull, but retains reliable ignition.

quote:

Originally posted by houndawg:
And they have a delivery like a brick through a plate glass window.

So it's said.

In the 80's they were jam o' matics. I have never seen the like. Beautiful paperweights.

quote:

Originally posted by pedropcola:
Is there such a thing as a PPK without an ungodly heavy DA pull? I have one from the 90’s, Interarms. Cool gun. Not a very good gun by most standards. There are a lot better choices. The triggers are just bad, period. Mine isn’t as reliable as we have come to expect modern guns to be. It’s got charisma out the door though.

I realize we are discussing the current and recent production guns, but none of what you described applies to my 1967 W. German PPK in .32acp. It has a beautiful trigger in SA and DA and is extremely reliable. But maybe that is why guns from that era command the incredible prices they are currently bringing. Doesn't hurt that it was made in the home country while Connery was still the original James Bond!