Post by Sgt K USMC on Feb 27, 2008 20:28:11 GMT -5
I feel it is important to preface this review by stating my unbelievable bias AGAINST this weapon, and equally important to state that the bias is 100% due to it's extremely poor design and handling characteristics.
The Walther PPK/S is best known as the 'James Bond' gun and was originally intended as a support weapon for military and police forces in Germany, circa WWII. Of course the original weapon was the PPK, the PPK/S being an American made weapon (by Smith and Wesson) that is identical in every way to the PPK, save being slightly longer and heavier to meet the federal requirements during the Brady Ban.
The one and only good thing about the weapon is that it was the weapon of choice used when Hitler committed suicide. (In it's PPK form)
That being said…
DA's Walther PPKS:
Although this is my wife's weapon I have fired it a number of times and will be giving my review of it.
Range: This weapon is EXTREMELY range limited due to the size of the cartridge and the length of the barrel, as such, the effective lethal range (and in this case I am including the power of the round and the likelihood of hitting the target) should not exceed 30 to 40 meters, 20 as a safe bet.
On this note, it is not uncommon for people to have .380 rounds fired at them, only to have them be stopped by heavy articles of clothing, such as heavy leather jackets, at ranges exceeding 20 meters.
Accuracy: Best of luck here, while shooting this weapon you will be lucky to get good groupings at 10 meters, even on a bench rest, even while using premium ammunition. I found that my best bench groupings were at 5 meters… that's 15 feet for those of you not into the metric system, which is WAY too damned close. By the time the enemy has gotten that close to you, it is too late to pull and fire the weapon.
At 10 meters however you can expect a grouping of around 10 to 12 inches as your norm. This will still be good enough for most targets, as this is still an acceptable kill zone, but due to the cartridge size, I would highly recommend against this pistol as a primary defense weapon.
Recoil: The weapon has ENTIRELY too much recoil for a .380, and feels more like an unsupported .38 super. Adding to this issue is the size of the pistol grip itself and the exaggerated 'dovetail' thumb guard, which is literally knocked back into the meaty space of your hand between your thumb and forefinger after every shot. It is not uncommon to have a bruise here, or for that matter, to be bloodied by the slide catching either your metatarsal knuckle or the flesh of the back of your hand itself.
Trigger: The hammer down trigger pull is too long in travel time with a weight of around 9 lbs. Hammer back trigger time is far too short with a noticeable gap in action and a pull weight of around 2 lbs.
Sights: The weapon might as well not have any sights at all in my opinion, considering the extremely short range that it is limited to, however, the sights provided are at least decent enough to put you on target. They are however both fixed and cannot be adjusted in any way shape or form.
Accessories: Most accessories for this weapon are designed to make it look more like the James Bond variant seen in the movies. You can get the holster that has the folding stock, you can get expensive hand grips in various colors and textures, that kind of thing.
The accessory I think that looks best on this weapon however is the trash heap.
Reliability: One of the most unreliable weapons I have ever fired. This weapon had more jams and misfeeds than any other pistol I have fired, save the Makarov 9mm.
Cleaning: This weapon is even difficult to clean. It's as it the designers of the weapon got together and decided that after everything else about the weapon (and I use that term loosely) had gotten everyone good and pissed off, they would then make it a pain in the ass to maintain.
This is mainly due to the fact that the weapon is designed with so many moving internal parts and is extremely tight in construction, unfortunately though, all the parts that NEED to be cleaned regularly are not very easy to get to or require special knowledge and tools.
Ammo: The final insult of this weapon is magazine capacity. As if everything else was not bad enough, the highest mag capacity you can get for the weapon is 8 rounds. Considering the lack of stopping power in the .380 cartridge, 8 rounds is totally unacceptable.
Opinion: While I know I have laced the review with bits of personal opinion to this point I felt it important to finish off with a final remark or two about this utterly worthless weapon.
As a firearm the PPK/S makes a great paperweight, if you don't mind cleaning it every time someone looks at it from across the room. It's low magazine capacity, low stopping power, unreliability and general lack of any type of real quality, to include likely doing the operator's hand more damage than the person being shot at, puts the weapon as the lowest scoring firearm I have ever shot… and I have test fired every Keltec model made.
The Walther PPK/S is best known as the 'James Bond' gun and was originally intended as a support weapon for military and police forces in Germany, circa WWII. Of course the original weapon was the PPK, the PPK/S being an American made weapon (by Smith and Wesson) that is identical in every way to the PPK, save being slightly longer and heavier to meet the federal requirements during the Brady Ban.
The one and only good thing about the weapon is that it was the weapon of choice used when Hitler committed suicide. (In it's PPK form)
That being said…
DA's Walther PPKS:
Although this is my wife's weapon I have fired it a number of times and will be giving my review of it.
Range: This weapon is EXTREMELY range limited due to the size of the cartridge and the length of the barrel, as such, the effective lethal range (and in this case I am including the power of the round and the likelihood of hitting the target) should not exceed 30 to 40 meters, 20 as a safe bet.
On this note, it is not uncommon for people to have .380 rounds fired at them, only to have them be stopped by heavy articles of clothing, such as heavy leather jackets, at ranges exceeding 20 meters.
Accuracy: Best of luck here, while shooting this weapon you will be lucky to get good groupings at 10 meters, even on a bench rest, even while using premium ammunition. I found that my best bench groupings were at 5 meters… that's 15 feet for those of you not into the metric system, which is WAY too damned close. By the time the enemy has gotten that close to you, it is too late to pull and fire the weapon.
At 10 meters however you can expect a grouping of around 10 to 12 inches as your norm. This will still be good enough for most targets, as this is still an acceptable kill zone, but due to the cartridge size, I would highly recommend against this pistol as a primary defense weapon.
Recoil: The weapon has ENTIRELY too much recoil for a .380, and feels more like an unsupported .38 super. Adding to this issue is the size of the pistol grip itself and the exaggerated 'dovetail' thumb guard, which is literally knocked back into the meaty space of your hand between your thumb and forefinger after every shot. It is not uncommon to have a bruise here, or for that matter, to be bloodied by the slide catching either your metatarsal knuckle or the flesh of the back of your hand itself.
Trigger: The hammer down trigger pull is too long in travel time with a weight of around 9 lbs. Hammer back trigger time is far too short with a noticeable gap in action and a pull weight of around 2 lbs.
Sights: The weapon might as well not have any sights at all in my opinion, considering the extremely short range that it is limited to, however, the sights provided are at least decent enough to put you on target. They are however both fixed and cannot be adjusted in any way shape or form.
Accessories: Most accessories for this weapon are designed to make it look more like the James Bond variant seen in the movies. You can get the holster that has the folding stock, you can get expensive hand grips in various colors and textures, that kind of thing.
The accessory I think that looks best on this weapon however is the trash heap.
Reliability: One of the most unreliable weapons I have ever fired. This weapon had more jams and misfeeds than any other pistol I have fired, save the Makarov 9mm.
Cleaning: This weapon is even difficult to clean. It's as it the designers of the weapon got together and decided that after everything else about the weapon (and I use that term loosely) had gotten everyone good and pissed off, they would then make it a pain in the ass to maintain.
This is mainly due to the fact that the weapon is designed with so many moving internal parts and is extremely tight in construction, unfortunately though, all the parts that NEED to be cleaned regularly are not very easy to get to or require special knowledge and tools.
Ammo: The final insult of this weapon is magazine capacity. As if everything else was not bad enough, the highest mag capacity you can get for the weapon is 8 rounds. Considering the lack of stopping power in the .380 cartridge, 8 rounds is totally unacceptable.
Opinion: While I know I have laced the review with bits of personal opinion to this point I felt it important to finish off with a final remark or two about this utterly worthless weapon.
As a firearm the PPK/S makes a great paperweight, if you don't mind cleaning it every time someone looks at it from across the room. It's low magazine capacity, low stopping power, unreliability and general lack of any type of real quality, to include likely doing the operator's hand more damage than the person being shot at, puts the weapon as the lowest scoring firearm I have ever shot… and I have test fired every Keltec model made.