Posted on 03/21/2005 11:51:58 AM PST by Servant of the 9
Walther and Smith & Wesson have been tighter than two fingers in a mitten recently, with Walther \USA (the US branch of the company) sharing the same corporate address as Smith & Wesson in Springfield, and some commingling of personnel and assets. Walther USA has disbanded, and now Smith & Wesson is the US distributor for Walther products, as well as the maker of the current PPK/S. So we're up to date on the who, what, where and why, let's take a look at the gun.
Gun Details
Smith and Wesson and Walther have big plans for the PPK/S-the Walther website catalogs four versions of the pistol, two in stainless (bright & satin), one in blue, and one in a two-tone finish. The bright stainless pistol is listed in both .32ACP and .380ACP, the other three in .380ACP only.
When I first heard that the guns were being resurrected in the U8A again, I asked for an early production sample to test. When it arrived, it looked just like a bright stainless .380 PPK'S with a couple of new touches.
The basic frame on the S&W produced pistol is cast for Walther/S&W by Ruger's Pine Tree casting facility in New Hampshire, with final machining done by Smith & Wesson. The slide and other major components are produced in-house by S&W. My sample PPK'S came with the typical small sights and very heavy double-action trigger pull common to the breed, along with black plastic checkere4 grips and two 7-round magazines, one with finger rest and one without. The pistol features a rounded hammer spur, safety lever on the left rear of the slide, magazine latch button up near the slide behind the triggerguard on the left side of the frame, and the blowback pistol operates the same way as its multinational predecessors. With a loaded magazine and round chambered with the hammer down, the first shot is double-action and all subsequent shots are single-action. The safety lever also works as a de-cocker. Rotate it down and the hammer falls to a safety position with a small bar of steel blocking it from contact with the firing pin. You can carry the pistol with the safety down or up, if it's down the hammer can't be cocked, if it's up the trigger will work the hammer either cocked or uncocked. The safety will NOT lock the cocked hammer, there's no way to safely carry this pistol with the hammer back and a live round in the chamber, unless you have a holster that puts the thumbstrap between the hammer and the firing pin, and I've never seen one for a PPK/S. This pistol's action was revolutionary in 1929, and its whole reason for being was safe carry with the hammer down while being ready for immediate use with that DA trigger. The Walther/S&W PPK/S also retains the loaded chamber indicator ~in in the slide just below the rear sight. One major new feature that anybody who shoots this pistol very much ought to really like is the extended tang that eliminates the hammer bite the little pistol tends to produce. Also, this PPK/S has a brand new second hammer strut inside that Smith & Wesson says is there to help reduce the heavy. DA trigger pull that's built into the design.
The new range is at Founders Ranch, isn't it? Yeah, that would definately be cool.
I would have no trouble believing that lead gunking could make it difficult to go between .454 and .45 Colt.
Thanks for the info... That's why I included the following...
Although I'm not 100% sure that's recommended in the Freedom Arms revolvers, due to the extremely tight tolerances (I could be completely wrong, though).
Mark
How is an SA going to work chambering and firing .380 ACP cartridges?
A single action works just fine in .45 ACP.
I am having a Ruger Single Six Vaquero in .32 H&R rebuilt into a 5 shot in .38 Super, but of course the .38 Super is a semi-rimmed cartridge with a rim just as wide as that of a .45 Cold. Both are .01
So9
S&W produced a politically and safety correct version of the famous Schofield braketop revolver...the italian replica was a better replica (though not as well machined as the S&W) and for around 1/3 the price.....S&W would have clinched the market if it was a true replica of their original........they cancelled production after about 2 years.
"A fun little prank to pull is load up a cylinder of light load .45LC, and then let someone take a few shots... Slip in a full bore .454 Casull with their cylinder! :-)
Hey Pard, I'm not trying to be ugly with a fellow shooter, but I highly recommend against "suprising" your friends with a .454 load. At best, it could result in a dropped gun. At worst, it could be lethal. If I recall, (and someone here will correct me if I'm wrong) a 12-yr-old boy was killed here in Texas about a year ago when his Dad (or Uncle?) let him try shooting the Casull. The kiddo fired, and the gun recoiled back and hit him snack in the forehead. And I believe it killed him. Jeez, I have my 10-yr-old son shooting cowboy action with me. I just can't imagine the grief. What a horrible tragedy.
you know the gun control act of 1968 banned importation of guns with barrels shorter than a certain length(which I forgot what that was....)this banned the ppk and limited importation to the PPK/S which was created to slip through the cracks....in the 80's and 90's Interarms manufactured PPK's in Viginia under license from Wather/Manurin....this bypassed the importation laws....now I guess S&W has the contract.....
if it werent for the GCA of 1968 we would be able to by genuine Wathers.....
That's what I've read. Personally if I can't do it with a .44 Mag, I'll stay home and watch the video.
Anyone looking for an underpowered but low-cost and reliable Walther PPK/s? Look to the Makarov. The "poor man's Walther..."
I've got the older 230 in blue, sweet little pistol.
I have a question for those knowledgeable about firearms.
About a month ago, there was an attempted drug hit while I was over at a friends house. Two guys in one car chased two guys in another car out of the hood behind my friends neighborhood. Anyway, the gunshots were extremely loud, like pipe bombs. In fact, it was like you could hear the shots echo down the barrel making a metallic kind of sound. This was definitely not like the sharp/short crack or pop you hear from gunfire in the distance. It was so loud that we didn't think it was gunshots at first.
Any idea what kind of gun that might be?
Doesn't sound like anything I have heard. Possible sawed off rifle barrels?
I'm with you on that. A guy pulled this trick on my 119 pound wife when we were in college in CO in 1969. He was loading my Ruger .357 when we were shooting .38s, he slipped a .357 mag in the wheel. It damn near broke my fiance's face. I was so pissed, I told him that I'd break his flippin face! Needless to say, he was banned from the range, and I wrote a letter to the NRA...
I bought one in 1972, right out of college. Nice looking side-arm, from a chambering perspective, it was a POS.
Naw, the PPK has been made nearly as long as the PP. I am not sure of the exact dates but it was made well before WWII. I will say that every .22 I have seen has been a PP model.
Is is possible you are thinking of the PPK/s which dates from just after the Gun Control Act of 1968. They put a PPK slide on a PP frame to make the PPK/s which was just large enought to score enough points to be imported.
I might add that I have two Hungarian copies, one in .22 and one in .380, and I think I like them better than most of the real Walthers, and the price can't be beat.
I had the good fortune to be stationed near Ulm, Germany in 1967, and while other GIs my age were touring the Munich watering spots and cathouses, I spent my weekends at the Munich BMW plant and the Walther waffenfabrik. I got to spend a LOT of time in the basement range at Ulm, and I got pretty fair with most of their products after a little practice.
The opinion of the staff toward the production of the PP and PPK [which were made with slides built by the French Manhurin facility] was that they were just a tool, to be churned out for the crude use for which they were meant by unappreciative types, much as the MPL and MPK machinepistols that Walther hoped to sell to the German police and Army, but only peddled to a few third-world buyers. The real skill and serious craft was poured into the Walther PP-Sport models and their Olympic target pistols, priced skyhigh even before import taxes made their cost even more dear.
Myself, I never cared much for the upside-down safety of both the PP-series and their big brother, the P.38 and P.1 Army service pistols. The natural reaction on hitting that lever is downward or toward the target- which on the Walther, drops the hammer to the uncocked position and places the pistol in the *safe* condition.
The little Polish P-64 pocket pistols I favor are the same way, so I just carry the thing hammer down in an ankle rig, and if needed, I thumb-cock the hammer. DA trigger pull is around 15 pounds, and I'm not inclined to go stoning away on the interior parts.
If more serious pocket gun work is needed, or I need to loan a gun to someone who knows a bit about what they're doing but not enough, the choice will be a German or Russian PM Makarov- and the safety on those little goodies works the way I'm accustomed to.
Both are chambered for the Soviet 9mm Makarov cartridge, which I get in 2000 round-plus cartons. And there's now a .22 kit out for the Makarov....
P-64:
PM Makarova:
Good heavens, no!
A SIG variant, to be sure, just like the SAS and the Brit spooks of 14 intel coy, previously busy in Northern Ireland, but more recently busy with Arabic-language intercepts around Peshawar. The SAS *thugs* and Intel Coy *Chessplayers* are very happy with the SIG 226s that replaced their well-used Browning L9A1 GP Hi-Power ppistols...and other novelties.
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