?s about Walther PPK/S

I Really Like this Pistol

I've owned an Interams PPK/S for about twenty years and overall love this pistol. For years it was my go-to pocket pistol and my long-distance travel* pistol. Only recently when I thought that Florida's Legislature was going to change the laws on carrying on campus did I purchase a Kimber Micro 9 to take on the roles the PPK/S had filled, mostly to put some more oomph in my hand than the .380 pistol.

Pros:

  1. Stunningly Accurate: I can't believe how accurate this little pistol with its short sight radius is.
  2. Fits My Hand: My best fitting handgun is any 1911 with full sized grips and any double-stack magazines are troublesome for me because of their thickness. The PPK/S fits my hand nicely despite being considerably smaller than a 1911. It has great pointing characteristics for me.
  3. Reliable (but see below): Once I got used to a couple of foibles and got Interams to fix a recoil spring problem this has worked well day in and day out.
  4. Safe: I love the DA/SA characteristics of this pistol and the ability to chamber a round, use the safety to decock the hammer, and then take it off safe. The first double action round takes some very positive finger pressure to get going but then you have nice crisp single action shooting after that.
  5. Concealable: This is a small pistol and only the Germans could pack that much engineering into such a small platform. (Or only they have done this.) I have a leather pocket holster from Andrews Custom Leather that slips into almost anything, including suit pants, though these do print more and I worry about the light weight of most dress pants pocket fabric.

Cons:

  1. Biting the Hand that Feeds It: As other posters have noted this pistol will bite the webbing of your shooting hand. When breaking in the pistol I went out and purchased a fingerless glove for shooting. Now I can shoot a box of 50 rounds without the glove but that's about it.
  2. Picky About Ammunition: This pistol seems to only like round nose bullets. I had serious feeding problems with anything else. Fortunately, there are plenty of round nose practice and defensive cartridges out there. (I've only ever shot standard loads and 90 gr bullets through it so can't offer anything about other loads.)
  3. Needed the Recoil Spring Replaced: When I first purchased the pistol I had continuous failure to feed problems. Ejection was OK but chambering the next round was really troublesome. I called Interams and they at first tried to tell me it was my imagination but when I told them I had detailed records covering which magazine, which round in the mag, what kind of cartridge was misfeeding they agreed to look at the pistol. It came back from them with a new recoil spring and has operated flawlessly since (maybe 1,000+ rounds).
  4. Keep the Grip Screws Tight: I had a microscopic spring with an unknown (to me) function pop out. I was fortunate to find a local gunsmith who used to work for Interarms and he fixed the problem (and I ordered a complete set of new springs as backups). It turned out that I had let the left side grip get loose and that allowed the spring to disengage. So now I do a thumbnail check of the screws every time I pick up the pistol.

I still own this pistol and will never sell it. I actually felt quit guilty when I switched over to the Micro 9 for all of the purposes I'd used the PPK/S for. I still use the PPK/S for a couple of specialized purposes. One is if I'm heading to the boat ramp to launch or retrieve my wife's little sailboat and there is a danger of falling into the salt water. The second is when I'm taking the Micro 9 to the range and want something for the trip, lunch on the way, etc.

Overall I love this pistol. When setting out on my quest for a 9mm to take its place the first thing I did was to call to see if a 9mm version of this pistol was anticipated. For some reason it just isn't and I can't understand why. I'd buy one in a heartbeat, primarily to keep a cocked and locked pistol away from the family jewels. You can see the results of this quest in this Firing Line thread.

* I normally pick from about 4 pistols and multiple holster options for each for CC depending on what I will be doing and how I'll be dressing. When I'm making a multi-day trip where I need one pistol for all configurations the Walther was my go-to configuration because it was small (when packing for luggage shipment by air), fit well in any pocket, and my old fashioned X-15 shoulder holster works well for driving.
 
lwestatbus said:
When I first purchased the pistol I had continuous failure to feed problems... [Interarms] agreed to look at the pistol. It came back from them with a new recoil spring and has operated flawlessly since (maybe 1,000+ rounds).
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Considering that Interarms went out of business almost 20 years ago, you haven't shot it much since they fixed it, have you?

1,000 rounds since the late 1990s works out to approximately a single 50-round box annually!
lwestatbus said:
Keep the Grip Screws Tight: I had a microscopic spring with an unknown (to me) function pop out. I was fortunate to find a local gunsmith who used to work for Interarms and he fixed the problem (and I ordered a complete set of new springs as backups). It turned out that I had let the left side grip get loose and that allowed the spring to disengage. So now I do a thumbnail check of the screws every time I pick up the pistol.
Click to expand...
I have two words for you: Blue Loctite. :D
 
Fish, in response to the PPK/S in Skyfall: The pistol was referred to as a PPK/S, but the prop itself was actually a PPK with a fancy grip put on it.
Click to expand...

Looks like you didn't read the second sentence of my post. ;)
 
Heavy slide force is an inherent characteristic of small blowback pistols with lightweight slides.
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Quite the contrary with the Bersa 380, IME. In fact that was one of the LARGEST reasons my gf bought the Thunder: the slide was really easy to rack.
 
OK, Maybe 4,000 Rounds

carryguychris said:
Considering that Interarms went out of business almost 20 years ago, you haven't shot it much since they fixed it, have you?

1,000 rounds since the late 1990s works out to approximately a single 50-round box annually!
Click to expand...

OK, maybe it was more like 3-4,000 rounds. Is it really that important? I've fired it a LOT over the years. It did sit dormant for 14 months while I was busy invading Iraq.
 
I have an Interarms PPK/S in .380 that I bought when they first came out. The Manurhin PPK/S .22LR in my stable dates back maybe 40 years when I bought it. And there's the pre-WWII PPK 7.65 I like a lot. Double action triggers are heavy on all of them; but very light and crisp once cocked. All three are absolutely reliable and accurate and get carried occasionally. I like mine very much; your mileage may vary.
 
I already gave my 2c on the 380 version. Great little gun. I always thought the 22LR would make a nice companion piece, just for a fun shooter. I may still get one some day.
 
The S&W's (or at least the later ones) had a wide tang that kept the slide from raking the shooting hand, solving one problem for some shooters. I have had that problem with a PP, PPK, or PPK/S, but the little TPH drew blood every time I fired it. I still have it but don't shoot it any more.

Jim
 
I have small hands and the PPK & PPK/S pistols fit my hands perfectly. I find them easy to shoot, accurate and not at all unpleasant. They are snappy but not anything special.
 
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