Walther P88 Compact

Nada on the P88, but I have shot the P5. It is a sweet little pistol. Unless you know where one is already, you will have a hard time finding a P88. They were never that popular in this country, for that matter, neither was the P5. However you will have better luck finding the P5. It should cost about $700 NIB. My friend has one. It is nice.:)
 
A P5 should run you about $500, no more. A P5 Compact will run in the $700-$800 range. The reasone the P5's were never popular in the US us becasue (1) they are expensive and (2) they were never marketed properly here.

I have a P5 Compact and still feel it is the finest 9mm carry gun out there.

Both the P5 and P88 series are considred to be tack drivers.

CMOS
 
Have an example of both and like them quite a bit.

The P5 is particularly well-suited for leftys. The only beef I had with it was that the trigger was a bit crunchy at first. This is due to the fact that the firing pin "falls" out of line with the hammer and has to be lifted by the trigger action on firing. A bit of cleaning and polishing took care of that. It was remarkably accurate right out of the box. Spare mags run about $35 and can be obtained from any MecGar dealer (MecGar is now the maker for all Walther factory mags, and they are making the "legacy" mags as well).

Custom wood grips are available from Earl's Service but, at $165, they won't be in my safe any time soon. But they sure are handsome.

The P88 Compact is wonderful little handgun, I'm surprised it never caught on. I've always thought it was a HighPower slide on a Walther frame. The trigger mechanism strongly resembles the early PPK mechanism and can be polished and tuned by a good PPK smith. It comes with a trigger overtravel stop you adjust with an Allen wrench. I thought my trigger was vague out of the box, but a little polishing with India stones, plus some TetraGun grease, took care of it.
Curiously, it seems to have gotten more accurate the more I shoot it. Clintonista mags run about $35 from places like CDNN and Earl's, you can find hi-caps at One Eyed Jack's, KY Imports and Earls, they run about $100-$125. Occasionally you see them on gunsamerica.com for a bit less.

PWL makes some nice leather for both guns.

Both are fine choices, either as home defense or CCW.
Pick the one that fits your hand the best.

Ken Strayhorn
Hillsborough NC
 
I had a P88, and got rid of it. It is very accurate, and well made. I had two problems.

1) the chamber was too tight. It would jam terribly if you used certain ammo like Fiocci. Fiocci is good practice ammo, but the ogive on the 9mm is a little longer than most 9mm's and the P88 would not shoot them. It would jam the silde forward and it was a real bear to clear the jam.

2) The biggest fault I had with the gun was the Safety. If you put the safety on, the trigger would still pull through and the hammer would cock and fall. If you forgot to take the safety off you could just continue to pull the trigger and work the hammer but no Boom. In my opinion that feature could get you killed. I sold it and have not looked back.
 
>>A P5 should run you about $500, no more.

Please tell me where you can find a NIB P5 for that price.
I have yet to see any under $600 after two months of searching.
 
I got my P5, NIB, from Bachman Pawn and Gun for $479 plus tax. Bachman bought the remaining inventory of P5s from Interarms when they went out of business. The rest of the old Interarms inventory went to a business called Champion Firearms in College Station, Texas. They still have some old PPK and PPK/s models in stock, but no P5s.

Bachman Pawn & Gun
2926 W Northwest Hwy.
Dallas, TX 75220
Voice: (214) 351-0572
Fax: (214) 353-9109
Email: sales@bachmangun.com
Web: http://www.bachmangun.com

I've dealt with them several times in the past, good folks.

Ken Strayhorn
Hillsborough NC
 
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