Hey guys,

Am new to this forum, but not to firearms.
Are there any Walther S&W PPK owners here? It seems to me, the S&W PPK is a great little handgun that had a rough start owing to the recall of those mfg. between 2001 and 2009, although the string ran onto 2012.
Do we have a representation here? I have a 2005 S&W PPK .380. What say you?

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KWA-MD

I have a S&W PPK/S .380 ACP which served as my primary carry gun for 2 years until I decided to replace it with the smaller, lighter, cheaper Ruger LCP.

It was 100% reliable with all ammo I fed it, never malfunctioned once, and is easily my most accurate semiautomatic pistol. Walther snobs hate the S&W PPKs with a passion for daring to deviate from the perfect original blueprint, and they will never miss an opportunity to denigrate them by bringing up the fact that they were recalled, despite the fact that most of them clearly don't even know what they were recalled for because they seem to believe it had something to do with reliability rather than a potentially defective manual safety.
However, in reality, the Smith & Wesson PPKs were exactly what they were intended to be, an updated take on an iconic pistol intended for concealed carry. They modified the feed ramp to reliably feed JHPs and extended the grip tang to help mitigate slide bite, both changes successfully addressed the issues, but obviously Walther Snobs want to pretend that it's okay that older models can't shoot JHPs because they weren't designed to and that slide bite is a result of gripping the pistol improperly, complete with a lesson on the awkward method of gripping the pistol they've devised to prevent slide bite which has never appeared in any official owners manuals for the pistol yet was allegedly intended from the very beginning.
Meanwhile, the new production Walther PPKs have adopted Smith & Wesson's modifications to the design, so clearly they approve of them, but according to Walther Snobs, Walther Arms USA isn't Walther, it's Umarex and surely the artisan gunsmiths who built the PPKs of decades past are rolling over in their graves over the direction the company has been taken in.

Sorry for the mini rant there, but I was subjected to endless ridicule and grief courtesy of Walther Snobs whenever I mentioned that my PPK/S was manufactured by Smith & Wesson, fed all manner of lies and misinformation in regards to how S&W PPKs were the worst examples ever made complete with their insipid elitist opinions regarding Smith & Wesson's modifications to the design, so I kind of hate them. Plus, assuming any of those fools are here, I just wanted to preemptively cover all of their nonsensical assertions on the subject in advance.

In short, Smith & Wesson made an excellent, modern-day working man's iteration of the classic Walther design which performs excellently in my personal experience, and it seems like just about anyone who can manage to judge them on their own merits without comparing them to the classics and completely misses the point that they were designed to be actual firearms for Self-Defense and not fancy museum pieces or safe queens feels the same.

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Shooting Comfort is bilateral.

I have a S&W/Walther PPK and enjoy it. I had an 'original' years ago but sold it back in the day to help finance my first home. Do I wish I still had it? Heck yeah. But strictly as a safe queen.The Smith PPK as stated above is reliable, shoots any ammo and is a pleasure to plink with. I also carry concealed with it.
To the OP, enjoy the pistol for what is.

I collect Walther pistols. The ones I have were fired only once at the factory. I have a S & W PPK/S, and PPK. I have an Interarms PPK, and TPH. I am deciding on whether to buy the pot metal .22lr version.

Buy it.

They're inexpensive, good shooters, and they're not actually made of ZAMAK, that was just an error made by Walther USA on their website which has long since been corrected.

Seriously, I personally corresponded with Walther Germany via e-mail on the subject and while it was sort of difficult because obviously English isn't their first language, but I was told that the Walther PPK/S-22 is made from "a proprietary alloy, much stronger than ZAMAK". They went on to say that they couldn't reveal the exact composition of the alloy because it was a trade secret, but in their following statements I believe that they were attempting to hint that it wasn't a zinc-based alloy at all, but an aluminum alloy. It's hard to be certain due to their awkward wording and obvious lack of familiarity with the English language, but seeing as all of their other premium .22 Pistols like the 1911-22 and PPQ22 are explicitly stated to be made of an aluminum alloy, I surmise that the PPK/S-22 is likely constructed from the same alloy.

Regardless, I've owned a Walther PPK/S-22 since 2015 and aside from the matte black finish wearing off a bit on contact surfaces, it looks as good as the day I bought it and runs even better. My only complaint is the heavy 17.5lb DA Trigger, but either it has smoothed out over the years or my finger has simply gotten sucy a workout from shooting it that it simply doesn't feel heavy anymore.

It's also to my understanding that the PPK/S-22 has undergone a few factory improvements over the years, including a few changes to the RSA in order to prevent the slide from jamming if reassembled improperly.

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Shooting Comfort is bilateral.

Have an early model and love it. VERY heavy DA pull but excellent SA follow ups. Easy shooter. Mine has the CT grip and that's good as my older eyes struggle a bit with the smaller sights. Recall was no problem.

I agree 100% with Forte Smitten Wesson about gun snobs.

The only Walther PPK/s I have now is better that the one I had in the 1970's.
It is a SS Interarms with a better trigger pull of DA & SA than my old one plus an intacater of a round in the chamber.

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Only difference Fool/Mule-ears

You raise a lot of good points. I agree the Walther "purists" can be annoying.

Something about the Walther that seems to bring the elitist out in people.

A gun can have great fit, finish and be highly collectable as the early Walthers do but be no better than and sometimes worse than modern implementations that are better at being a gun. By that I mean, shootable and reliable.

Unfortunately, most of the Walther Snobs I've met are convinced that the PPK(/S) is only good as a collectible, museum piece, or safe queen. They basically regard the PPK(/S) as a firearm that's pleasant to look at, but no longer worthy of consideration when it comes to concealed carry.

Just owning a Smith & Wesson PPK(/S) is enough to get them going, but if you tell them you carry it as well, then you'll be bombarded with additional assertions like; "The PPK is too heavy for a .380, the DA Trigger is too heavy, it isn't drop safe with out the safety engaged and it's too hard to quickly disengage, you just wanna be James Bond!" Oh yeah, speaking of which, Walther Snobs absolutely HATE James Bond for some reason. You'd think they'd at least be happy that the James Bond franchise helped the PPK to achieve mainstream popularity, but no, they hate the franchise and make fun of anyone who got turned on to the PPK through it.

Personally, I think that the only legitimate knock against the PPK(/S) is the weight, as it is legitimately rather heavy at 23oz+, but then again, it's an all steel pistol. If Walther wanted to, then they could easily reduce the weight by making it with an aluminum alloy or polymer frame. However, the PPK(/S) is by no means too heavy to be carried. I pocket carried mine for years without much trouble, except for in the summertime when wearing the absolute lightest, loosest, drawstring shorts.

Nowadays I carry a Ruger LCP, but not because it's a better firearm. I carry the Ruger LCP because it's extremely small, extremely lightweight, and so easy to carry that it actually requires more effort to leave it behind than it does to slip it into my pocket and take it with me wherever I go. When it comes to shootability, my S&W PPK/S completely outclasses my LCP because it fits my hand like a glove, has much better sights, and is inherently more accurate due to the fixed barrel design. In fact, one of the reasons which finally forced me to overcome my polymer biased was that I simply had grown so fond of my S&W PPK/S that the mere thought of it possibly ending up in an evidence locker was too much to bear, whereas if my LCP were to be confiscated as evidence after a possible Self-Defense shooting, then I wouldn't worry about it.

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Shooting Comfort is bilateral.

Years ago I worked for a gun shop. An old guy was selling his German made in the 60’s PPK. I asked him why he was selling it, & his reply was “I never know when it’s gonna jam”. GARY

Prior to the modifications Smith & Wesson made to the feed ramp, PPKs had iffy reliability with anything but FMJ because that's what the gun was designed for. Some folks will argue that their vintage PPK is 100% reliable with JHPs, but I guarantee you that they're using JHPs with the absolute roundest bullet profile available like Pow'R Ball, or work has been done to the feedramp because the shape of the original feedramp is a two-piece design with a seem which will catch on the edge of most JHPs. Otherwise, theirs is an exception to the rule.

As previously stated, Walther Snobs will attempt to play spin-doctor by making all sorts of excuses like; "You really shouldn't be using anything but FMJ anyway because .380 don't go deep enough!" or "You shouldn't carry a PPK for SD anyway because it's an obsolete design and there are better options like my trusty SIG P238!" and my personal favorite; "The S&W PPK feeds JHPs even worse! I know because I used to own one and it jammed constantly using Winchester USA Forged ammo!"

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Shooting Comfort is bilateral.

I have one and never had an issue with it. Bought it cause I had to have one and it’s the SS version. Got a good deal on it though brand new and the LGS wanted to get rid of it, it was laying for awhile, because of bad publicity ?..maybe.
Shot it several times and I was not overly impressed with it and not as a carry piece either.
So as of today it resides in its box in the back of the safe!
So much for the PPK/S....

Some S&W ppk/s manufactured in 2009 2010 just after the recall, has poor to very bad tolerance control.

I bought a NIB PPK/S-1 picked it up in Jan 2010. Unfortunately it never could make it through more than one magazine without freezing up or jamming. By freezing up I mean in firing the action would freeze up rock solid in the firing cycle. Need to disassemble the hammer block .
Sent it back under warranty four times for repair. Fifth time for full refund by S&W.
Yet most S&W ppk ppk/s were very good .

If purchasing a new ppk I would consider a ppk instead of the ppk/s (prefere the shorter grip) and get it by Davidson's in case I got a lemmon.

I am certainly not a Walther snob. The PPK design is finicky. I would buy a S&W ppk or PPK/ S but inspect it. Areas over looked are the extractor and the engagement (how well does the trigger bar fit) of the trigger bar
Also pay attention to ease smoothness of the hammer block plunger. Make due no signs of bubba Dremel polishing of ramp and rails.

I have used Davidson's for a Ruger lcp because it is easier to deal with a one time swap out of such a type of pistol rather than going back and forth to the manufacturer. But that was about 10 years ago.