Walther PP Pawn shop gem

[Erich]

Good find and buy. I like PP and PPK line (who doesn't), but am not familiar enough with them to know what model I would like best, or if I just think one will make me James Bond. Is there a definitive book on these firearms?

I like Gene Gangarosa's book's coverage of the PP/PPK guns.


[ame="https://www.amazon.com/Walther-Handgun-Story-Collectors-Shooters/dp/0883172143"]Amazon.com: The Walther Handgun Story: A Collector's and Shooter's Guide (0037084061863): Gene, Jr. Gangarosa: Books[/ame]

 

[mbliss57]

I use Deiter Marschalls Handbook It is extremely thorough for finding the exact gun you own or are looking for. Its pretty dry for a shooter. It's mostly a reference book but it is thorough. It did have a lot of exacting history which I find interesting and since it is written from a German understanding of the pistols and I have spent extended time in Germany I find it excellent.

 

[Swissman]

Many moons ago, I was at my gunrange, came an old member at my side. I stopped shooting and turned to him. He is a real gentleman, but at this day it was different, somehow. He said he got a gun that he didn't shoot for years, and he wants to give it to me. He didn't accept any money when he gave me the PP with holster and 2nd mag.
Next time I met him, I showed the 27 yards shooting results. He was happy, I can handle the gun this good. Then he didn't come again to the range. Parkinson started slowly to taken control over him.
I miss him. But the PP will remember me at this gentleman now and then.

A bit sad

Swissman

 

[mrchuck]

A very nice collector's firearm. The precision of machining is the highest quality.
The caliber is the minimum for a protection pistol though.
Thousands of people have been killed with this caliber after an intense interrogation by the WW2 Gestapo.

 

[mbliss57]

I always cringe when I here folks say that the 7.65mm cartridge aka .32ACP is too weak to do anyone any good. I always, without exception think of the 1000s and 10s of thousands of people..or more, that were shot (executed) and killed with a Walther PP or PPK from the late 1930s until 1945. I always like and respect this gun configuration for its good solid engineering (I am an engineer) but it's always tainted with a dark history that I cannot seem to dismiss. Maybe the fact that the factoy was moved to the Alcace region in France is a bit of consolation.
Anyway my 2 cents on the caliber not being capable.
(I do know that today we have much better options in caliber for pocket pistols and we should use those to our advantage)

 

[Texas Star]

The idea that a gun/caliber has killed many people in executions doesn't say much about how it performs against a determined, armed foe who may be on drugs or imbued with religious fervor. (Jihadist.)

I discussed the issue of the .32 auto vs. .380 with Geoffrey Boothroyd. He doubted that one was much more potent than the other and pointed out that 7.65mm ammo is more widely encountered, at least in Europe. And the 7.65mm PPK holds one more round of ammo.

That said, he actually advised Ian Fleming to arm Bond with a S & W Centennial Airweight with a Model 27 with six-inch barrel replacing the "long barreled .45 Colt" under the dash of his Bentley. But Fleming was adamant about preferring small autos, for better concealment.

I've read that the Colt .32 auto was more reliable than the .380, although if one sent the gun back to Colt, they could tweak the extractor to work better on the .380. The .32's were usually pretty reliable.

A West German wrote an article in, Guns & Ammo, giving official test results of the PP and PPK in actual police use there. They learned that on average, they could expect a jam in every 50 rounds fired. But some individual guns were probably better than others.

Men with big, heavy hands may experience hammer bite from the small Walthers. And the recoiling slide may cut such fat hands. I'm not overweight and have had no such issues, nor with the Browning Hi-Power. But if you know you have big hands, think carefully before buying ANY small auto.
.
If your little Walther in 7.65mm jams occasionally with US ammo, try Euro brands. There are small differences in the semi-rim on cases, and one brand may work better than others. I gather that Euro makers also load ammo hotter than SAAMI specs.

 

[Absalom]

..... I always, without exception think of the 1000s and 10s of thousands of people..or more, that were shot (executed) and killed with a Walther PP or PPK from the late 1930s until 1945. I always like and respect this gun configuration for its good solid engineering (I am an engineer) but it's always tainted with a dark history that I cannot seem to dismiss....

While historical awareness is always a good thing, I would argue that one doesn't need to overdo it.

I made a personal decision quite some time ago not to have any actual Nazi guns in my collection, and I do not have much use for folks who get shiny eyes when they see a Nazi mark on a pistol and are willing to pay double or triple the price for a PP or PPK just because it has a stamping from some NS or SA organization.

But for the Walther PP/PPK models themselves, they were developed before the Nazi period and built and used before and after.

Besides, I doubt these pistols account for anywhere near as many innocent victims as the old Mauser action and automatic weapons, and there is really no basis to associate them specifically with Nazi evil any more than any other small arm used by the Germans.

Batches of these pistols are documented as having gone to the RSHA, which included the Gestapo. But by and large, the Gestapo actually did not execute victims by shooting them with their service pistols; that was more the style of Stalin's secret police. If people in the clutches of the Gestapo survived the torture, they were usually executed by firing squad, or if within Germany, tried, sentenced and then hanged or guillotined in a strangely orderly fashion.

 

[Muley Gil]

I remember when these ex-police PPs came into the US market. I wanted one in the worst way, but didn't have any free money at the time. Story of my life.

 

[CptCurl]

It hasn't been mentioned in this thread yet, but . . .

As much as I like my PP chambered in .32ACP, I love my two PPs chambered in .22LR.

As for the choice between a PP chambered in .32 or .380, I see the .32 as the classic chamber. I feel no draw to the .380 so long as I have my .32 and my two .22 PPs.

Curl

 

[03hemi]

Got a PP under similar circumstances with the same accessories. Here's my heard so far, keeping an eye for a PPK to finish it out. All are 95%+ condition and some 99%.

 

[nbedford]

Walther has a plant in Ft. Smith now. Just wondering if now that it is US made whether they offer a true PP, or is it just the slightly larger PPK or PPKS? Excuse my ignorance; I know Smiths pretty well, but not so much on Walthers.

 

[hittman77]

EXCELLENT price!

Mine is dated to 1962 and has that same box. I also have a PPK from the same year but no box for that one. Both mine are chambered in 380ACP.

Mine are excellent shooting and handling firearms.

 

[BAM-BAM]

EXCELLENT price!

Mine is dated to 1962 and has that same box. I also have a PPK from the same year but no box for that one. Both mine are chambered in 380ACP.

Mine are excellent shooting and handling firearms.

1962....... Q issued to Bond a PPK in 1962 in the search for "Dr.No"!

 

[sheepdawg]

I always cringe when I here folks say that the 7.65mm cartridge aka .32ACP is too weak to do anyone any good. I always, without exception think of the 1000s and 10s of thousands of people..or more, that were shot (executed) and killed with a Walther PP or PPK from the late 1930s until 1945. I always like and respect this gun configuration for its good solid engineering (I am an engineer) but it's always tainted with a dark history that I cannot seem to dismiss. Maybe the fact that the factoy was moved to the Alcace region in France is a bit of consolation.
Anyway my 2 cents on the caliber not being capable.
(I do know that today we have much better options in caliber for pocket pistols and we should use those to our advantage)

Remember Herr Hitler killed himself with the same 7.65 mm. cartridge from a Walther PPK.

 

[Absalom]

Walther has a plant in Ft. Smith now. Just wondering if now that it is US made whether they offer a true PP, or is it just the slightly larger PPK or PPKS? Excuse my ignorance; I know Smiths pretty well, but not so much on Walthers.

No PP, but a PPK and a PPK/S.

Linking other forums directly is frowned upon here, so go to waltherforumsdotcom yourself, and find the "PP and TP series" subforum. If you scroll through that, you will find plenty of threads on the Ft. Smith guns.

Including that James Bond appears to carry one in the new film

 

[Texas Star]

Re post no. 33, the book was published in 1958 and Bond got the PPK there, before any Bond films were made.

Dr. No was my first Bond book. That was probably in 1960, and I began avidly following the series.

 

[BAM-BAM]

Re post no. 33, the book was published in 1958 and Bond got the PPK there, before any Bond films were made.

Dr. No was my first Bond book. That was probably in 1960, and I began avidly following the series.

I was only in kindergarten at the time....... but seem to recall that the Bond books dated to the early and mid-50s but really came to broad public notice when it was reported that President Kennedy was reading them.

Followed by the first film ..... Dr. NO in 1962 with the Q/PPK scene which spurred interest in the Walther PPK.

 

[DWalt]

I have owned only one PP (in .32, as I remember), that one being a Nazi model with a Waffenamt stamping which I bought sometime in the mid-1960s. Very nice condition, showing little use or abuse. Alas, I never fired it, not even once. Someone offered me a price which was very enticing and so it went home with him. However, it did sort of nudge me into an interest in US-made pocket pistols, and I collected a fairly large number until I sold off most of them back in the mid-late 1980s.

 

[max503]

Sgt. York carried a 32 at home, after the war.

 

[bill-in-texas]

Rick-

I'd start with, The Handgun, by the late Geoffrey Boothroyd. I think it's the single best handgun book, ever. Try Amazon and other Online booksellers. Usually an excellent value, chock full of info and superb photos...
BTW, Boothroyd felt that the M-60 was the ideal James Bond gun, but Ian Fleming died the year before it appeared, so nothing came of that idea.

Not to drift from the OP's post... But, this post gave me the inspiration I needed for a good friend's Christmas present. It will arrive this week! Thanks Texas Star.
-Bill