Bond. James Bond. The faux British accent didn’t even sound right inside my head as I spied the little Walther sitting under the glass at my local gun store. I’d been searching for a replacement Walther PPK or PPK/S since trading in my .22 version during the ammo shortages of recent memory. This time, however, I wanted a man’s caliber. Or, you know, a .380 for my man-purse.
Walther is an old and well respected name in the firearms world. The German company has produced many innovative and often imitated designs from the P38 to the P99 to the PPQ, but arguably none of Walther’s guns are as famous or copied as greatly as the PPK, the scaled down variant of the Walther PP. One of the first successful DA/SA pistols in history, the PP-series found service with militaries and police agencies around the globe and gained quite the following on the civilian market that continues to this day.
Reuniting with a trusted old friend that you haven’t seen in more than 30 years is a special experience. Such was the case for me when I tested a new Walther PPK/S semi-automatic pistol.