Walther PPK/s 22 Long Rifle

[gerhard1]

A post of mine from the Kansas forum about four years back:

One of the things that I go by when picking up a new gun is this: does the manufacturer have a good reputation? Walther is a name with a sterling reputation among shooters including me and having shot two other Walther pistols (a P-38 in 9mm, and a PP in 32 ACP) I was expecting to sail through the function-firng session with flying colors.

I had received five of the ten round magazines from an outfit in California and went out to my range with a box of about 300 Winchester hollow-points. The first magazine-full went all right and this was encouraging, so I dropped the first mag and inserted the second. The first round in the magazine was a failure to extract, and it went like this for the rest of the session. There was just one more magazine-full that I had no problems with and that was towards the last of the session. The last magazine was loaded into the pistol and the first round fired all right but it was another FTE, and this time the case was stuck in the chamber. This ended the session and the pistol was packed up and taken home. There were about 100 rounds fired.

All-in-all, I am disappointed in this pistol, but it could just be that it is new and needs to be worn in. Or possibly this particular gun does not like Winchester ammo. When it comes to ammo, I understand that 22 pistols are more finicky than Morris the cat, so I'll experiment with various types and brands of rimfire ammunition. It is a good-looking pistol, and it is German-made, with a nice nickel finish, but the reliability issue has me somewhat concerned.

When it functioned properly, the pistol was great fun to shoot, and once this reliability issue is taken care of it will likely be one of my favorite plinkers. But that is job one: improving the reliability. Without that, the pistol is nothing, no matter whose name is on it.

I have been function-firing this pistol quite a bit recently, and I am happy to report a great improvement in reliabilty.

When I first got it, there was, like I said, hardly a magazine fired that did not have some form of malfunction. I told my gunsmith about it and he deburred the gun, and I tried it again. There was a marked improvement, but still not total reliabilty like I want. And with the shortage of rimfire ammo, that really put a damper on shooting the Walther.

Now that the rimfire shortage has improved, I have been shooting the pistol more and I have put something like 200-300 rounds though it with only one stovepipe. And as I said in another thread, that could have due to my limp-wristing it. Among these rounds were some of the Remington bulk pack stuff.

I like my PPK/s a lot better now that it functions properly.

A caveat; it has to be kept clean. That could have been part of the problem I was having before.

 

[rawhide]

I had the same issues with a Walther .22 that I picked up used. Neat little gun but I sold it and bought a Browning Buck Mark that has been flawless and accurate.

 

[druryj]

I had one of these newer PPK/S guns from Walther in Ft Smith back when they first came out and had the same issues. And as far as that Win bulk pack goes, none of my 22 pistols ran right with it. (Ruger MK III, SW MP 22 Compact, GSG 911-22). I just left most of that box of Winchester at the range. So as long as I used CCI MINI MAGS with it, I was good to go. Ended up trading the Walther off, but am kinda wanting another one now.


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[65ny]

Ended up trading the Walther off, but am kinda wanting another one now.


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Well then....here ya go. http://shop.soonerstatepawn.com/Ite...BARREL-2MAGS/3c6497de46844e3ca68435f309bd1ab7

 

[gerhard1]

Did some more shooting with it today, and the gun functioned flawlessly. I had a kaboom though. Had a violent coughing episode and lost my balance. Fell right on my butt, and dropped a magazine in the dirt.
Took it home and disassembled it, cleaned it out and put it back together. No apparent damage except to my pride.

 

[druryj]

Pics of kaboom?

 

[gerhard1]

Pics of kaboom?

I was confused by your post until I realized what you meant. I meant the coughing and falling on my ass was the kaboom. Gawd, I hope no one has pictures of it.

No; the gun is fine. No kaboom there. It's a 22 rimfire anyway.

 

[gerhard1]

Today another 100 rounds of Remington 22 LR went downrange with no jams or stoppages of any kind whatever. I think I can consider the problems of the Walther PPK/s in question have been solved. The design is a good one, having been around since 1929, but the problems with this particular specimen can laid at the feet of poor QC at the Unmarex plant in
Germany.

This pistol can now, it appears, be counted on to go 'bang' reliably. Would I carry it for SD? It holds ten in the mag plus one up the spout, making eleven shots at your disposal. Recoil is minimal, and it is very controllable. The rounds are not expensive so a lot of practice can be had at little cost. And the gun itself is small, lightweight, easily carried and conceals with little effort. So, it has much to recommend it.

The other side of the scale, however, is that the cartridge itself can hardly be described as a man-stopper. Mice, rats, large blowfies and squirrels, definitely, but against other men? Not without very precise bullet placement or you just pour them into your adversary. That said, I have carried it from time to time when carry of a larger gun was not practical. This does not happen often and carrying a rimfire handgun should be approached with extreme caution. I am never saying 'never', but for me at least, it will be very seldom.

Even assuming it has no practical value (which it most certainly does have such value) it is stil a fun little gun to shoot, and it is one purchase that I am happy to have made.

 

[druryj]

If I were to somehow find myself with a .22 pistol as my self defense gun, I'd prefer to have 40gr CCI Mini Mags in it; maybe even Stingers or Velocitors. I loves me some PP series pistols. I just bought myself a PPK/S in .380 ACP the other day. The thing is scary accurate. And IMO, they are the epitome of coolness.

 

[gerhard1]

If I were to somehow find myself with a .22 pistol as my self defense gun, I'd prefer to have 40gr CCI Mini Mags in it; maybe even Stingers or Velocitors. I loves me some PP series pistols. I just bought myself a PPK/S in .380 ACP the other day. The thing is scary accurate. And IMO, they are the epitome of coolness.

Yes, they are coolness personified. Sometimes, I remember that liine from a famous film:

"Bond...............James Bond."

Mine is nickel-plated.