"Good Evening, Mr. Bond"

Everyone give Benjamin over at reasonablenut a nice round of applause. He picked up a nice Walther PPK. I notice he didn’t post anything tonight. He’s probably out hunting Blofeld and martinis (shaken, not stirred) even as you read this. Most will recognize the Walther PPK as the sidearm of James Bond, 007. Those who didn’t missed out on how hilarious the sentence before last really was. Uncultured heathens.

If I haven’t mentioned this before, the PPK and PPK/S are really great little guns. The PPK is a bit smaller, and holds one less in the magazine than the PPK/S.

They are pretty accurate for such tiny guns. The fixed barrel design seems to be more accurate than other automatic designs. They are made in the .380 caliber, as well as the .32. The .380 seems to be the most popular of the two. I sort of prefer it myself. For the uninitiated out there, a .380 is essentially a shortened 9mm Luger. Hence its euro-designation of 9mm short. (Or 9mm Kurz, if you are of Germanic extraction.)

On paper, the .380 seems to have roughly the stopping power of a .38 special. What you trade off in mass you make up for in muzzle velocity. Theoretically, of course. I’d not care to be hit with either.

The Walther in question has a manual safety and decocker. It also has a hammer, which allows the shooter to have the option of shooting single-action. I really do prefer this sort of action on a gun. It allows the shooter to carry with a manual safety engaged. If the safety fails, there is a relatively heavy trigger pull before going boom. I think this probably helps reduce accidental discharges. The 1911 fans are already howling, probably saying something along the lines of, “keep your finger off the trigger and you don’t need the safety.”

Very true. However, guns are much like ice cream: there’s a variety that fits everyone’s palate. I gravitate towards DA/SA autos with manual safeties. They make me happy. Sue me.

Back to the Walther. The new ones are stainless steel. This makes them somewhat heavier than I would like. However, it makes them pretty easy to clean. I hate cleaning guns, so anything that helps along those lines is very much appreciated. The gun’s weight does make concealability somewhat of a problem. It tends to drag down whatever the bearer is wearing. On the other hand, its size makes it pretty easy to hide it in a small pocket.

At any rate, I’m happy for the guy. Anybody who gets a new gun deserves congratulations from all of us. Along with extreme jealousy, of course.

You know you’re getting older when....

You sneeze and separate a rib. Holy crap, that hurt. Still does. This never would have happened if I had still been in my 20's.

I dread 40 like you would not believe. 30 was terrible enough.