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Practically Shooting

Walther PPK/s in .22


BarryinIN

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I thought I'd posted these were coming, but I guess not. Well, they're here. They look like this in the gun shop's parking lot:

I like the idea of a .22 in this size. I have a pre-68 PPK-L (L for lightweight alloy frame) but its new in the box with all the goodies including the plastic bag the bore brush is in, so I've gone against my usual ways and left it that way.

To my surprise, it says "Made in Germany" on the side. I haven't checked to see what is steel and what is not, but the weight feels close to a centerfire one.

I was also surprised to find it held ten rounds, not seven or eight.

Trigger is typical Walther. I estimate SA at six pounds, which is liveable and will hopefully improve. The DA is atrocious, and I'd guess its 20 lbs. Being a fun gun, I'll never use DA.

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Initial shooting report:

I shot 130 rounds through it. It did about as I expected.

I ran four dry patches through the bore, wiped off some of their thin oil and lubed it with Slip 2000. I grabbed what .22 ammo was handy:

Federal bulk pack HP

Winchester bulk pack HP

Remington bulk pack HP

Federal Lightning Std Vel solid

Winchester Power Point 40 grain HP (my favorite field ammo)

Eley Pistol Match, a box I bought at a gun club swap meet in the late 80s, and it was an old style box then.

I am not going to get carried away with accuracy meaurements because:

1) I wasn't shooting from a proper rest. I sat on a bucket and leaned against a tree.

2) I need new glasses. Seriously, I've put this off for a year. I can see the front sight OK, but could do a lot better and it's not fair to the gun to measure groups to the sixteenth and act as if it's representative.

3) It's a new gun. Next time, I might do better.

Everything fell between 2" and 3". This is ten-round groups (full mgazine) at 17 yards (as far as I can get there). Prior experience tells me my sitting-on-the-bucket at 17 yards groups are about the same as my 25 yard full-rest-on-a-bench groups.

For accuracy comparison, I can get around 1" to 1.25" groups shooting my High Standards and S&W 41 shooting them the same way at the same place. Apples and oranges IMO.

The Kimber .22 1911 I had for a while (a little closer comparison) was a consistent 2" gun, whether shooting garbage or ultra super match ammo.

The Walther's 2-3" may not sound great, but any .22 I've had that was smaller than this Walther, I couldn't come near 2-3".

Function was unsat at first, but got better. The first five magazines, it would fail to completely eject the first round. The other nine rounds would function properly.

I could see the improvement coming. At first, it would leave the first round empty in the chamber, then improved to extracting it but not getting it completely out, to getting it out but getting trapped by the closing slide.

After those first five mags, it ejected most ammo fine.

I did change ammo every mag at first, but stayed with the bulk (HV) stuff.

It did not eject the first round of Eley or the Federal Lightning Std Vel, but I only tried them once. Both felt obviously weaker, as expected. After some thought, I'm surprised it worked the other 90% of the time with them.

It seemed to have an accuracy preference for the Winchester Power Point and Remington bulk. I'm estimating both came in at 2" or less. The Win PP favoritism is common. The preference for the Rem garbage was unusual in my experience. Good- I can use it up in something.

After that initial ejection shortcoming, the last sixty rounds functioned fine.

Every round fired on the first hammer strike. I don't think I've had that good of luck the first time shooting a smallish .22 pistol.

It comes with two extra front sights to change elevation. I think I will leave it.

The rear sight can be drifted for deflection after loosening a set screw. I did give it an ever so slight nudge, but may put it back. My left error was no doubt my fault, from using a smaller than usual gun with a heavier than usual trigger.

Overall, with the expectation that function will be OK, I think I will like it. It is big enough to shoot with control, the sights are big enough, and accuracy seems good enough for what it is.

Standing on my hind legs and shooting like a man, I could shoot it about the same as my S&W 63 or Ruger Bearcat.

The slide is my only concern. It is made from some metal other than steel. I didn't expect it to be steel for function reasons (my old PPK .22 has a steel slide, but it is skeletonized, and I'm not sure of their reliability). What that is made from, I don't know yet. It does have a stainless steel breech block insert. Walther had some slide breakage trouble with the P22s due to the goofy junk metal they used. This slide feels different, but I don't know. The S&W M&P 22 is supposedly made by them, and I have not heard of any slide failures.

The barrel is threaded. Just sayin'.

The exterior finish is a matte black. I have come to miss deep rich bluing, but my sweat eats it alive. I don't usually like the Darth Vader flat black finish on handguns, but for some reason I don't mind it here. I think it's because I've never seen a PP/PPK/PPK/s finished this way.

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  • 11 months later...
  • 1 year later...

Mine has been gone for a couple of weeks now.  I never could get it to shoot well enough to please me.   I was probably asking too much there, but nevertheless, I wanted more.   I must say it was pretty reliable for its size.

 

It went for a Ruger MKIII 22/45 5.5" with replaceable grip panels.   Thats my fourth Ruger MK, but the first new one in several years.    I like the current 22/45 frame much more than the old.   Yes, its an entirely different category gun than the Walter, but I've been wanting something to leave optics on permanent, and that seemed about right.

 

The Lite (less gaudy silver with holes rather than blue with gills) was tempting.  Maybe that will come home, too. 

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