To replace .25 Beretta with a .32 Walther PPK …..
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washbrook45 — 15 years ago(January 28, 2011 03:27 PM)
I'll have to agree that the PPK in .32 definitely doesn't have a "delivery like a brick through a plate glass window" but it's still an improvement from a friggin' .25! I would rather use a .22lr if I was an assassin over a .25! I used to own a small Beretta .25 and disliked it very much. (The slide would pinch the skin between my thumb and index finger when it moved back after I shot) I agree though with everyone else here about the sleek style of the PPK though, it's an extremely handsome gun. I am lucky enough to own an early '60s PPK in .32 that my grandfather bought from the Walther factory in Germany (Still with the original alligator skin style box and even the receipt!) and have to admit that it's my favorite gun in my entire collection.
Interesting side note: I used the money that I sold the Beretta .25 for to put towards my Walther P99 QA with the olive drab polymer frame in 9mm! (Yes I'm sort of obsessed with JB and his guns lol)
My DVD Collection: http://www.imdb.com/mymovies/list?l=8504358 -
jmix66 — 15 years ago(February 11, 2011 09:02 AM)
Bond needed a reliable and concealable weapon that would do the job (it's shot placement, not simply impact powersomething that people always seem to forget) and the PPK fit the bill.
This was in a time before today's micro 9mm's and .45's calibers. If you were wearing a suit or tux, a big automatic would stand out like a sore thumb.
Bad films are a crime against humanity. -
aerostonefloyd-1 — 14 years ago(September 30, 2011 09:33 PM)
Everyone seems to forget that plenty of hitmen, including Richard Kuklinski, have used small caliber firearms to dispatch victims. Matter of fact some even preferred them to larger caliber guns, point of fact- if you shoot someone even with a .22, depending on where you hit them, they will die.
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theverylastboyscout — 13 years ago(August 17, 2012 09:05 AM)
"point of fact- if you shoot someone even with a .22, depending on where you hit them, they will die."
I can only agree to a certain extend.
People who get shot by a .22 will probably, but not necessarily, die, sooner or later (often it's more later than sooner), .. unless they make it to a hospital in time . or someone helps them to get better . or .
We're not talking about a gun to simply kill people, but about one that makes sense in a combat situation.
In combat it's not about killing other people. It's about preventing people from shooting at you or others.
If you hit your enemy with a .22 anywhere but the head, he will probably have plenty of time and energy to shoot back. Or do no good in other ways. And that's something you don't want to happen.
(Btw, there's plenty of examples in real-life for people even taking a.22 bullett in the head and surviving.)
If you shoot someone, you want that to be the end of him bothering you, don't you?
Nobody likes you. Everybody hates you. You're gonna lose. Smile, you f.ck. -
pawtrax67 — 13 years ago(September 10, 2012 08:05 PM)
Do people forget Bond is a spy, not a commando? He walks around in a suit with his pistol in a shoulder holster. Personally, I would have given him a Smith & Wesson Centennial Model 40 or 42.
He'd only have 5 rounds, but he'd have a .38 Special at least. The other option would have been a Walther P38, but at 8.5" that's +1.5" inches longer than a PPK.
A Tokarev is 7.6" in length so once again the PPK is easier to conceal. Same goes with the Hi-Power at 7.8".
There wasn't really a lot of great choices for an easy to conceal pistol.
Oddly enough the Makarov would probably have been the best choice, as it would offer more punch, and if he was in the Eastern Bloc he'd have lots of access to ammo. -
theverylastboyscout — 12 years ago(January 11, 2014 07:12 AM)
All of the previous posts are accurate in their way.
And all of you posters know a lot more about guns than Ian Fleming, who didn't know . about guns.
Weirdest of all the guns: the Nambu. Big, hard to conceal and it needed ammo that was almots unknown outside Japan.
Nobody likes you. Everybody hates you. You're gonna lose. Smile, you f.ck. -
hightp — 11 years ago(April 07, 2014 10:54 AM)
There is on old joke in the firearm community that goes like this:
It's 1965 and a British spy, Russian spy and American spy all meet in a Monte Carlo casino. What gun are they carrying?
The answer is: the Walther PPK.
At the time it was one of the best concealment guns around and many of the intelligence agencies issued them to their operatives. It was a flat, concealable double action pistol that could be carried loaded with the hammer down and the safety off.
While the OP may not like the choice of a 7.65mm, you also have to remember that most of Europe used that caliber in issue firearms. Ammunition would be much easier to come by than 9mm which was a military round and not available to the public or the .45 ACP which would have been, practically non-existent outside the US.
A previous poster mentions a .22 and it should be said that the Israeli Mossad uses the .22 short almost exclusively and has something like a 94% kill ratio. It's all a matter of placement.
He who fights and runs away, lives to run away again! -
domester82 — 11 years ago(April 29, 2014 01:45 AM)
Bond likes to have concealable weapons, it seems.
In Tomorrow Never Dies, when he reaches the Chinese secret service armoury, he picks out for himself a Walther P99, when you can see FAMAS assault rifles , and FN P90 submachine guns there. -
ffnogoodnik — 11 years ago(November 01, 2014 05:36 AM)
My knowledge of guns is minuscule at best (I know the important stuff like do not be looking into the end with the hole when you pull the trigger) but which gun is which I have no idea.
Having said that, I do know a little something about the history of Bond. In the first several books Bond used a Beretta. A man named Geoffrey Boothroyd, a British Firearms expert and James Bond book fan (the movies had not yet come out) wrote a letter to Ian Flemming explaining that Bond should not be using a Berretta.
Flemming changed Bond's gun based on correspondence with this man. In fact, he named the arms expert after Mr. Boothroyd as a thank you to him.
There are a few articles on the net about this so you can have fun looking up the specifics. -
Blathnat69 — 10 years ago(November 29, 2015 08:04 AM)
I like the PPK. It's small, sleek and stylish (just like Bond).
He has no real need for a massive gun with huge stopping force, particularly because as a highly skilled marksman he'd be capable of using that tiny gun with far better results than 99% of people would with any gun.
Finally, Bond is a British character. He relies far more on his wit, charm and charisma than his gun. He'd much rather talk his way out of a situation than shoot his way out. When he does use it, it tends to be out of necessity rather than choice. Plus in the 60s, having any gun pointed at you would have been enough, so size didn't matter. He had far more need for a small concealed gun that he could whip out at a moments notice than some hand-cannon.
Now, if he'd been an American character no doubt we'd see him running around with a huge .50 calibre or some kind of automatic weapon.
If you aren't replying to my post, don't click reply. -
Skoony — 9 years ago(September 01, 2016 01:18 PM)
Can I just throw this in here?
Why does Bond STILL use a Walther PPK? Hasn't there been any development in the gun industry for the past 50 years? Aren't there better, small guns out there now?
I find that so weird that pistols seem to be timeless. -
gottaluvafriend — 9 years ago(September 30, 2016 02:55 PM)
Bond indeed has the PP is certain Dr No scenes. I think it's the PPK when shoots Professor Dent ("That's a Smith & Wesson, and you've had your six." Great line).
I was surprised to discover that the 7.65 round is but .32. You'd think Bond would be equipped with at least 9mm (which he used in Goldfinger, a Walther P-38). But what the PPK has that fits is it's svelte. Like Bond. Besides, Bond is a superhero. He doesn't need heavy, bulky cumbersome artillery inside his jacket. He can hit a man in the head at 50 yards easy. On the run. Both of them.
The PPK will always be the Bond gun and rightly so, IMHO.