Walther P99 AS

Walther P99 AS

My name is Tim and I’m a Waltherholic.  Yep, given pretty much any similar choice and I’ll take the one with that famous banner stamped thereupon.  Way back in 1997, the year before I made detective (man, that statement makes me feel old!) Walther introduced the P99 and it was an immediate hit.  Not only did it impress several nations’ militaries and police forces, but it was a hit with me.  Something about it just struck a nerve and I knew I had to have one.  The pistol has gone through several variations through the years and we now arrive at the P99 AS (Anti-Stress) pistol.  Gone is the proprietary rail on the dustcover and in its place we find not only cleaner lines but a more universal rail allowing the end user to fit a wider variation of his or her preferred aftermarket implements such as lights and lasers.  More on that in a wee bit.  I wanted a P99 and I have finally at long last brought one home.

My new Walther P99 AS

Upon my retirement from the police agency with whom I spent most of my career, our Animal Control officer, knowing my love of the design, brought his P99 .40 to work with him so I could have the experience of shooting it.  I shot it quite a bit that last day and greatly enjoyed it.  Call me a stickler, though, but I wanted the 9x19mm version.  Ballistic reasons aside, once I retired I would no longer have the key to the ammo closet and would thus need to secure my own shooting fodder.  Costs to income ratio being what they are, I wanted a more affordable round.  Also, every .40 S&W caliber pistol I’ve ever shot had quite pronounced recoil and muzzle flip (well ahead of the .45 acp, in my opinion) and my friend’s P99 was no different.  Although it was softer shooting than our issued SIG P226s and P229s, it was still quite a thump to my somewhat arthritic hands. 

I looked for, handled and priced several examples but all were priced well outside my range.  The last example I saw at a local gun show, admittedly in excellent condition, was priced at $600 used.  Fast forward about 3 years and I found a like new in box, with all the goodies Walther P99 on an auction site.  Cost, 2-day shipping and transfer fee at my LGS all totaled $400.  How could I say no?  Obviously I didn’t and I thus became the proud owner of a very nice pistol.

My high-cap 9x19mm choices for CCW these days is usually my Browning Hi-Power or my Glock 26.  I love that old Hi-Power and despite its 13 round magazine, it hides pretty well even under a t-shirt.  Alas, it has a lot of sharp edges (and a notoriously stabby hammer spur) and, not to sound wimpy, but it’s a might heavy too.  Normally that’s not an issue and goodness knows it’s ridden many a day IWB back in my “I have one duty/off-duty gun” days.  But now, in my 50s, things like sciatica and other old-man issued limit how much weight I can tote all day, every day (or at least some days).  The Glock 26 has been a long-time companion as well, both as a backup and at times as a primary duty pistol.  I keep three mags loaded for it, a flush-fit 10-round mag, another 10-rounder fitted with a +2 floorplate giving me a pinky rest and a total mag capacity of 12 rounds, and a 17-round magazine fitted with an X-grip to fill in the space between the floorplate and the bottom of the pistol’s abbreviated grip.  The latter choice essentially gives me a model 17 with a model 26 barrel.  That’s the way I keep it for in-the-house and bedside duties and frequently how I carried it, although the 12 round mag probably got a little bit more time for IWB carry.  That baby Glock is great, easy to shoot, and surprisingly accurate.  Alas, like all hi-cap Glocks, it’s a bit thick.  Call me old fashioned but I absent a thumb safety I like my first shot to be Double-Action as well.  Yeah, yeah, but that’s how I feel.

I’ve looked at and considered a Glock 19, one of the pistols I consider about perfect for overall carry.  The 26 is so short that it doesn’t stabilize well in most IWB holsters I’ve tried (with the exception of Aliengear’s excellent hybrid rig).  The 19 has just enough more barrel length to stabilize the piece and the little bit of extra grip length barely compromises discreet carry (body size and carry methods vary, of course). But the Walther P99 is overall just a fraction shorter, and though it’s ever so slightly taller (.21”) it’s 1.65 ounces lighter. and .7” thinner.  That thinness is important for anything that shares my waistband.  While I’m not obese and am considerably lighter than I was when I retired (how I hate that fat guy photo of me that hangs on the wall in my old department) thinner is generally better for IWB carry.

The weapon arrived and other than a tiny scratch on the left side of the slide just below the front edge of the wide ejection port, it looked like it had never been out of the box.  Frankly, that could well have occurred during shipping from the factory as a few weeks of nearly constant carry have produced a bit more wear that that tiny, hard to see scratch.  I’m not saying to the finish isn’t durable and there is certainly no rust.  But there are very faint marks on the trigger guard where the security device in one of my holster engages.  Again, hardly noticeable, and any gun you carry is going to get banged up some.  If such bothers you, leave it in the safe.  Along with the weapon was the case, all the paperwork including warranty card and test target from the Walther factory.  Three alternate sized backstraps were included along with four front sights of differing heights (one came installed on the pistol).  Two 15 round magazines came along as well.  The medium sized backstrap was installed on the weapon and it fit me fine.  I tried the smaller one, though and though it was barely perceptibly smaller, it felt quite good and I figured adds just a pinch to concealability so that’s the one I went with.

I dug out three holsters for it, one a Don Hume leather clip-on IWB leather holster.  It was made for a SIG P229 but fits the P99 very well so I figured it would give me a fair assessment without me having to purchase what might be yet another resident for the dreaded Box of Misfit Holsters (c’mon, we all have one).  The  Aliengear hybrid IWB for my Glock 26 fit it securely enough that I used it for a while too.  Finally I have a Safariland 578 GLS paddle holster that adjusts to fit a wide variety of similarly sized pistols.  It was fitted to my Glock 26 and the P99 fit into it fine but it could move about just a little.  So a turn or two with an Allen wrench and it now fits my Walther like it was made for it.  Lacking belt tension (the main manner of security for the two IWB holsters I mentioned, the GLS needs to fit a pistol just right.  Too tight and you’ll play havoc drawing it, too loose and … well, I doubt your weapon will fall out as that trigger guard catch is pretty darn secure, but it will rattle around a bit and why risk breaking a holster and/or losing a gun?  

The pistol carries quite well whether in a holsters similar to those I mentioned or with just a Kydex trigger-guard cover and lanyard.  For that matter, although not prescribed and certainly not to be recommended (L-I-A-B-I-L-I-T-Y) it carries well in the old “Mex-Carry” holsterless, stuffed-in-the-waistband-behind-a-snug-belt manner too.  That’s how we did it “back in MY day” when those of us who carried off duty couldn’t afford expensive holsters but were leery of anything cheap enough to be in our cop-pay price range.  A little forward cant (i.e. FBI tilt) keeps the pistol from printing even under a t-shirt.  Frankly I’m amazed I can walk around carrying it while shopping, walking the dog in the park, etc. and a duty-sized (if arguably compact) pistol can go unnoticed even when only covered by a t-shirt.  The weapon is light enough to be quite comfortable for all day carry as well.  That's something that cannot always be said for many other weapons featuring all steel frames (although I do love those heavy, solid frames, great throw-back that I am).

So, how does it shoot?  Quite well, as one should expect.  A bit of a caveat here is in order, however.  First off, do not, unless you want to embarrass yourself and ruin your trip to the range, even think about putting aluminum cased ammo in this pistol.  I bought a 100 round box of Independence brand aluminum 115 gr FMJs that my local big box store had on sale.  I got a failure to eject (dreaded double-feed) during the first magazine run and by round #38 I had a failure to extract that resulted in an aluminum case stuck firmly in the chamber.  I was later able to get it out without damaging the weapon but that box of ammo is a definite no-go for me, at least for this weapon.  The Walther’s massive extractor darn near tore the rim off the cartridge case, too, so there’s that.

Oh, and if you do any research you’ll find that there is one often repeated criticism of the pistol and that is the design of its windage adjustable rear sight.  The manual says just turn the screw, you know, like you do with any other screw-adjusted rear sight?  Alas, it lies.  See, there is this spring powered plunger that rises out of the top of the slide on the right side.  The top of the plunger has a notch.  The adjustment screw on the rear site has a square head.  Do you see where this is going?  To adjust the sight, the plunger needs to be held down very, very carefully and the screw turned by ¼ turn increments.  Make very sure when all is said and done the rear sight screw is firmly sitting in that slot on the plunger.  Most likely you’ll turn the screw, and wind up popping off the rear sight.  Don’t fret if that happens.  Set the sight atop its slot, guesstimate where it needs to be, turn the screw until it looks right, reinsert the sight in its notch from the left while holding down the plunger and fitting it to the screw-head.   Yeah … or just replace the rear sight with one that doesn’t require that silly, over-thought, over-engineered spring/plunger assembly bit of engineering madness.  Hey, it’s a German gun so something had to be over-engineered.   More than likely you won’t need to adjust the rear sight anyway as it comes sighted from the factory (although there are stories of one test-firer at Walther who feels the need to drift rear sights all the way to the left … ah, but I digress).  If it shoots low or high with your chosen carry load, simply replace the front sight with one of the extras.  That process is fairly simply.  Or, hey, choose another load.  Handgun rounds aren’t death-rays, so likely as not whatever you wind up carrying will do about as well as anything else.  Reliability and Accuracy are the primary qualities in a handgun of this type.

Anyway, following my learning experience with alternate ammunition casings, I returned to the range with a much better selection of ammo, including rounds from Federal, CCI, and other top name brands (I'm pretty sure brass cases ammo of good manufacture should work fine).  115 and 124 grain rounds were quite accurate and the installed front sight was indeed the correct one, saving me any further drama.  I began by shooting at 7 yards.  I fired 5 rounds of CCI 115 grain FMJs going for something close to one round per second or slightly slower.  I was initially shocked and chagrined to see only two holes in the target.  One, right where I’d been aiming, and another not quite an inch higher and left.  My angst turn to pride, however, as I got closer and realized that three rounds went into the first hole and two in the second.  Not bad, not bad at all, new gun jitters and everything!  I fired some more, varying from a few steps to 25 yards, but I won’t bore you with the details.  Suffice to say it is a very accurate handgun.  I noticed it was still shooting just a pinch to the right.  I fumbled with the rear sight for a bit and it now shoots ever so slightly to the left.  I mean not so much that you’d notice, especially at combat ranges and even at 25 yards it was all around the bulls-eye.  At 50 yards I could hit a Pepper popper every shot aiming dead center.  But at 75 yards I had to aim right about the width of the front sight blade to knock down a Pepper popper.  At that point I was just showing off so I left the sights where they were.  Please note in the below groups that I had "new gun jitters" which, I suspect, accounted for more of the off-center shots, especially elevation issues) than did any sight mis-alignment.  Of course, that also means that any degree of decent accuracy is due more to the pistol's inherent accuracy and ease of shooting than to my own skills.  Hmm ... I probably should have left that bit out, eh? ^_^

A quick 5-shot group from 7 yards
              (yes that's 5 hits, 3 in one hole, 2 in another) 

Five more shots, from 15 yards this time
               (total of 10 hits showing)

And five more 25 yards (showing the total group)

I tried some rapid draw-and-fire drills and found the weapon pointed very naturally.  In one drill, I started maybe 3 yards from the target, drew and began firing while stepping to the side and then backpedaling.  I stopped shooting once I got almost to the seven yard line.  I was shooting very fast and I don’t think I did more than just glance at the sights once or twice.  Nevertheless I could cover all the shots with the bottom of one of the P99’s magazines.  It didn’t seem to favor one brand or weight (115 or 124 gr) over another, at least in my informal and practical testing.  If I were shooting bulls-eye matches I’d probably test many other loads.  Or more likely I’d be loading my own.  For that matter, if I were doing any serious bulls-eye shooting I most likely would be using a purpose built target pistol and not a compact duty weapon.

The "AS" in the model name P99 AS means "Anti-Stress" and refers to it's trigger action.  When one first loads the weapon in the common manner for loading a semi-automatic pistol, the internal striker is cocked, making the weapon in essence, a single-action pistol.  The trigger, however, stays forward.  That is the "Anti-Stress" setting which let's you have a single-action pistol with the trigger in the same starting point as it would be if it were being carried double action.  When you apply the initial tiny bit of pressure to the trigger, it rolls back effortlessly with your continued finger pressure to the "cocked" position where it stacks to about a 4.5 pound single action pull weight. That "cocked" position is also where the trigger stops after being fired and on subsequent shots.  The shooter has two options here.  First, if you like to keep things short and light, once you've fired and want to go back to trigger-forward mode, you can retract the slide just about 1/8 of an inch and let it got back home (mine is still so new and stiff I usually have to give it a bump on the rear of the slide to be totally sure it's back in battery).  The trigger will jump back into its forward post once more.  Or, if you want your first shot to be double action (a'la ye olde typical DA/SA semi-auto "wondernine") simply depress the little oblong button on top of the left side of the slide, just a wee bit forward of the rear sight.  That will decock the firing mechanism and your first shot will then require a longer yet smooth and quite manageable trigger pull (9 pounds according to the factory).  This is the way I prefer to carry mine as I am quite used to the DA/SA style of pistol and lacking a manual safety (I know, I know, I'm a dinosaur) I would rather have a slightly heavier and longer initial trigger pull.  Sure, I know, there are ten thousand reasons why I'm wrong but I did carry a gun for most of my life (professionally), went through a LOT of upscale firearms training (including FBI's SWAT course back in my SWAT days), and have had to "draw down" on more than a few folks who were determined to bring harm to myself or others.  So I like to think I have at least some degree of first hand knowledge over some arm-chair commandos and range rats regarding what works well vs. what might not.  That said, I really like the options on this pistol and find shooting it either way (with the relatively light DA first shot or with the respectably light and smooth SA) to be accurate and easy.

There is a round hole in the rear of the slide through with the red colored end of the striker's cocking indicator will protrude if the weapon is not in DA mode.  You can watch the indicator drop back into the slide when you press the decock button atop the slide.

Oh, insofar as my chosen load, I decided against my normal “old boy” load of Federal's excellent 9BPLE 124 gr +P+ and went instead with Federal’s standard pressure 124 grain HST jacketed hollow points.  I did a lot of research and I’m not losing much velocity (well under 100fps) but in all the test I’ve seen the HST performs spectacularly and without the added wear I might bring to my pistol with +P+ pressures.  I’m not saying this is my forever load but I like it and the pistol likes it (that’s what I was hitting the poppers with at 50 and 75 yards).  Again, though, any quality load you choose should serve you quite well.  I've said it many times, pistol bullets poke little holes, period.  Shove a piece of 9mm drill rod (or 10mm, or 11mm, or what have you) and the results I would imagine will be very similar to what a similarly sized handgun bullet will do, with the exception of bone fragmentation.  Okay, also, contact shots add the effects of expanding gases going into the wound but insofar as the damage from a bullet's path, I stand by my drill rod analogy.  Still, you may want something with enough "uumph" to get through light cover and to reach the vitals of a bad guy even at weird angles, but not exit a human body (or at least not go two blocks down the road and through an exterior wall into someone's nursery).  Frankly, that's asking a lot from any handgun round, but modern defensive ammo manufacturers have come a long way and, IMHO, the HST line is usually about the closest as we can get to that magic bullet.

To sum up, the Walther P99 is an excellent pistol for someone searching for either a great service pistol or a good home defense or CCW handgun.  We're in the height of spring here on the sunny (and bloody hot) Alabama Gulf Coast so we'll see how well it carries in the dreaded summer heat soon enough.  I expect it'll stand up to Summertime abuses far better than I usually manage to.  My prediction is that my new P99 will prove an excellent summer carry pistol and may even get carried in times and places where I may only otherwise have had "just" a micro .380.  Time will tell.  In the meantime, I think I need to go shoot my new pistol some more.

 Overall Observations

Dimensions / Weight	7.1” length, 5.3” height, 1.1” width
Caliber / Capacity	9x19mm / 15 round magazines (.40 S&W available with 12 rd mags)
Action	DA/SA striker fired with “Anti-Stress” option
Pros	·         Very accurate and Reliable (with good ammo) ·         Lightweight for the size/capacity, ·         Rounded Edges that make for quite comfortable carry. ·         Overall a very ambidextrous design ·         Affordable after-market holsters, sights, magazines, parts and such are easy to find.
Cons	·         Rear sight is over-engineered and if you need to tinker with it, be careful or better yet, replace it (not a huge deal but worth noting). ·         Not a fan of aluminum cased ammo (again, not a big deal but you need to know this in case you hit the bargain bin on your way to the range).
Comments:	It’s a Walther!  Enough said! J

Walther PPK/s .22

     My affection for Walther firearms is well known.  I've carried three different PPK pistols in my time as a police officer, through all my ranks and job positions.  I did some of my best talking to convince a then not-gun-friendly (and not very me friendly) administrator to issue me a PPK/s that the department had in inventory.  I also owned a Walther P22 (.22LR) that is a delight to shoot and even had it in the car with me occasionally in addition to my regulation armament as a “just in case” piece. 

     I say “had” the P22 because when my wife and I were dating she proved eager to learn how to shoot and proved to be a very good student.  My P22 at some point became her P22 (much as my Ruger 10-22 became her Ruger 10-22 once she shot it).  Oh, it’s still in my house, within reach from my side of the bed, in fact, but just ask her and she’ll make it quite clear that while it’s OUR cars, OUR house, OUR money, it’s HER gun.  ;)

     My wife proved to also be as big a James Bond fan as I am (insofar as the movies go; I haven’t convinced her to read the original Ian Fleming books just yet).  Come to find, she was enamored with the PPK (which I think is one of the most elegant pistols ever made and still frequently find myself carrying either of my personal ones in spite of other “better” pistols in my armory).  However, one severe automobile accident left her with her very dominant right arm being held together by a plate and screws.  Given her already size extra tiny hands, a .380 anything was not in the cards for her (she’s the toughest person I know but two shot with a Beretta .380 and her arm was out of commission for the whole day).  The two PPK examples I have now are .32s and are right on the cusp of manageable for her.  But she doesn’t want to borrow one of my guns, she wants HER gun, and is far more comfortable with a .22 or .25 which, by the way, she shoots well enough to put the rounds where they need to go.

     Well, there we were, at the annual weekend-before-our-Valentine’s Day/Wedding Anniversary gun show.  This is where she usually tells me to go buy a gun for myself from her to me with the admonishment “I don’t buy cheap crap.”  Yes, she loves guns, is a great shot, is a big James Bond (movie) fan, loves Walthers, and sends me to buy guns as her gifts to me.  No you can’t have her and though, yes, she has a sister, they are quite different.

     Where was I?  Oh, yeah, gun show -   We eventually found ourselves drawn like moths to a flame to the table of the dealer  from whom I usually wind up making a purchase more gun shows than not.  In fact, I have told him we should just save time by me just handing him a signed check when I walk in the door and him just handing me what he thinks I’ll want and letting me know how much it cost me.  I pointed out to my wife a brand new Walther PPK/s .22 in a display case.  This is one of the new ones that have just been out for a year or so.  I’ve read mixed reviews on it.  The worst labeled it as essentially a pellet gun that aspired to being an actual pistol.  The best essentially said it worked and the commenter was keeping his.

     Wife fell head over heels right there.  She asked me to give it the once-over before she held it.  It was placed in my hand and it felt rock-solid.  It felt for all the world like my blued steel 1967 sample and did not, in any way, feel like a beefed up pellet gun.  I was actually surprised at how well put together it appeared to be.  I passed it to her and she all but drooled on the display case.  If she were a guy she would have drooled.  Hell, I think I did drool!  She agreed the blued (actually black kinda Parkerized type coating) model was better looking than the chrome version.  She asked the lady at the case to please hold it and stationed me to guard her and the piece from the crowd whilst she ran back to the car to get her ID which she’d accidentally left behind.  When she returned, she filled out the paperwork, passed over our debit card, and, cradling her new baby with our checking account about four bills lighter, made one more circuit of the show with me before we left.

     By the time we ate a late lunch time had gotten away from us so it was the next day (Sunday – blue laws be darned to heck) that we got to go to the shooting range.  By then, of course, I’d had time to give the piece a good going over. My initial impression stayed in place.  It was solid and sturdy.  The barrel is like the one on the P22 in that the actual barrel is a liner that goes inside a tube which surrounds it and gives it the girth to look “normal.”  The barrel sleeve has an end cap near the muzzle that threads on and has notches for a spanner.  This, I imagine, will take the threaded adapter to fit a suppressor that the P22 uses.  We’ve discussed this a few times and now that she has the PPKs I think a can might be in our future.

     It weighs less than my ’67 .32 PPK, but still has heft.  I’ve seen the original .22 models of the PP and PPK where the slide is milled down presumably to reduce the weight.  The new PPKs .22 has a standard-looking slide. To me this looks much better (“elegant,” I call it), though I’d love to have one of those originals which thus far has escaped my collection.

     Manual of arms and disassembly is the same as for the center-fire relatives.  After making sure the weapon is empty (no mag, empty chamber), pull down on the front of the trigger guard and when it clears the underside of the frame push it slightly to one side so it’ll rest on the frame but not return to its previous point (a wee bit of sideways pressure from a finger will keep it there for the rest of this procedure).  Pull the slide all the way back and lift up the rear.  When you see/feel it tilt up, run the slide forward off the frame.  The recoil spring goes around the barrel.  In theory, one end of the spring is slightly belled out (hard to see in my example).  That end goes toward the muzzle.  Reassembly is reverse.  Sometimes it takes a bit of jiggling to get the barrel back through the bushing hole in the front of the slide.  This can be eased by some careful and slow positioning of the barrel to the hole.  Once the slide is back on, let the front of the trigger guard go back home and work the slide a few times to ensure it’s all properly in place.

     To load, insert a full mag, point somewhere safe, pull back the slide and let it go forward entirely under its own power.  Do not “ride the slide” forward … with any pistol that I can think of.  Leave that in the movies.  The hammer will be cocked.  Rotating the safety lever (left side of slide) down will lock the firing pin and drop the hammer.  Keep the muzzle pointed somewhere safe while doing this.  Personally, I like to apply the safety while slowing the hammer’s decent with a thumb just to keep from abusing the mechanism.  The first shot may be fired Double Action (DA) by simply aiming and pulling the trigger.  The slide will cock the hammer when it goes back and all subsequent shots (until you again apply the safety) are fired Single Action (SA).  You can also cock the hammer to get around the quite heavy initial DA pull.  This is such a familiar trait to anyone used to the PP series of Walthers that I call any pistol with a very heavy DA pull followed by light and smooth SA pull “Walther-esque.”  If you have strong hands, you’ll get the first round off DA no problem.  If you have very small, or weak, or arthritic hands, you might need to just plan on cocking the hammer. 

     There are two schools of thought on carrying a PP series of any caliber.  One is that since the only way the firing pin is locked is to have the safety on, “Safety-On” is the only way to go and the other guys are unsafe idiots.  The other school is of the opinion that since the weapon has a hammer block in the frame that prevents the hammer from touching the firing pin until the trigger is pulled, “Safety-Off” carry is fine and preferable if you understand that danger happens in an instant and you’re likely to fumble or forget levers.  “Safety-Off” folks tend to think of the other side as Nervous Nannies that should stick to ranges and not give themselves ulcers by actually carrying a loaded gun.  It’s like Alabama vs. Auburn or Cubs vs. Cardinals or North vs. South.  Understand your piece as well as the guy who built it, know your world, and make up your own mind.  Leftys like me don’t really get a choice.

     At the range, Milady loaded up the 10 round mag like a champ.  It is very similar to the P22’s mag and comes with a Walther-esque finger rest at the bottom.  The finger rest lets a ham-handed lad like me get three fingers on the grip.  The magazine is not interchangeable with the P22’s, unfortunately.  That would have been a nice extra from Walther, as would have been including the little tab on the side of the mag to pull down the follower to aid in loading.  The P22 had that feature, the PPKs does not.

     With wife’s new pistol in hand and her blessing to put the first mag through it (isn’t she GREAT?), I walked up to the 7 yard line, racked in the first round and fired at a Shoot-n-See® bullseye target.  I shot a nice, if slightly left of center group.  For the first rounds through the piece, my “new gun jitters,” and, I don’t know, planetary alignments or whatever, I was impressed.  No, it’s not a target pistol.  But minute-of-heart, or minute-of-eye-socket-and-nose from 21 feet ain’t half bad. 

     The accuracy did not decrease with about 250 rounds of CCI Mini-Mags® and Herself’s groups often involved three or four rounds from a magazine tearing a single, ragged hole from 7 yards.  Given time and perhaps some experimentation with different ammo, I can see someone being able to tighten the groups up impressively.  But, .22 ammo is scarce in our AO and most of what we have are the afore-mentioned Mini-Mags® because they work in all of our other .22LR firearms.  They proved to work quit well in the Walther PPKs as well.  Your experience may vary, but when someone can only pick one type, I usually recommend Mini-Mags® for a start.  In a short barreled .22 pistol, I don’t worry about hollow-points unless that’s just all there is available because it is highly doubtful they will get up enough velocity to expand and with tiny bullets, penetration is your friend.  Our load out was, in fact, hollow points and they fed just fine. 

     Before we called it a day, I shot it side-by-side with my afore-mentioned blued .32 PPK.  Accuracy was on par (excellent) and though the .32 PPK can hardly be said to kick hard, the .22LR PPKs seemed to barely move in my hand.  Oh, and FWIW, it is at least as accurate as the P22, at least in my hands or Herself’s.  Neither of us had any issue with the infamous “Walther-bite” where a too-high grip (or thick hands) get the web cut by the slide.  I think the pistol’s almost utter lack of muzzle flip contributed to that bit of Heaven.

     At around four hundred bucks it is not a cheap pistol.  It is, however, a fun pistol and one that pretty much anyone can shoot comfortably (except for the strain of finding enough .22 LR ammo to make a worthy outing to the range – hopefully this will change soon when supply catches up with demand).  If you want cheap, there are tons of little zinc alloy wonders out there.  If you want a piece that you can be proud of, handle like a real gun and not a delicate flower that might crack in a couple hundred rounds, and even rely on for self-defense (limits of cartridge, blah-blah, higher misfires with rimfire rounds, blah-blah), I think it’ll be darn hard to beat this new Walther .22 PPKs.  One thing’s for sure:  I think I “won” this year’s Anniversary/Valentine gift giving competition.  Anyone who doesn’t think these occasions are competitions hasn't been married very long. ;)

--- Go Shooting and Take a Newbie!