Originally Posted by Nomercy448

In the interest of not scaring him out of shooting the fine old pistol, I'll comment that I've never felt the PPK/S recoil to be severe. It's one of the best behaved .380autos on the market these days, with VERY mild recoil, especially compared to the rest of its 380 bretheren. Felt recoil is very subjective, but the reality is that the PPK/S has very little recoil to start with, and a MUCH larger footprint in hand than most 380's.

Relatively speaking, the Walther is a giant .380auto. She's nearly 3 times heavier than her cousins like the LCP; the PPK's a pound and a half, to the LCP's 9oz, the Sig P238's 15oz, 12oz for the Shield. Even the LC380 in her same size class is only 17oz, garnering TWICE the recoil energy as the PPK/S in the same load. The same load in a PPK/S and an LCP will have SEVEN TIMES the recoil energy in the LCP.

To add a bit of context, a Glock 19 with 115grn loads has 4x the recoil energy of the PPK/S, and a 1911 5" has 2.5x the recoil energy. Just for fun, a Ruger Super Blackhawk 44mag has almost 15x more recoil energy.

With around 1.5ft.lbs. of recoil energy, it's actually pretty hard to find a centerfire pistol with less recoil. It's the only 380 in my safe that I'd say IS a good time taking to the range just to burn a few hundred rounds.

Originally Posted by CT-Hunter

I am not trying to scare anyone out of shooting an old pistol. But it is a good idea to point out problems he may experience and not pretend they do not exist. A cruise through the internet is going to turn up many discussions of the problems I pointed out. A lot depends on the size and structure of his hands. I for one find it uncomfortable to shoot (based on more than half a dozen boxes of .380 through my PPK/S). Its recoil is sharp for a little pistol and it has bitten me more than a few times. By way of comparison, I shoot a number of handgun calibers including the .44, .357, .45 and 9, and have no problems with any of them. Again it may simply be a matter of fit and the PPK probably does not fit me very well. But like him, my gun has sentimental value so I keep it and every few years burn a box of shells.

Originally Posted by Nomercy448

It must REALLY not fit you well. Felt recoil is always subjective, but the numbers don't lie - there's just not much recoil in the PPK/S. I've been using a PPK/S and a Ruger Mark II 22lr for 15yrs as my "demo guns" when instructing handgun classes, specifically for the reason that they have such mild recoil.

Slide bite is a real thing, no doubt, and the PPK/S is notorious for it due to its receiver frame design.

Originally Posted by schickster

I recently inherited a Walther PPK/S 380 from my dad and would like some feed back on the gun. I never owned a pistol but would like to keep it in his memory.