David the Gnome
New member
When I first went to buy a PPK I let the salesman talk me into a PPK/S instead of the PPK I wanted (they had a PPK/S on hand so that was what they wanted to sell me). I've never really been satisfied with the PPK/S because in my mind I've always wanted the PPK. I decided to do something about it today and traded my PPK/S for a stainless PPK while I was in picking up my Dan Wesson CBOB.
The difference in these two guns is phenomenal. Shooting the PPK/S was always a painful experience, and while it only bit me once my hand would always be sore after shooting it. The wrap-around grip on the PPK makes this a complete non-issue. Shooting the PPK was more pleasant than any other comparably sized gun I have owned. I really can't describe how much better it is to shoot than the larger PPK/S. I've owned a lot of .380's and none of them were as nice to shoot as this PPK was. I went out today intending to just function check the gun but ended up going through my entire remaining stock of .380 ammunition.
Dimension-wise the PPK feels much thinner than the PPK/S. With the two magazines (one flush and one extended) the grip was exactly the same as on my old PPK/S, pinky under on the flush mag and a full four finger grip with the extended. This surprised me and was one of the big reasons I was talked into the PPK/S over the PPK; the salesman lead me to believe I would have a finger hanging off even with the extended magazine.
With the flat base-plate magazine this gun disappears in a pocket. With my PPK/S I always had problems with the butt of the gun sticking out too far and making it both difficult to draw out of a pocket and causing issues with printing; with the PPK I don't have either of these problems.
The only downside I can come up with is that you miss 1 round of capacity with the PPK (6 rounds as opposed to 7). This is a minor issue when you're talking about a pocket gun in my opinion. This is meant as a last resort weapon and if 6+1 rounds isn't enough by that point in time having more ammunition probably isn't going to help much.
The lesson I learned here was that you shouldn't let a salesman talk you into something you really don't want. I was new to guns at the time and took his word for it as an "expert". Sometimes their advice and guidance can be useful, but other times they're just trying to make a sale. Do your research ahead of time and be an expert for yourself as opposed to taking a salesman's word in blind faith.
The difference in these two guns is phenomenal. Shooting the PPK/S was always a painful experience, and while it only bit me once my hand would always be sore after shooting it. The wrap-around grip on the PPK makes this a complete non-issue. Shooting the PPK was more pleasant than any other comparably sized gun I have owned. I really can't describe how much better it is to shoot than the larger PPK/S. I've owned a lot of .380's and none of them were as nice to shoot as this PPK was. I went out today intending to just function check the gun but ended up going through my entire remaining stock of .380 ammunition.
Dimension-wise the PPK feels much thinner than the PPK/S. With the two magazines (one flush and one extended) the grip was exactly the same as on my old PPK/S, pinky under on the flush mag and a full four finger grip with the extended. This surprised me and was one of the big reasons I was talked into the PPK/S over the PPK; the salesman lead me to believe I would have a finger hanging off even with the extended magazine.
With the flat base-plate magazine this gun disappears in a pocket. With my PPK/S I always had problems with the butt of the gun sticking out too far and making it both difficult to draw out of a pocket and causing issues with printing; with the PPK I don't have either of these problems.
The only downside I can come up with is that you miss 1 round of capacity with the PPK (6 rounds as opposed to 7). This is a minor issue when you're talking about a pocket gun in my opinion. This is meant as a last resort weapon and if 6+1 rounds isn't enough by that point in time having more ammunition probably isn't going to help much.
The lesson I learned here was that you shouldn't let a salesman talk you into something you really don't want. I was new to guns at the time and took his word for it as an "expert". Sometimes their advice and guidance can be useful, but other times they're just trying to make a sale. Do your research ahead of time and be an expert for yourself as opposed to taking a salesman's word in blind faith.