dEFCONAirsoft Maruzen Walther PPK/S Review

The name's dEFCON... 4dEFCON... I'm sorry, I just couldn't resist. That's right people, dust off your tuxedos, prepare your Vodka Martinis (shaken, not stirred) because we have Maurzens latest GBB offering, the new and improved Walther PPK/s.

The real Walther PPK/s, although having been around for some time, was immortalised by our fictional spy hero James Bond, being his weapon of choice up until the 1997 film 'Tomorrow Never Dies' (where it was replaced with the newer model the Walther P99). Most Bond fans know that in the first film (this is where the 'purists' will correct me I'm sure!) 'Dr No', the character 'M' made 007 give up his Beretta for the Walther PPK/s, stating that '...the 7.65mm round had far greater stopping power...'.

The real steel holds 8+1 .32ACP (or 7.65 x 17mm) rounds, in a single stacking magazine. It weighs around 610g and measures about 154mm in length, which is tiny. You don't really appreciate how small it is, until you've held one. The original Walther PPK design dates back to around 1931 and was popular with German officers at the time. In fact, it is rumoured that Adolf Hitler committed suicide with the Walther PPK - now there is a bit of history for you! The Walther PPK/s model came about because of problems importing the PPK into the US. Under the 1968 'Gun Control Act' it was just a few millimetres too small (in height) for legal importation into the US, so the PPK/s model was designed which solved this problem. Comprising of the frame from the Walther PP with the slide and barrel from the PPK - our famous PPK/s was born.

Maruzen bought the Walther PPK/s out some time ago, available in both black and nickel effect, but they didn't really take off with the serious Airsofter, although Bond fans welcomed them with open arms. Reading other reviews of the original model, it seems that accuracy, power and range and the 'plastic' finish were all factors that put people off them, and lets face it, power and range are two factors which your average Airsoft skirmisher are going to be very concerned with. By the very design nature of this pistol, it's small barrel does not make it necessarily the most accurate or powerful pistol, but it's purpose, certainly of the real steel is for an easily concealed pistol with fairly decent magazine capacity for it's size.

It seems Maruzen may have addressed the range and accuracy issue, as this latest edition includes an adjustable hop-up, something the original was lacking. Power also seems to have been addressed, as the PPK/s spits out 0.2g BB's at an average of 227 with Winter gas (more on this later) - which if you compare to the Marui G18C AEP (we all know how practical they are in the field) is plenty enough for a skirmish capable side-arm.

The presentation of the PPK/s is something more exciting than usually seen from Maruzen's plain packaging. This pistol comes in a black polystyrene lined, plastic hard case - with the famous 007 'gun barrel view' seen in the opening sequence of the films, as a logo in the centre of the case. In the box you get the pistol, a magazine, around 100 or so 0.2g BB's (we presume they are this weight), an 'un-jamming' tool and most excitably a positively threaded silencer! This edition is from Maruzen's 'Movie Prop' line up, so effectively you're getting a replica of the same pistol as used by 007, and as we all know, his silencer makes many an appearance in the Bond films. The instructions are all in Japanese, with virtually no English translation, but clear diagrams allow you to operate the gun without a problem. The box too has some interesting translations into English, featuring such gems as 'You hold this Walther movie prop series in a hand, and please appreciate a movie. Surely you can feel a splendid sense of reality! Please enjoy it once!' - funny stuff!. Generally speaking I think the box is a nice touch, and certainly adds an appeal to the collector, much like Marui's offerings with the Colt 1911, making the box just as important as the gun itself.

Taking the pistol out of its case it's immediately noticeable how lightweight it is, even with the magazine in it must only weigh around 420 grams. The quality of the plastic used is not excellent, but certainly not as bad as you might think, it does have a certain 'shine' to it which makes it appear worse than it actually is. The Walther trademarks appear on the slide, the grips and the magazine itself. The metal parts used on this pistol are not in abundance, but then, it's a small pistol with few levers, catches and other fiddly bits. It does however, feature a very nice stainless steel outer barrel needed to thread the silencer onto. Other metal parts include the trigger, hammer, magazine release and the safety/de-cocker lever.

For such a small pistol, it's packed with some fairly nifty features. Firstly, it has a double action trigger, like the real steel, making the gun quick to fire from a safe 'hammer down' position. Secondly, getting the hammer into this 'safe' position is aided with the dual function safety / de-cocking lever, a really nice touch that I love to see on GBB pistols. Instead of gently releasing the hammer down, whilst pulling the trigger and risking getting the full force of a slide flying back on your thumb if the thing goes off, you simply pull the safety lever, and it automatically de-cocks the hammer, and engages the safety - nice! Flip the safety lever back up again, and now the gun is ready to fire when the trigger is squeezed, but making it much safer to carry around loaded.

The other nice feature is the take-down facility, needed in order to adjust the hop-up. Now, seeing as I hadn't actually looked at the instructions when I first started fiddling with the gun, I couldn't work out how you'd get the slide off, but once discovered, it's marvellously simple. Remove the magazine from the gun, rack the slide and pull down towards the front of the trigger guard, which is hinged towards the rear. This allows the top-slide to simply 'slide' off, revealing the internals and a pretty large recoil spring! Interestingly, like the real steel, the PPK/s doesn't have any guide rods for the recoil spring, but it actually uses the outer barrel. The spring has to go in a certain way, so make sure you get the largest diameter end coil towards the end of the muzzle, otherwise it will not assemble properly.

Whilst you have the slide off, you can now appreciate the internals, including the lovely stainless steel outer barrel. Turning the slide over the size of the piston and expansion chamber is tiny in comparison to say, a Glock or a USP, but it produces enough power to propel the BB's at a fair speed, and create a nice crisp blowback action. The BB feed chamber and hop-up unit is actually constructed of silver coloured plastic, although it's almost impossible to tell apart from the obvious difference in ambient temperature of the materials. On the top of the hop-up chamber is the adjustment screw which allows for full control over the level of hop required. Turning clockwise for more, and anti-clockwise for less. Out of the box the level of hop wasn't too bad, with shots dropping off at around 15m, although this could vary from pistol to pistol. I find this bit the most fiddly and annoying, as you have to strip the pistol down each time to get the correct level of adjustment. Very few GBB pistols allow you to adjust the hop without taking the slide off and without a tool, the Marui Desert Eagle being one of them. Of course, once done, it shouldn't need to be adjusted again, unless you swap brands of ammo, gas or both.

The magazine is a simple affair and like the pistol itself, is scaled down in comparison to some of the bigger framed pistols. Unlike the real steel, Maruzen's magazine is a double stacker and holds 22 rounds of ammunition (it will accept 23, but don't try, the gun will jam!), making this gun supreme compared to the Glock 26 in carrying capacity, yet a lot smaller (The G26 holds 15). The magazine has black plastic base plate, which like the G26, your little finger sits on whilst seated in the gun. Filling up with gas seems not to take as long as most GBB's, due to the small size of the gas reservoir, yet it still holds enough gas for a whopping total of over 44 shots!!

Shooting

After filling the magazine up with BB's and Gas and inserting it into the pistol, you pull the slide back like any other GBB to chamber the first round; this also sets the position of the hammer. As mentioned earlier, you can now either pull the trigger and fire-away, the slide flying back on each shot, chambering the next round and cocking the hammer, or you can press the de-cocking lever which resets the hammer to the 'safe' position, putting the pistol into 'double action' mode. The kick of the blowback action is fairly powerful for a pistol of this size, and it's quite satisfying in that respect to shoot. Aiming is easy with the simple notch and post style sights, and the hammer has a notch cut into it so that it does not disrupt the sight picture when it is in the upright 'uncocked' position. Once all 22 shots have been fired, the slide locks back ready for a fresh magazine to be inserted, however with no 'slide release' lever to re-engage the slide, you have to pull it back slightly for it to be released and fly forward - by no means disappointing.

Now, as we mentioned at the beginning of the review, this model comes with a replica foam filled silencer that is positively threaded, solely for use on the PPK/s. Does it make much difference to the sound of the shots? In a word, no, not really. I found it very difficult to detect an audible change in the pitch of the shots fired, but then, the silencer is incredibly thin, this might have something to do with it. Certainly from my experience with the Tanio Koba USP, screwing a chunky silencer onto the end turns the 'clack' into more of a 'thud', but in the case of the PPK/s, I'm afraid it's just for show. Still, it's hard not to screw the silencer on, sneak up behind someone and put a couple of shots in their back, ala 007 style. Under the guise of a 'movie prop', it serves its purpose well.

WARNING: DO NOT USE green gas or even Cybergun Winter gas in this gun unless it genuinely is Winter, it will damage it. We tried a magazine of Cybergun Winter in it, and it didn't like it at all! (ok, so it was around 16 degrees at the time) The slide would lock back, even when there was plenty of ammo in the gun, and when I say locked back, I mean just that. That gas is far too powerful for such a little gun, that the small piston and lightweight slide simply cannot cope with it. Using this gas in your Maruzen PPK will damage it. Stick to your average 134a type, and nothing more potent than that! Unfortunately, with normal 134a, you only get around 171 fps average...

Accuracy and Range

Ah yes, the all important bit. Well, on the subject of accuracy, I can report that at 5 metres, the groupings were very tight indeed for such a small sized pistol, of around 2 inches. There is no tendency for shots to sweep wildly left and right, so the windage is pretty much spot on, making the fixed blade type sights quite accurate for what they are. There is however a down side to the performance... range. Yes, the range issue is still apparent in the new Maruzen PPK/s, albeit not quite as bad as the previous incarnation. Tweaking the adjustable hop as best I could (which is quite a pain, having to keep removing the slide...) I could only squeeze about 25 metres out of the gun before the shots dropped off quite quickly. I really don't think it is a fault of the hop-up unit, the barrel is just too small to be very effective at ranges beyond this. Still, plenty of range for what the gun was intended for, which is a small back-up weapon, useful for close encounters in built up areas, but 'sniper pistol' it is not.

Conclusion

The Walther PPK/s is still quite a functional and practical piece, perfectly suitable as a skirmish side-arm for close quarters. In my mind, the definition of side-arm has always been something of a pistol that is drawn in an emergency or in enclosed space, particularly for room clearance. At these short distances of typically no greater than 10m, most pistols will do the job quite adequately, some more than most. The Maruzen PPK/s packs quite a punch for it's small size, with the size itself being something of an advantage. Easily storable in your average magazine pocket on a tactical vest it takes up very little space, has a decent magazine capacity for it's size and has some pretty nice features. I'm not sure whether it would be as popular on the battlefield in a world of Colts, Glocks and Berettas - but it would certainly appeal to the 007 fan. I wasn't expecting miracles from the Maruzen PPK/s, and was pleased to find that it didn't hide any nasty faults and did pretty much as I expected it to, my only concern being it's ability (or rather lack of) to handle more potent gas.

The Maruzen Walther PPK/S was kindly donated for review, and is available for purchase at fire-support.co.uk. Click the image to be taken to their pages.

Please mention dEFCONAirsoft when ordering, thank you.

All material within is copyright dEFCONAirsoft 2007. dEFCONAirsoft is kindly sponsored by Fire-Support. Some of the views expressed within these pages are not necessarily the views of dEFCONAirsoft or any of the sites affiliated with us.