Walther PPK/S

I picked up a little something for my birthday while in Prescott last week: a Walther PPK/S in 9mm kurz (380). I’ve wanted one of these for years and was lucky enough to find one that was imported, not some Smith & Wesson copy.

This PPK/S was built in Ulm, “West” Germany sometime between 1968 and 1979 in 1970 and imported by Interarms before they acquired the license to build them here. It features German markings and is stamped as “9mm kurz”. In fact, the only English markings on it are “Made in W. Germany” and the Interarms import stamp.

It came with nothing but a magazine. Fortunately, the manual is available for download from Walther. Surprisingly, the gun was beautifully clean inside and out and the finish has only been slightly worn. Shooting it is a pleasure. It kicks a bit more than one might expect for a .380 thanks to the blowback design (one piece frame and barrel), but I find I much prefer the heft of an all-steel construction over modern polymer silliness.

Future plans for it are a new set of springs to reduce the overwhelming 12.5 pound trigger pull when firing double-action, and I would like to find a nice set of wood grips. I particularly like these ones.

More pictures of my new safe queen can be found in the Flickr set.

Swiss K31

I received my first C&R purchase today, a Swiss K31 rifle. It’s a lot prettier than I had imagined. The rifle is in very good shape, with no sign of the “beaver chewed stock” so common with these. I was originally planning on carving up a new stock for it, but now that I hold it I like the character it has from the few dings and scratches present.

This thing feels great, excellent balance and all moving parts slide smoothly and effortlessly. The Swiss definitely know their engineering. After seeing how quick and easy the magazines can be swapped out I can’t understand why anyone wouldn’t want extra magazines. The straight pull bolt is very fast and easy to operate, which can be done without dismounting the rifle. The bolt also locks back similar to the action of a semi-auto when the magazine is empty. I can’t wait to shoot this one.

After stripping it down to a just a few parts and giving them all a Hoppes #9 bath, it’s spotless now. I’m impressed how well everything fit back together. I also find it amusing that an at least 66 year old surplus rifle would show up in cleaner, better shape than my brand new Henry. I’m not completely sure what year this one is… I’m guessing either 1942 or 1939. Admittedly I haven’t done the reading to know just where to look yet.

I ordered my K31 from J&G Sales, they have good prices and seem to have the highest quality K31s available. They said it would be here in a week, it showed up in 2 days. The only trouble with that is now I have to stare at it for a week longer since there’s no place nearby to shoot rifles.

If you’re interested in collecting older firearms and haven’t already, check out J&G’s writeup on getting a Curios & Relics collectors license. It only takes about 5 minutes to fill out the paperwork, and costs $30 at the time of this writing (though you’ll likely wait a total of 3 months for BATFE to send and receive paperwork).

More pictures can be found in the Flickr set »