[mm6mm6]

It's nice to see someone knowledgable believe the Walther PPK still useful in today's world of Sigs, Glocks and others.
If you've never read a Clive Cussler book I highly suggest picking up one of his Dirk Pitt stories. This is from the 2007 release of "The Navigator" by Clive Cussler and Paul Kemprecos. The hero in this NUMA Series, Kurt Austin, collects single shot muzzle loading dueling pistols. His partner, Joe Zavala obviously has good taste in pocket .380's!

-Steve

 

[mm6mm6]

As you can see, I'm a huge fan of Clive Cussler's work:

 

[searcher451]

I write Westerns, and Walthers weren't around
when my main character, a federal marshal named
Max Blake, roamed the Arizona Territory in the
1880s. Max carries a Colt Peacemaker in .45
caliber with a 5.5-inch barrel; he also tucks a
Reid's "My Friend" knuckleduster 7-shot derringer
(no barrel) behind his belt for emergency use.
All I can say is that if Max were operating in
today's Wild West, he'd likely use a P99 and carry
a PPK for backup.

Not a bad idea. Maybe I'll have to update the character.

 

[Duncan 223]

Searcher451 - have you ever seen a "knuckle duster"??

It looks like it would not only burn the hair off your knuckles, but the effectiveness of a 22 without a barrel seems to be diminished.

 

[searcher451]

I actually own one (if I could figure out how to post a picture of it,
it would be an eye-opener for folks who have never seen the crazy things). Wait -- I'll go find a link. Give me a minute.

http://www.bellum.nu/armoury/ReidMyFriendKnuckleDuster.html

OK, that ought to do it. Gee, the internet is really handy sometimes.

The "My Friend" knuckledusters were great little carry guns
back in the day for people who wanted to avoid trouble. They served
both as brass knuckles (the darn things are heavy) and as a deterrent,
although their effectiveness was only good at extremely close range,
beyond the "bang" that they made when you fired them or the clunk
on the head when you rapped one off someone's skull. I picked my
up years ago at an auction in North Haverhill, N.H., for $75; it's in
great condition -- better than the one in the link. I've often wished
that someone would make a working copy of the thing today; they are
quite handy. For purposes of writing Western fiction, I wanted my
federal marshal to carry a different backup from the ones -- usually
always Remington over-and-unders -- that the riverboat gamblers used.
Oh, and Paladin carried a Remington on the TV show "Have Gun, Will Travel." (If you remember that, you are showing your age.) A lot of companies make copies of the Remingtons these days, but folks seem to have forgotten the
knuckleduster. You have to admit: it's a nifty little critter.

To bring this back to Waltherland on reconsideration, I might have my character carry a P88 if he were operating today instead of in the 1880s. After all, that's the finest 9mm handgun ever produced -- right?

 

[photohause]

 

[searcher451]

A thing of beauty, Photohouse, though it lacks the crazy panache
of a Reid's "My Friend" Knuckleduster somehow -- don't you think?

However, I'd trust my life to the P88; the kunckleduster, while cute,
is a nice touch in a Western, but it hardly qualifies otherwise.

 

[PanaDP]

I saw something very similar to the 'knuckleduster' in a museum once. It was a muzzleloaded pistol, in .44 I believe, with 6 chambers. They called it a "pepperbox." It wasn't as compact as that tiny thing, but it was small. Maybe the size of a little modern snubnose .38.

 

[searcher451]

I think that technically, the knuckledusters are called pepperboxes,
although they really are more derringers because of their size. The
pepperbox was considerably larger. Allen & Wheelock was the major
manufacturer of pepperboxes in the United States in the 1800s.
They are interesting guns (easy to Google) and worth a considerable
amount of money, if you were lucky enough to have one in good
condition today. Back in the day, you could pick them up for under
a hundred dollars. But who knew? The Reid's Knuckledusters are a
wonderful piece of Americana. I don't think that Walther ever made
an equivalent, although perhaps Uncut could weigh in on that one.