Handguns

The Duchess of Windsor is noted as having said "One cannot be too rich or too thin." I'm not sure she could have foreseen today's world, where rail-thin supermodels charge a hundred grand for a photo shoot while wearing less cloth than the Duchess would have had in an embroidered hanky. While the rich part doesn't apply to us, the thin part does when it comes to a carry gun. In fact, a daily concealed carry handgun cannot be too thin, too light, too compact or too easy to shoot.

Walther--in cooperation with S&W--now has a lock on this category. The advertising campaign for the new PPS is "Think thin." The idea was to make a 9mm pistol that wasn't any larger than the PPK/S and also make it as thin as possible. Well, they have a home run here. My initial reaction upon seeing the PPS was "Man, that's not a pretty gun."

I guess I've spent too much time with polished steel and walnut. I wasn't at all sure I wanted to pick it up, as I figured such a small gun was going to be a hassle in my large-ish hands. Boy, was I wrong. Kudos to the ergonomics engineer who came up with the grip. It looks squarish and blocky but isn't. It looks like recoil will hammer the web of your hand, but it doesn't. It sure does look German.

The magazines come in three sizes, with the smallest holding only six rounds of 9mm or five of .40 and making the grip so short my pinky finger has no place to rest. The next size up has a finger rest, and it works nicely, while the longest magazine makes the gun so comfortable to handle that it would be my only choice.

Well, that and it holds eight rounds of 9mm. How good is the grip? My wife stands all of 5'3," and for her a whole lot of handguns are just too big. She wrapped her hand around the PPS, got a smile on her face and asked, "How much is this?" (No, my checkbook did not quake in terror.)

In being thin, the PPS is far ahead of other pistols. You give up some capacity to get that thinness, but after carrying a gun all day you may come to question the wisdom of a hi-cap magazine. How thin? How about 1.04 inches? My standard "grab and look" comparison of grips is the 1911. As the smallest large-bore pistol in the grip area, it has a very good caliber-to-grip ratio. When I grab a 1911 I usually end up with the end of my thumb at the first knuckle of my second finger.

With hi-caps of any caliber, I can't get my thumb that far onto the second finger. On the PPS my thumb is significantly forward of where it is on a 1911. Combined with the interchangeable backstrap, you can alter the grip diameter and angle for your own hands.

Me, I preferred the larger one, while my wife liked the smallest. The only pistols I recall handling with a smaller grip are the old Colt Model M pistols and the Browning .32 and .380s with enclosed hammers. Those are flat and easy to pack, but they are not 9mm Parabellums. The PPS comes closer than any to the Colt M size, and you've got a much better chambering than they ever had. At 21.4 ounces on my postal scale, it isn't the lightest subcompact available, but for the size I can put up with a couple of ounces of extra weight.