Although enjoying an ancient Haenel junior airgun, my adolescent interest in firearms was piqued by the 1962 movie Dr. No. In the film I recall that James Bond, on Q’s advice and M’s insistence, surrendered his beloved .25 calibre Beretta 418 in favour of a 7.65mm Walther PPK with its superior stopping power.
The Walther had a muzzle energy (ME) of 145 ft-lb, double the Beretta. I hugely enjoyed shooting several members’ semi-automatic pistols at the gun club I joined afterwards. Much more recently, I was able to shoot various handguns at a club on the Channel Island of Alderney, where the gun laws are relaxed compared with those in the UK.
I have never fired a PPK, but did shoot a .357 Magnum Smith & Wesson revolver owned by Terry, a friend and Vietnam War veteran, in the
