Have her fire both. Every time she gets a spent cartridge stuck, or forgets to turn off the safety, say "boom, you're dead".

It depends entirely on her needs. The Walther PPK is a reliable pistol, although underpowered in .380. Faster reloading is a definite plus. Revolvers give you more power per shot for a given size, but are difficult to control with short barrel and higher powered loads, also slower to reload. Look at what her real needs are. Get the PPK/S model in stainless if that's the way you go. High quality piece. +5

If the weapon is for self defense, don't get anything in chrome or stainless. Light reflectivity is a very bad thing in a low light situation. Rent or borrow a S&W 340pd with crimson trace laser grips. Let her see how light it is (= easy to carry), and see how well she can group with the laser grips. She will be sold.

Revolvers aren't necessarily the way to go, Queen, and you should trust my judgment, I've shot a TON of automatics and wheel guns alike. Most self-defense experts do not really recommend revolvers over automatics. It is a myth that revolvers are more reliable, and I'd much rather have the larger magazine capacity that most automatics have over the typical 5 or 6 round cylinders that revolvers have. Also, reloading is easier in a pinch. I wouldn't recommend a PPK as a defense gun, because the caliber is anemic, but if she just wants one for shits and giggles, go right ahead. If she needs a handgun for concealed carry (not sure if that's legal where you guys are from) than I'd suggest a GLOCK, a Kimber 1911, or even a Sig or a CZ. Be sure the caliber is AT LEAST 9mm (9mm is the minimum for achieving 12" optimum inches of penetration under most circumstances). Most importantly, be sure it is a handgun that is comfortable for her, fits her hand, and one that she is familiar with the safety features of. Good luck, and happy shooting. Oh, and if you INSIST that she get a revolver, get her a Webley ;-)

.45 cal or 9mm. Definently the best. Bigger clips more stopping power...but dude you got a girl who likes guns. Just let her want what she wants.

LOOK !! If it was good enough for James Bond ....007 ... i mean ?? it will be good enough for errrr ....hehe ....now stop playing with you gun thingys ...and go to bed.... it's s'late....lol

Why not get her what she wants? You can also give her a revolver as an extra gift.

go for the automatic glock!

I have a Walther PPK and I love it. I carry it in my fanny pack or purse everywhere I go and I'm very good with it. I also have a Smith & Wesson revolver and I really prefer the PPK. It's smaller, hides easier. I like The PPK much more than the S&W. I keep the Smith in my headboard on my bed but the Walther goes everywhere with me.

My GF says one day she would like to own a Walther PPK, how can I go about telling her revolvers are the way to go? When considering a weapon for purchase there are several factors that need consideration. First off, no weapon is ideal for all situations and all weapons are compromises with regard to what may be mutually exclusive criteria. To use a bladed weapon example, a glaive may be the most effective edged weapon with regard to reach, but having a sword stuck on a six foot pole makes concealability almost impossible. With regard to firearms I would define the various criteria as follows. 1- Carry ability 2- Ease of concealment 3- Effectiveness of the caliber 4- Safety 5- Ease of use / Reliability 6- Cost to purchase 7- Cost to feed. 1- Carry ability. You may have a world class, super powerful, shoot around corners, DNA identify target, hand gun that is 14 inches long and weighs 12 pounds empty. That wonder weapon will do you absolutely NO GOOD, if you leave it at home because it is too big and heavy. ANY gun in your hand at the time of an incident is better than the one you left at home. What you need to do is identify how much of an inconvenience, and carrying a gun can be inconvenient, you are willing to put up with regarding the other factors. Some guns are simply too large to be considered for every day carry except by the most dedicated of individuals. The IMI Desert Eagle in .50 Action Express comes to mind. Definitely a fine weapon, but I have known boat anchors that weigh less and are more easily carried. 2- Ease of Concealment. In this case several factors come into play. Personally I have much less trouble carrying an automatic in a concealed manner than most revolvers. Being flat they are easier for me to carry in a pocket or on my waist. Frankly, I can hide my Sig P226 much more comfortably and securely on my person than my Ruger SP101, even though the Ruger is far smaller and lighter. For proper concealment you have to have an understanding of how you are going to carry. If I am going to carry on my waist then I must accept that I will be wearing something to cover or conceal the weapon. This means either an untucked shirt or perhaps a sweater or jacket. I do not recommend that a woman carry her weapon in a handbag. Handbags have been known to be snatched. If you make the decision to carry then PLEASE carry it on your person. You may also want to consider one or more of the “fanny packs” as a way to carry a handgun. 3- Effectiveness of a round. According to FBI statistics, most gunfights take place in three to five seconds, in three to five feet, and last three to five rounds. You want a round that will as quickly as possible incapacitate your opponent. A .22LR pistol is highly concealable (Berretta 21 for example) but the effectiveness of the terminal ballistics of the round it fires leaves something to be desired, in my opinion. In order to guarantee that the target becomes incapacitated with this round, interruption of the nervous system is required. For a .22LR this would require a shot to the base of the skull, down the eyes and into the brainpan, or some such similar level of accuracy that I will not credit myself as being able to accomplish in a high stress situation. For similar reasons I would reject most sub 9mm rounds, such as the .25ACP or the .32ACP. This does not mean that I would limit myself to only 9mm NATO or larger. I am of the belief that a .380ACP would be the minimal acceptable round for self defense carry. Please note I did not say that this round is ideal, merely that it meets the absolute minimums for my personal protection. At this point I would like to briefly discuss the broad differences between revolver ammunition and pistol ammunition. In general revolver ammunition comes in a rimmed case. This rim prevents the round from falling out of the hole drilled into the cylinder of the handgun. Because of this rim it is difficult to design a magazine that will reliably feed a rimmed cartridge into an automatic. Most automatics use rimless ammunition. It is possible for a revolver to use rimless ammunition with special adapters and it is equally possible to use rimmed ammunition in some automatics. But these uses are not considered standard and some would question the reliability of function in such attempts. Further I would state that as a practice, unless you are legally prohibited from doing so, (such as in NJ) I would only consider using either frangible or hollow point ammunition for a carry weapon. They have better wound ballistics and a reduced chance of over penetration as compared to ball ammunition. As a nominal baseline, I would say that the .38 special and the 9mm NATO round are roughly ballistically equivalent. The .38 special round has a nominal diameter of .357 inches and the 9mm that of .355. Both can be found in standard loads with bullet weights of between 110 to 158 grains for .38 special and 95 to 147 grains for 9mm. They both will fire their projectiles at between 1050 and 1200 feet per second, depending on load. The .357 Magnum round is somewhat longer than the .38 special, and while .38 special ammunition can be fired in a .357 revolver; the reverse is not the same. The .357 is considered a more effective round in terminal ballistics due to its increased velocity as compared to the .38 special. But this does come at a cost. Weapons designed for .357 are usually heavier and larger than those designed for a .38 special. Also the recoil and muzzle blast from a .357 is considerably greater than from a .38 special and can delay a quick second round being fired if needed. These calibers have a long history behind them. Suffice to say that they came about in the first half of the 20th century. In more recent times other calibers have come about in the attempt to find the “ideal” caliber. There are other calibers of the .35 inch class from which to consider. Sig Arms attempted to develop a rimless cartridge that was very similar to the terminal ballistics of the .357 Magnum in a form factor that would be more easily used in an automatic. The .357 Sig is an excellent round to consider for self defense, but it has not enjoyed the popularity of some other rounds. Moving up a step we can discuss the .40 S&W. This caliber came into being as part of an evolutionary process. After the Miami shootout, the FBI decided that the .38 / .357 revolvers and 9mm pistols that their agents carried did not provide adequate power to reliably disable bad guys. They determined that a round of .40 caliber, weighing about 200 grains and travelling at 1200 fps would meet their requirements. This lead to the 10mm round being adopted as the replacement caliber selected for their new issue handguns. Unfortunately, this caliber was found to be too powerful with regard to recoil and muzzle blast for some of the FBI’s female and small framed men to fire comfortably. The therefore designated that the amount of powder in the cartridge be reduced and resulted in a less powerful round. When S&W looked at the specification of the new round they realized they could make a round that was shorter than the full sized 10mm round and had the same ballistics. This was marketed as the .40 S&W. It has proved very popular with may handgun manufacturers and police departments. I will probably anger some people with my decision not to discuss the venerable .45ACP. I am sorry, but at a muzzle velocity of 800 fps, the .45 does not have sufficient speed to reliably expand a hollow point. 4- Safety. Ideally, in a stress situation you want to be able to grab a gun, point it, pull the trigger and get it to go bang. The fine motor control of being able to manipulate a safety to the fire position, unless diligently and regularly practiced, is going to be something you will have to think about doing when you may be highly distracted. Modern revolvers excel at this. They are literally point and shoot. The used of transfer bars in the Ruger models and hammer blocks in others makes it physically impossible for the firing pin to contact the primer unless the trigger is fully depressed. Your girlfriends choice of the Walther PPK, does not have a similar feature. The firing mechanism for the PPK was designed in the 1920’s. And as such it does not include such devices as a firing pin block or other internal safeties that would prevent the weapon from discharging if dropped. A manual safety will lock the firing pin securely, but needs to be disengaged prior to weapon discharge. Many more modern designs include features that will safely allow a handgun to be carried with the manual safety off or even come without any external safety that needs to be disengaged at all. One of my favorite carry weapons is a Hungarian FEG. This weapon is very similar to a Walther PP, a slightly larger version of the PPK your Girl is interested in. It has three major advantages over the PPK in my opinion. One, it has internal safeties that allow me to carry the weapon with a round in the chamber and the safety off. Two, it is chambered for the somewhat more powerful 9mm Makarov round, about half way between the .380ACP and 9mm NATO, the Combloc standard pistol round. And three, it is considerably less expensive to purchase. Most guns designed since the 1980’s will have a safe “point and shoot” capability. 5- Ease of use / Reliability. It is undeniable that when it comes to weapons, automatic are almost always easier to reload than revolvers. It is also undeniable that in the event of a round failing to discharge, it is almost always faster to bring a new round to battery in a revolver than an automatic. The sequence for reloading in an automatic is simple. Hit the magazine release and drop the old mag. Grab the new mag and slap it into the mag well. Hit the slide release and you are back in action with 15 more rounds in about three seconds. For revolvers, hit the cylinder release and swing the cylinder out. Press the extraction rod and dump the empties. Grab the speed loader. Line up the cartridges in the speed loader with the holes in the cylinder and shove them in. Remove the speed loader. Close the cylinder. Six more bullets in six to ten seconds. For clearing a jam in an automatic, Grab the slide and pull it back and hold it. Shake the round out if it does not fall free. Check to make sure the breech is clear, otherwise you will just be making another jam. If clear, let the slide go forward to load a new round. If not clear, drop the mag and let the slide go forward again to try to extract and eject the round. Reinsert mag and cycle the action again. You are now ready to fire. Elapsed time, 2 to 10 seconds. Misfire in a revolver. Pull the trigger again. Elapsed time, 0.2 seconds. You choose, 12 to 17 rounds with fast reloads or 5 to 6 rounds for sure. Using modern manufactured ammunition misfires are a very rare occurrence. 6- Cost to purchase. A new handgun from a major manufacturer will cost you several hundreds of dollars. An automatic, typically in the $500.00 to $700.00 dollar range. More if you get a lot of bells and whistles like tritium sights or lasers. A revolver will be from about $300.00 to $500.00 range. You can find good used guns for about half that. For my money used guns are the best bang for the buck. 7- Cost to feed. Go to your local gun store and take a look at the cost of ammunition. You will find that .38 special is darned cheap compared to 10mm Auto. My recommendation is to practice. Practice a lot until you can reliably put the bullets where you want them to go. I also recomment that you spend at least one third of the time shooting what load you will carry. If you get used to plinking with the cheap .38 spl reloads, if the day comes where you need to use the weapon, you will want to know how those .38 special +P++ 125 grain jacketed hollow points cause you to shoot. They will be a lot louder and have a lot more kick than the reloads you were used to. Finally, my recommendation for what gun your girl should carry? Whichever one feels best in her hand, and what she will feel comfortable carrying. ANY gun in your hand is better than NO gun in your hand when under threat of force. Hope that helps.