ordered one of these from Cabelas when I heard they went on special. This afternoon, the package was waiting for me on the front porch.
I didn't know this was a kit! I thought I was getting the gun alone for $39, but an extra $1 or $2 of goodies is always appreciated. (Plus, I haven't shot BBs in over 20 years, so I didn't have any knocking about) The clampack (shown) came in a large overpack carton with airpacking.
I'm impressed with the heft of the pistol, it feels about right, compared to the real-steel (without a magazine full of rounds, of course, but still!). Lots of metal, including the trigger (more on that later), hammer, slide and almost all the lower receiver save the last 3/4 inch on the grip. Safety lever is disappointingly plastic, as is the "knob" on the powerlet piercing screw (more on that, too). Grips are plastic, but well fitting.
The PPK uses a stick-magazine which holds "15 BB's" - mine will hold 16, but I took the last one out fearing a jam. The mag is VERY plastic, and hopefully there are extras out there, because I KNOW I will step on this one at some point...
EDIT 10-01-08 : Haven't wrecked my maggie yet, but using Beeman Perfect Rounds stressed it quite a bit. Replacement mags are cheap and are available from just about any dealer that sells Crosman pistols (got mine from Pyramyd Air).
The packaging and literature I got with mine boasts a "rifled steel barrel", but mine appears to be brass, and IS smoothbore (which I actually expected it would be). The barrel is actually a little skinny smoothbore tube surrounded by a polymer sheath - not unusual.
The safety lever catches (intentionally) in a little cutout on the right-side grip plate (you can just see the cutout in the picture above, directly behind the FIRE red dot), and it is a little tricky to take off-SAFE. I am sure this was well-intentioned, but ends up being fiddly, and (for me) hard to operate with the trigger finger. I find it best to use my off-hand to push the lever against the frame using my thumb to disengage the safety. I don't know about anyone else, but I disapprove of "fiddly" anywhere near the trigger...
BUT what a NICE trigger this is! Pull is very light ( I have a Gamo PT-80 also, don't worry, this is soooooo much better), and the release is crisp and predictable. There is no double action on this pistol, so there is no long, creeping "1st stage" to reset the hammer. Since it's single-action, the hammer must be cocked for each shot, which occurs automatically with recoil or you can cock it by hand when necessary.
p.s. There is no slide lock, and I was able to take the picture above only by wedging a toothpick in front of the slide. Sorry!
CORRECTION - well, sort of...there STILL is no slide lock, but the slide DOES lock back on an empty magazine. Wasted a perfectly good toothpick!
The hammer CAN be lowered, rendering the pistol somewhat safer. Carefully hold it back with your thumb while pulling the trigger and ease it down. (on FIRE only, the trigger is disengaged on SAFE). Now the pistol cannot be fired until it is recocked. UNLIKE most airSOFT pistols, the BB PPK doesn't "load" a BB when the slide is cocked back. All BB's stay in the magazine until the gun is fired. So the cocking-decocking actions can take place however often, without double-loading the barrel - although any "extra" BB in the barrel would just roll out anyway, the bore is quite loose. EDIT 10-01-08 : Lead round shot does NOT roll out the barrel, BB's are slightly smaller.
With such a small valve (it's tiny), the gas impulse is very brief, and muzzle velocity is very slow. Accuracy was...well there wasn't any...but I didn't buy this to compete at 10 meters. The recoil is surprisingly strong and realistic-feeling (for a $40 BB gun!), and the pistol jumps around in the hand nicely.
The powerlet fits under the left-side grip panel, which is removed by prying it up from the bottom and lifting off. The piercing screw is rather long, and has a large, plastic knob at the end. In the above pic, the screw is tightened all the way, and the powerlet is pierced. It would have been nice to get a smaller protrusion from the bottom of the gun, and I will probably alter (or, ruin) mine by cutting the screw short with a Dremel and adding a lower-profile knurled knob...or maybe just cutting a slot into the end (after cutting it shorter) to accept a screwdriver blade...hmmm, better order a spare gun now...
I took it outside and fired off a full magazine, then settled down to shoot at a 2-inch bullseye from 5 meters. I was going to take a picture (when I finished laughing) but there was no point, really. Out of 15 shots, there were 12 on the paper (I'm sure the other three missed...by a lot), none in the bull. Maybe I will buy some other shot the next time I place an order with Pyramyd Air or Compasseco... But for now I will probably just buy a couple thousand Crosman BB's.
EDIT 10-01-08 : Since writing this review, I have been using Avanti steel shot, and accuracy has improved markedly. With the Avanti shot, I can hit Diet Coke cans at 10 meters about 1/2 of the time, nearly every time at 5 to 7 meters. That was pretty much unthinkable with the Crosman copper coated BBs I was using before.
The Walther PPK BB pistol made for Crosman is nicely finished, heavy, and a lot of fun... I got my $39 worth, and probably then some. I would have eventually spent the full $75-$90 I've seen it go for, anyway.
UPDATE 10-01-08 : Still shooting strong, no maintenance problems or failures. This gun NEVER goes back in the cabinet, sits on the shelf by the door to the back yard and gets used every single day
-JC
