>Well, whether it's a downgrade depends on how you look at it. .380
>ACP is more powerful than .32 ACP, but it's still not a
>particularly potent cartridge - it's not like the comparison between,
>say, .32 and 9mm Parabellum. And I'll tell you what, having handled
>PPKs in both calibers, I would much rather have the .32 version. I'm
>not entirely sure why, but I find .380 an extremely unpleasant round
>to shoot, in the PPK or anything else I've encountered it in. There's
>something about its recoil - not particularly forceful, but it always
>makes my hand sting. The increased performance of the cartridge is so
>marginal that I personally would take the .32's greater shootability
>and call it a win.

I knew there was something that I had in mind to add to this, and since I'm off to see Spectre later today, I realized what it was. To wit, that Bond, in the previous one, Skyfall, is issued with a variant of the PPK, the US-market-developed PPK/S, chambered for, you guessed it, the 9mmShort/.380 ACP. Which, essentially, brings him back to the Beretta that he left behind in Dr. No, calibre-wise.

...!
Gott's Leetle Feesh in Trousers!