LAST EDITED ON Nov-23-15 AT 01:10 AM (EST)
 
>As an aside(lots of asides here), that particular swap IS a step down.
>The talk-y parts of the scene are straight from the book, but the
>gun-y parts aren't, and so Bond swaps a 9mm Short/.380 ACP Beretta
>M1934 for a 7.65/.32 Walther. In the book, the makes are the same, but
>the Beretta is a .25 model, the M418.

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'm also not a big fan of the 9mm Makarov cartridge, for the same reason. I've had both an actual Makarov and a CZ 82, and they both had exactly the same problem. Shame, too, I really liked the CZ 82 as an artifact - the Czechs do good work - but I couldn't hang with that bitey ammo. I should have kept it anyway, but money was tight that month and I sold it.)

--G.
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Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
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