Bond’s Use of Walther Guns

The name Walther is associated with a global leader in handgun innovation and quality.  A company with over a century of operation by the time James Bond became a spy, the German heritage guns produced came with a reputation of high quality craftsmanship and rugged durability in the field.   Carl Walther started the company Walther Works in 1886.  Almost every German officer during World War I carried one of the Walther pocket pistols.  Carl’s son Fritz inherited his father’s company and passion for firearms.  Fritz created the single/double action trigger which became the famous Model PP and compact model PPK used by German police officers and later the German military under Nazi rule.  The Walther factory ended up totally destroyed at the end of World War II.  Fritz Walther had a few remaining design documents in his hands which allowed Walther Guns to rise from the ashes into the global leader in peacekeeping firearms that it is known today.

James Bond’s first choice for every day concealed firearm is the Walther PPK 7.65mm.  He has used this gun in 21 missions to date.  Bond started with a Beretta in Dr. No but quickly changed to a PPK after the Beretta jammed in the field.   The weapon of choice for Bond quickly spreads through both the spy and villain world.  The PPK becomes known as his 00 license to kill weapon of choice.  Bond is not afraid to use the PPK and it has been fired in nearly all his missions.  Only in Moonraker is the PPK only shown and not fired.  There was a time where Bond abandons his PPK for the newer P99 model but it was not long before he returned to his beloved PPK in the latest two Bond films.

The P99 is a semi-automatic, updated version of the PPK. The P99 is a large capacity gun with ten to sixteen rounds verses the seven standard rounds of the PPK but this increase in firepower comes with a larger size and harder ability to conceal the weapon in the field.  Bond repeatedly asks Q for a P99 once it became available but he does not get one until Tomorrow Never Dies where he is seen using it with a silencer in an offensive role where more fire power is needed.  Q takes the P99 to a higher level by adding a blinding flash mechanism in The World is Not Enough.  The larger size of the P99 is apparent when Q needs to hide the gun in a surfboard saboteur kit in Die Another Day.  The P99 gets Bond in trouble when he is video taped shooting a terrorist with the gun.  In Casino Royale, Bond finds the P99 with a silencer that Q has provided in his Aston Martin DBS.  In this film Bond carries the weapon in a brown envelope but does not use the weapon.  Perhaps at this time, Bond figures out that the P99 is too hard to conceal in the field.

Bond has also used the Walther WA 2000 Rifle as his choice of an accurate sniper grade firearm.  This accurate firearm uses the 0.300 Winchester magnum cartridges.  This world class firearm is accurate to 1,000 metres.  The accuracy of the rifle is used when Bond shoots a rifle out of the hands of a female cellist forced to be a sniper by the Soviet Government without ruining her ability to continue her chosen career as a cellist.  Recently, Walther has formed a new company to supply the American Firearms market by grouping together with Smith & Wesson.  This transformation of Walther may point to James Bond having more firearm choices in future missions as he continues to use the PPK as his concealed weapon of choice.