I grew up on four Bond movies, each having an interesting selection of firearms being featured. License to Kill, Goldeneye, Tomorrow Never Dies and For Your Eyes Only. Each movie interesting and fun in their own ways. Whoever chose these movies I need to thank, since the more gritty movies of License to Kill and Tomorrow Never Dies are amongst my favorites with Goldeneye being my top choice until the new Daniel Craig movies came out. While I now own every Bond movie and have seen each several times, I don't have every gun memorized.
The Walther PPK is the iconic Bond gun used in most of the older movies and while there are times when Bond's main gun isn't the PPK, it's the one most known. Starting in The World is Not Enough, the Walther P99 is the main choice though one could argue that the P99's appearance in Tomorrow Never Dies is the start of that. Bond though had not received the P99 from Q but from his counter part, Wai Lin. This is where I know Bond to willingly deviate from the PPK as his primary sidearm in the movies. The P99 in the Benson books starts with Tomorrow Never Dies as a main part of Bond's personal rotation as opposed to his go to side arm. The P99 for more strenuous work and the PPK for when he needs something easier to conceal.
In the books, long before the P99, James Bond was issued a pistol to replace the PPK known as the ASP after the PPK was withdrawn from service. The ASP is a particularly interesting firearm as the weapon was designed as a very heavy modification of the Smith and Wesson Model 39 as a purpose built concealed carry/more clandestine gun long before the civilian market of today was doing things. The ASP was produced in small numbers until the 80's.
Not all that long ago, I got to pondering what gun would MI6 issue to James Bond if they were to modernize? The discussion is a fun exercise and I thought I'd write it up.
Since the concealed carry specific firearms market in the US has exploded with options over the last 15 years or so, the choices are plentiful for someone looking for a new piece. What sort of options would MI6 look for? The gun must be easy to conceal since the agent will need to carry the firearm in all manner of situations and dress styles. They must be able to conceal it in non-permissive environments and not raise suspicion. The weapon must also be reliable. MI6 replaced the PPK in one of the books with the ASP after an issued weapon jammed during a gun fight while protecting a VIP. The result was the death of that VIP. Clearly MI6 takes reliability seriously. There are NUMEROUS options on the modern market that meet those requirements.
Another requirement that I would list is the need for a clandestine firearm to be in a caliber that is widely available where you will be operating or at least easy to acquire through both legal and illicit means. 32 ACP was popular back in the 1900s with the Europeans and I know 9x19 is going to be in literally every gun shop in the US. .380 ACP is also a very common caliber. The ammo selection isn't as wide as 9mm but most gun shops will have some kind of .380 ACP or 9x17 even if it's just FMJs. .22 would also be available but we're looking for a more substantial caliber. You may need to scavenge or steal ammunition for your mission. I would say that 9x19 is abundant through out the world enough to merit selecting a firearm in that caliber.
So let's begin.
I would suggest that we look at newer weapons since we want a modern solution. The Smith and Wesson M&P Shield has been a proven and reliable along with a very accessible price, the Shield has become a market success to the tune of 3 million units sold since 2012. That is very successful. The wide open aftermarket support means that Q branch would not need to rely solely on their ingenuity but could use COTS support for threaded barrels, accessories, holsters, etc. The ASP was a custom job but you can build out a Shield with threaded barrel and other parts by just ordering them online and having them delivered to your door. Love that free market. With the right parts, Bond can easily support the use of a silencer for his clandestine operations though he may be very disappointed with the level of suppression since even my Shield with the Dead Air Wolfman is still quiet loud. I would definitely not be able to dispatch a guard dog or assassinate a dictator in his office without the guards knowing what just happened.
While the Shield isn't as small as the PPK, it would be a perfect direct replacement for the ASP. Both the Shield and ASP have similar round counts (depending on the magazine and if an extension is used). Additionally, the Guttersnipe sights on the ASP have a sort of analog in the form of the Meprolight FT Bullseye sight that can be fitted on most popular handguns. This creates a low profile sight set without the need of an exposed front sight making for a since snag free setup. Interestingly, Robar and RECOIL magazine created a custom modification of the Shield to give it all the same or updated features of the ASP but using the Shield as the basis and not the Model 39. That version is likely the best replacement for the ASP.
The Shield is a choice weapon for other spies as well. Jack Ryan Jr carries one on his missions for The Campus but are there other options? Well, yes. Glock released the Glock 42 and 43 which both have significant aftermarket support and are direct competitors with the Shield. Mr. Bond would be well served by either of the Austrian offerings. The 43X may be a bit too long in the grip to compare but the standard 43 is quiet short though it does lose a round. A good magazine extension can remedy that quickly.
Not to be left out, Walther still plays in the carry gun game. Interestingly, the PPS has been around since 2007 beating both Smith and Wesson and Glock in the single stack 9mm carry gun by a wide margin but in 2016 started a new version called the M2 that uses the grip styling found on the PPQ. Again, a direct competitor with the Shield and 43, the PPS has all the same factory features as the others but was the only gun to offer a red dot sight until the Shield Performance Center Edition came out in 2019. Threaded barrels are not readily available but certain companies do offer a service to extend and thread the barrel allowing the use of a suppressor. This would let MI6 stay with Walther while being able to modernize their agent's standard issue pistol.
The issue with all of these single stack 9mm pistols like the Shield, 43 and PPS and the numerous I hadn't mentioned is that they are limited to around 6 to 8 rounds in their magazine capacity without use of an extension. Then SIG came along with their P365 which offered 10 rounds in the same size package as these guns in the 6 and 7 round configuration. The 12 round P365 magazine is about the same length as the Shield's 8 round magazine. That is not an insignificant improvement. The P365 has all the same aftermarket support that the Shield and 43 have. SIG, though, has been releasing new versions of the P365 fairly steadily since 2017. First with the manual safety version but then the XL model with the 3.7 inch barrel and longer grip. In September 2019 they announced that they had given the P365 the SIG Anti Snag treatment they had given model like the P229 to make the firearm much more carry friendly. What is immediately noticeable about the P365 SAS is the distinct rear sight and the total lack of a front sight.
The P365 SAS slide has been cut in such as way as to create a recces where they have installed Meprolight FT Bullseye sights. This is as close as we'll probably get to a mass produced ASP.
The P365 is probably one of the best concealed carry guns on the market and according the Gun Genius 2018 report, the P365 was the top selling handgun with the Shield at number 5 and the 43 at 6. The reality of the discussion is that there are so many different concealed carry focused guns on the market that Bond could pick any one of them and end up with a decently functional firearm.
While is read didn't go into to much depth and offered little more than anecdotal concepts I do hope it sparks some idea in your head about what gun James Bond might upgrade to. Personally, I would like to see him upgrade to the PPS M2 for brand loyalty but staying with the PPK is the Bond way.
Officially, Bond carries the Walther PPK/S in .380 ACP as of the Skyfall movie. This makes things convenient for the collector such as myself since Walther no longer offers the PPK in .32 ACP. While there are Walther PPK pistols in 32 ACP in the US, finding a non-WW2, Nazi marked PPK in .32 ACP is expensive and finding a non-S model in 380 made entirely by Walther is very difficult. Thankfully, Walther recently decided to produce and sell US made PPK models that are NOT /S versions. This is about as close as you will ever get to a copy of Bond's iconic pistol even if they are stainless and not blued.
Probably a Glock, simply because they probably have more distribution worldwide.
ReplyDelete