Nation of origin: Federal Republic of Germany
Ammunition: 9 x 19 mm
Operation: locked breech
Weight empty, 0 9 kg
Length 187 mm
Length of barrel 102 mm
Magazine capacity 15 rounds
Muzzle velocity approx 350 m/s
The pistol is a lethal weapon that is meant to kill. What the pistol is not meant to kill is the person using it, or persons he (or she) does not wish to kill. This rather obvious statement is made necessary by the fact that, over the years since it was first devised, the pistol has quite possibly killed as many (or more) ‘friends’ as it has ‘enemies’. Many of these unwanted casualties have been inflicted by the pistol’s inherent characteristics, including its short length, which makes it all too easy to point unintentionally in the wrong direction, and very often an over-light firing action. Unwanted shots can also result from hammers snagging on clothing or vegetation, and many pistols have a nasty propensity to go off when jarred, or dropped even a short distance.
All these inherent danger points have tended to make the pistol a weapon subject to much scrutiny. Many military and police authorities abhor them, and put up with pistols only in the absence of any better form of light and portable personal weapon. But if there is one single design trend that can be discerned over the last two or so decades, it is the move to producing ultra-safe pistols.
Many of the factors that make pistols unsafe have been built into pistol designs that date from times when there was little or no customer demand for inherent pistol safety. In the past, many military authorities scarcely bothered with the need to specify safety mechanisms, other than requesting the provision of a basic safety catch. What extra safeties were incorporated into pistols were usually placed there by thoughtful designers, without any prompting from customers. Over the last 20 years or so, that has changed to the point where military and police customers have begun to insist on really safe pistols, or at least pistols that are as safe as can be devised. The one thing that cannot be changed is the short barrel length of the pistol. That still means that pistols are as easy to point unwittingly in the wrong direction as they ever were. Only common sense and self discipline will prevent accidents continuing to happen on that score.
Fig. -63: The handsome lines of the Walther P88.
That still leaves mechanical safeties. One obvious safety is the firing system itself. When one is dealing with cartridges as powerful as the 9 mm Parabellum, simple blowback mechanism may be considered as inherently unsafe. Some more definite firing system is required. Carl Walther Waffenfabrik had designed used a positive (and very effective) locking system on their PP and P1 pistols, but when they introduced their P88 pistol they had decided to go one better, introducing a slight variation he locking system used on the older Colt-Browning automatic pistols.
With this system, the slide and barrel are locked together by on the barrel fitting into recesses on the slide at the instant firing, when the internal chamber pressures are at their Lest and therefore at their most dangerous to the firer and to fabric of the pistol itself. The slide and barrel move to the locked together, until a cam on the barrel strikes a lug that the barrel slightly and enables the two components to )ck, leaving the slide free to move to the rear by itself. By that the chamber pressures will be at a safe level, as the bullet will left the muzzle. This system means that the old top cut y slide of the P1 cannot be used, so the Walther P88 has n on a more conventional appearance and externally nbles many other pistols. However, its smooth and positive [ make the P88 one of the most handsome automatic >ls on the market today.
ie resemblance to other designs is superficial, for many dif ices from other pistols are present. One is on the safety armament for the firing pin. On too many pistol designs, any the firing pin is struck by the hammer, no matter how intentionally or lightly, the result is a cartridge discharged. ous ingenious mechanical means have been introduced to ent this happening, but on the P88 it is accomplished by ing the firing pin depressed at all times other than when the er is definitely pressed. Should the hammer fall or move on e firing pin recess, it will not hit the firing pin unless the trig- Las been positively pulled and the firing pin has been pushed a receive the hammer pressure and fire the round in the aber. As the trigger is released the firing pin is once again red out of the way.
This simple-sounding arrangement is not very easily transfer into practice, for the method of raising and lowering the firing pin is rather complex, but it works to the extent that the user can carry the P88 with a round loaded in the chamber, happy in the fairly certain knowledge that many of the usual unwanted shot-producing causes (dropping, snagging the hammer on clothing, etc) are avoided. To fire the pistol, all that is necessary is squeezing the trigger to cock the hammer and allow it to fall on the intentionally-raised firing pin.
If the hammer is cocked and no further firing is required, it is possible to lower the hammer again safely by using a de-cocking lever which is present on both sides of the receiver to accommodate right- and left-handed users. This lever also doubles as a slide release to allow the slide to move forward and close again after a magazine has been reinserted into the pistol following the emptying of a previous one. (As the magazine empties, the slide is automatically held open to demonstrate the need for more ammunition; this happens on most pistol designs.) This should not have to be carried out too often under combat situations, for the P88 box magazine holds 15 rounds. A further indication of the care taken in the design of the P88 can be seen by noting that a magazine release catch is provided on both sides of the receiver, close to the trigger, and that the front edge of the trigger guard is provided with a squared-off exterior outline to enable it to be grasped easily with the widely adopted two-handed firing grip. Another design detail is that the foot of the box magazine protrudes slightly from the end of the butt, to allow it to be grasped easily for removal.
The Walther P88 is a fairly recent product, and it has yet to make a significant break through into the pistol market, but many armed and police forces will no doubt be examining its many attributes with great interest. It was an early entrant in the US Army XM9 contest, but was withdrawn during the competition, no doubt to rectify some technical shortcomings that have by now been corrected.
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