I have no experience with the newer Walthers, but a couple of decades ago I owned a Walther PPK/S .380. The only thing I could rely upon that pistol to do was to "stovepipe" (capture a semi-ejected fired case between the rear of the ejection port and the rear of the barrel when returning to battery) every second or third round. I have not even considered a Walther since then. That being said, Beretta has made excellent pistols for a very long time (and, granted, Walther has a reputation for having made
some excellent pistols) and the PX4 Storm seems to be one of them. You didn't mention if your intent was to OC or CC, so based upon your choices, I'm going to
assume you want to CC. If I'm correct in that assumption, and that you have shown a preference for auto-loaders, then you may also want to include considering the Beretta "
Nano", the Ruger
LCP or
LC9, and the Taurus
709 "Slim". (My personal preference is
not the .380 caliber, but it does have its place at the low end of the self defense pistol category... the .380
is more effective than a vigorously thrown rock.)
I don't rely on anything
less than a
.38Spcl+P JHP or 9mm +P JHP, for a defensive round. There are those here who feel that even those rounds are underpowered for SD loads, but a well-placed 9mm round will make a BG just as dead as a .45acp round
. Sometimes I carry my G23 .40 (31oz loaded) but any one of my three Commander-style .45acp's adds another 8-9oz to my carry weight. If you don't mind the weight, and a
bit more recoil, I'd recommend a .45acp.
Pax...