The Unofficial P64 Resource Forum

Hello everyone, just sitting around the house on a cold South Carolina night, cleaning the 64 and looking for a little conversation. Whenever I use the P64 cant help but wonder what they were thinking. The gun is very compact, thin, low capacity and hard to acquire quickly sights. Everything a "designed for militay" weapon shouldn't be. I feel they probably had upper echelon in mind as primary carriers but still you would think common sense would dictate a different design.

Just wondering, for those of you that have researched the P64 have you any other opinions?

Politics never requires common sense.

BigDuke,
I have to agree with you in part, the P64 wouldn't be my first choice for a duty weapon. During my 20+ years with the PD the minimum barrel length for a duty weapon was 3.5 ". That being said, you have to take into account the culture and environment that these weapons were designed to be used in. In those times you hear a lot about the "secret police" and law enforcement wasn't the same model as it is here. I suspect that they had more plain clothes, undercover security forces than they did uniformed officers. The military took care of the big stuff I suspect and they gave them rifles <G>. As far as the sights are concerned, on a compact pistol they're pretty much window dressing anyway. As a police officer I was trained to point shoot. In most violent encounters, if you have to take time to acquire a sight picture, you'll most likely get yourself killed. From a distance of 25 feet or so, I can put seven in a circle the size of a paper dinner plate without ever using the sights such as they are. Given the time, I can hit a beer can at 40' to 50' using the admittedly less than adequate sights on my P64. I'm not trying to brag I'm just making a point. Even though these don't have nice 3 dot adjustable sights, they are extremely accurate IF you have the luxury of time. Unfortunately, in a life or death encounter, that luxury rarely exists. Even with the finest open sights available it still takes the best shooter time to acquire their target and time is the enemy. There is a big difference between sport shooting and combat shooting. A threat can present itself in seconds, a paper target will hang around all day <G>. As far as capacity goes, if you can't hit them with 6 you probably aren't going to hit them with 16 either. I always carried a revolver on duty and still believe shot placement will trump the number of shots fired every time. In my opinion the P64 is a very concealable, dependable, and hard hitting little pistol. It has it's shortcomings but with enough practice you can defend your life with it pretty reliably and, to me, that's what counts. OK I'm dragging it out but in my defence it's about 1 degree here in Ohio and they say there's a foot or more of snow coming and I'm pretty bored myself. Hope this finds you and yours safe and well.
Bill

I think the dimensions of the pistol are perfect. It fits me like a glove, and I like the weight, too.

It doesn't have the excellent sight of my PPK/S or my S&W M&P, but I'm developing an instinctual aim with it. I loaded two mags with five rounds each this morning and put all ten inside a 7-inch target at 25 ft. It almost seems like it points itself.