In the video in 3:56 the forensic doctor shows a handgun
I’ve never seen this pistol before
This is Adolf Hitler or Eva Braun suicide pistol?
What is the type of this weapon? (looks like a type of the Walther but I’m not sure)
The pistol
http://oi66.tinypic.com/dmfhn9.jpg
The full video (in german language)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6SiBOUQK_I
I believe it was a Walther PPK in the 7.65mm (.32 ACP) caliber…
A quick Wiki check confirms it…
“PPK” is an abbreviation for Polizeipistole Kriminalmodell (Police Pistol Detective Model), “kriminal” referring to the police detective (criminal) division.[3] Adolf Hitler shot and killed himself with his PPK (a 7.65mm/.32 ACP) in the Führerbunker in Berlin.[5] The Walther PPK pistol is famous as fictional secret agent James Bond’s gun in many of the films and novels: Ian Fleming’s choice of the Walther PPK directly influenced its popularity and its notoriety.[6][7] Fleming had given Bond a .25 Beretta 418 pistol in early novels, but switched to the PPK in Dr. No on the advice of firearms expert Geoffrey Boothroyd.[7][8][9]
I also knew that Hitler’s Walther PPK with a 7.65 caliber and had committed suicide with his Walther and by biting a cyanide capsule while shoot inside the head himself
Eva Braun was lying untouched gun on the table, she just took a cyanide capsule
But I was thinking two thoughts
But in the picture little bit different than other Walther pistols:
a) the gun trigger is solid (The Walther Company never made any model with solid trigger, only with normal trigger)
The second question
Hitler skull
http://oi63.tinypic.com/ou9ypu.jpg
Another baffling question of Hitler’s skull, the photograph clearly shows two things:
The strange thing is for me the place of the bullet output or exit location, because it is located next to the Foramen magnum
Which rather seems as if the ball would have input or exit of the lower section of the back of the skull
Hitler and shot herself in the skull temple, so it is quite interesting position where the ball would have input or exit on the lower area of the skull
I ask gun experts says another forum,and this pistol is a third variation of a Walther Model 8 in 6.35 or 7.65 caliber (but Artur Axmann took Hitler handgun which later disappeared after becoming prisoners of war Axmann)
Walther Model 8
http://oi63.tinypic.com/v4szv4.jpg
More question it arises in the case
Okay the mistery is solved probably!
The only question that remains for me is not clear if Hitler shot himself in the temple, why the exit wound of the bullet at the bottom of the skull, next to the Foramen magnum hole?
Here is a interesting picture: this is the reenact position of Hitler and Eva Braun dead bodies after their suicide
http://oi68.tinypic.com/14oc961.jpg
IIRC, the Vietnam era Australian standard issue military 7.62mm SLR I used equated to a .308 (or .308W, depending on who you talk to) civilian round.
Assuming that 7.62 = .308 or thereabouts, a Walther PPK or anything else adding a mere .03mm to 7.62mm falls a long way short of .32.
Presumably this is just another calibre that is based on something other than common sense standardised measurements. Anyone know why?
Historically, the imperial system of firearms cartridges frequently causes frustration when figuring out which thing goes to which caliber. The .32 auto pistol cartridge is a perfect example of this confusing situation. In Europe, its called the 7.65 and sometimes has the case length in mm following. In the Imperial system, it is called the .32 auto, .32 a.c.p. or the .32 Browning.
In this case, the actual bullet diameter (caliber) is .312 to .314 inches. this makes it a .31 caliber, but the imperial system loves to round up, or down the numbers. The mentioned 7.62x51 Nato cartridge is with slight differences, a .308 Winchester, and considered to be a .30 caliber. .45 caliber pistols use .452 diameter bullets, and .45 Rifles use .458. The venerable .38 special is in truth, a .35 cal. (.357 dia) and a .380 is a 9mm with a short case on it. (.355 dia.) Even Dirty Harry’s famed .44 Magnum is a somewhat less impressive .429.
The .32 auto uses the same diameter(though much lighter a bullet) as the .303 British, and the Japanese 7.7 Arisaka. The .32 winchester of long ago uses .321 " bullets, and the 7.92x57 Mauser uses .323" This was also a problem created by marketing, as no one wanted to, (or were allowed to by copyright, or patent )use something that would allow for mistakes in choosing the wrong MFG’s product. So poor translation between Imperial, and Metric sizes, advertising ploys, or just lazyness on the part of the nomenclature folks, it’s all a very confused mish-mash of numbers.
Thanks, TG.
Down here, we got rid of one and two cent coins years ago, with the law requiring that prices are rounded down or up to the nearest five cents, which seems reasonable.
The same approach would see the 7.65mm rounded down to .31, which is beyond common sense
My money is on advertising ploys and the commercial greed which spawn them being responsible for it being rounded up to .32.
I doubt any other industry would get away with such gross misdescriptions, e.g. you pay for 32 litres of petrol but get only 31, or pay for 32,000 metres of steel / timber / etc but get only 31,000.
With the greatest respect to a, until now, moderator of outstanding knowledge, ability and judiciousness, you are treading on thin ice when you say anything which diminishes Dirty Harry and his .44 Magnum, being the most powerful handgun in the world and would blow your head clean off.
In the interests of avoiding a further decline in your statements about Saint Clint Eastwood which, I fear, could lead ultimately to disparaging comments about The Outlaw Josey Wales, and while it is not customary for one mod to warn another on the public board, I feel I must caution you to observe proper reverence for Dirty Harry, The Outlaw Josey Wales and Saint Clint’s other expressions of all that is fine and good in police and, somewhat confusingly, outlaws. ;);)
:D:D:D
The 44 magnum is a powerful caliber until 2003, but nothing beats today a 500 Magnum 
(otherwise a close range shotgun shot is also effective to the head)
To the extent that I can remember some brief forensic aspects in lectures and reading 40 or so years ago, a shotgun with the muzzle against the head will do more damage than just about any other small arm, not least because the large bore, large wad and shot are forced into the skull with an explosion of following explosive gas which is massive compared with rifled small arms, including side arms. That holds true for very short ranges of, perhaps, a few metres. The shotgun destruction is greater than a rifled small arm because the shot tends to expend its kinetic energy in a larger area of the human body than do many much smaller but much faster solid projectiles from rifled weapons, although rifled projectiles concentrate a shockwave in the organs which is also very destructive well beyond the path of penetration.
For example, at any range a fully jacketed rifled projectile hits the body at a higher velocity (feet or metres per second) than a shotgun shot round with its energy concentrated in a much smaller head than shotgun shot and, even as the rifled projectile deforms or tumbles or fragments as it hits tissue and bone, is more likely to continue through a given thickness of tissue and bone than shotgun shot. The rifled projectile will penetrate much further and on a narrower path than shot, but with greater shockwave damage to surrounding organs versus the wider penetration path of shot.
In most cases it doesn’t matter what you’re hit with much above a .22 if it’s a standard military shot to the centre of the torso, or a full head shot, because there’s enough critical organs in there that between penetration, shockwave, shock and infection that you’re probably going to die sooner or later.
In most cases but sometimes there are exceptions in handguns when the bullet is not worth any vein or an area of the brain which cause death, only cripple to life
His Eminence, the right Honorable St. Harry’s Virtue is well protected. As are that of all of his predecessors, Sir Josey of Wales, and Duke Joseph of Kidd. Even unto his progenitors of the middle ages.
Let us not forget his use of the Mssr’s Smith& Wesson model 29 bestowed of the vigorous .44 Magnum cartridge, or his fondness for the Automag pistol in .44 AMP an even more potent cartridge.
It is rumored that St. Harry decended from one Harcourt Callahan,(pictured in a wood cut below) spoken of in low dulcet tones to have been the (unexpected) issue of King Henry V, and Maid of all work, Minerva Callahan. It is said that at this time, the penchant for powerful arms became the custom for the Callahan family.
:mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen:
Note: All saints have their weak spots, and Saint Clint has some spectacular ones, notably the idiotic sequence towards the end of The Gauntlet where cops on either side of the bus shoot at it with gay abandon (I’m not suggesting the cops are gay, although some of them in some of Saint Clint’s movies do look like they’d be happier in the Village People) and one of the all time great war (and it was a long way short of war) movie turkeys Heartbreak Ridge.
Clarification.
I should have said 12 gauge shotgun, although if fired into you at close range a 20 gauge and even a .410 will still piss you off mightily.
And you can be exceedingly lucky.
I recall back in the ?1970s? reading of a medical specialist attending a medical conference somewhere in America who woke up after being mugged in the street. He walked back to his hotel but found his headache unbearable.
After being X-rayed in hospital he was found to have several .22 slugs in his skull, all of which had missed critical areas.
Maybe they were .22 shorts, or sub-sonics, or fired from a weapon with imperfect sealing, but I’d expect that he wouldn’t have survived several long rifle hollow points fired from a properly sealed weapon,
There are many newer. and more powerful cartridges in the .40 to .50 caliber range that are making the headlines these days. After the various iterations of the .44 Mag. revolver appeared, and there were many of them both in single, and double action, newer ideas came forward to take their rightful places, and some actually did. The .44 Automag was a very good idea, and the design well conceived. although it was let down by the lack of metallurgical technology take advantage of being made of Stainless Steel. This failing caused most of the pistols to suffer breakage of the more stressed parts, and led to it’s dropping off the market in just a few years. It was chambered in two calibers, the .357 Automag, and the dread .44 Automag. The .44 AMP was more powerful than the old .44 Mag, and did account for many medium, and large game kills. (as long as nothing broke ) So passed the AutoMag pistol. Following this, came the Wildey, it was gas operated, and feaured a changeable barrel design that allowed for barrel length to be suited for use, from 5in. to 18 in. It was also offered in several calibers, the Dirty Harry worthy ones being. 44 Auto Mag
.44 Wildey Magnum
.45 Winchester Magnum
.45 Wildey Magnum
.475 Wildey Magnum
Although they seemed to work well enough, they were not entirely successful, probably due to price point.
Some time later, the Desert Eagle came along. Made by Magnum Research, a division of Israeli military industries, and chambered for a variety of calibers, the most memorable of which are the .44 magnum, and the .50 A.E. (Action Express) This pistol was an immediate hit, and remains so to this day. Everyone wants one, but few want to pay the $1,500 price tag. After these very cool firearms, we get into serious territory with the .458 Socom cartridge, and the .50 Beowolf.
The S&W .500 Mag is a thundering monster, as is its slightly milder brother the .460 Mag. I do recommend two hand shooting with either of these, as your wrists will get well stretched by either of them . I fired the .460 Mag once, and once was enough for me. (as it would be for an errant Bear, or Feral Boar. )
Agreed ! that was one of his less lustrous films, maybe that was because he didn’t use his usual ensemble group we see in most of his films from the best, Josey Wales, High plains Drifter, to the goofy ones, the “Any which way” series, and Bronco Billy come to mind.
I recall many years ago on another forum being in a minority objecting to a photo which was then doing the rounds of the internet of a kid who supposedly had downed a large animal (?boar?) with some large calibre handgun not conventionally used for game hunting. I think the kid’s father had posted it, proudly.
My view was, and is, that it’s unfair to the animal to try to make yourself a pointless hero by downing the animal with too little gun. For every kill, you’re probably going to injure several or even many more animals and leave them running away in the bush to die or recover painfully.
It’s a lesson I learnt in my teens when I thought I was clever by bringing down a big kangaroo with an intentional shot in the spine with a .22 because I knew I was unlikely to kill it with a head shot and certainly not with a body shot. I was correct about the head shot. I felt like a real bastard after the second or third head shot on the paralysed animal still failed to kill it instantly.
Apart from amusing oneself by firing a stupidly overpowered pistol, I don’t see much practical use for these extreme calibres in the hands of ordinary people.
Then again, in the right hands they may have value.
Back in the late 1970s when I was a lawyer in a country town I had a bit to do with an old style police sergeant who loved nothing better than getting up into the high country with his various weapons and hand loads.
There came a time when a local criminal (whose younger brother was a client of mine and who we both discovered accidentally had burgled my flat before he became my client, and who failed to return the stolen property as promised after I kept the little turd out of a well deserved stint in gaol) went on an armed rampage and was engaged in a running gunfight at various locations with increasing numbers of police, whom he taunted with assurances that he wouldn’t be taken alive.
Enter the aforementioned police sergeant, his large gun, and his extreme hand loads. Said police sergeant waited for the criminal to pop up from his cover in a paddock and fire a few more shots at the police, then unloaded a round at the criminal. Shortly afterwards, the criminal yelled out that he was surrendering; threw out his weapon; and put his hands up above his cover.
When asked later why he had surrendered at that point after spending most of the day firing at police, he referred to the sergeant’s shot and said “When that shot went into the ground beside me, the ground f**king shook.”.
