Our inside sources are telling us that Walther is going to have a very exciting year, but looking back – we think last year saw tremendous success, especially with its launch of its personal defense pistol (PDP) line. Here is a compilation of the posts that we ran last year surrounding Walther and its team of fine pro-shooters – Gabby Franco, Tatiana Whitlock and Michelle Waldron.
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We kicked off 2021 with a round-up featuring the aforementioned shooters. We learned that Gabby had recently moved to Virginia, Tatiana was planning a COVID training comeback across the nation and Michelle planned to do more personal training – for herself, especially in the world of optics and tactics. You may also find all of their social media links in this article.
Then, in February, Walther released the new and rather exciting PDP in three sizes, and we got the compact one. In this review, I pointed out the differences in this gun from other Walthers – especially in relation to red-dot optics. I took it to the range for my shooting club to try, and of course, many of the women fell in love with it. I sent it down to Avery Skipalis, of Skip’s Tactical Solutions, to give it a go. More about that later. Also, congrats to Walther for the “Guns and Ammo” award of “2021 Handgun of the Year!”
We promised that we’d keep up with those three Walther pro-shooters. Gabby Franco checked in with us in March, in this post about the importance of dry fire. Recently, I noticed that Gabby is still preaching the dry-fire message on her own social media, which means she believes in it. You can find out why at this post.
Michelle Waldran appeared in our April post, with an inspiring tale of how she became an accomplished 3-gun shooter. She also compares shooting to being a hairstylist. You have to read this one to find out why.
In May, our writer Nancy Keaton had caught up with Tatiana Whitlock at A Girl and a Gun Women’s Shooting League’s national conference. Tatiana is their director of training. Tatiana talked to Nancy about the logical steps for training for personal defense. Makes perfect sense.
Come June, Avery spent time on the range with that Walther PDP, and sent us this video. It’s worth a re-watch. That gun … it looks good on her, and she has the street cred to make this review stick.
Side story: I asked Avery to send this gun to my web developer, Wes, in the Phoenix area. He liked it so much that he got one, and it’s now his favorite gun!
Gabby checked back in with us in July, and told us all about her little secret. She competed in the television show “American Airgunner Challenge, Season 2.” She said, “Getting out of your comfort zone is always a great thing to do. It encourages the exploration of new things to understands one’s mindset. It provides an opportunity to become aware of weaknesses. It frees you from the ‘I can’t’ mentality that promotes finding ways of doing things while constantly learning about yourself. Getting out of you comfort zone also means that you might often lose, but you become stronger and wiser in the end. In other words, I choose to clear the fog of fear and doubt by constantly testing my abilities and my mindset. ‘American Airgunner Challenge’ is proof of that.” We think that’s great advice and applies to so many things in life.
In August, it appeared that people may start traveling more – coming out of that wave of the pandemic – and Tatiana Whitlock weighed in with travel tips in this post: “How to Travel Safely.” She runs through big things and little things that she incorporates into her travel routine. Surely, there’s a nugget of wisdom in here that you can glean and put to good use.
Next, we highlighted the Walther DDAM (Defense Division Ankle Medical) Kit and actually had one to review. Our Babbs wore it to test it out and took it apart and explained each piece. It’s created for stabbing and shooting wounds, and every firearms owner should have one of these kits.
With more and more people buying their first guns, we thought we’d offer some advice from the pros on how to choose a shooting range. Again, we tapped into the resources of Walther’s female pro-shooters and wow, did they come through with great advice.
In December, I watched one of our family favorites, “Die Hard.” You know, the first one, where Bruce Willis runs around in bare feet. I happened to noticed that one of the bad guys shot a Walther PPK, and it spurred by curiosity as to how many PPKs have been noticed in other movies. So, I did some research and wrote “Walther PPK in the Movies.” Surprisingly, women characters have used Walthers, as well, and not just good old James Bond.
We’ll be bringing you more news and reviews surrounding Walther and its lineup of fine and functional firearms. As I mentioned earlier, there’s more to come.
Publisher/Editor Barbara Baird is a freelance writer in hunting, shooting and outdoor markets. Her bylines are found at several top hunting and shooting publications. She also is a travel writer, and you can follow her at https://www.ozarkian.com. View all posts by Barbara Baird
