Ok so who knows about Walther pistols?

[targa911S]

This came into the shop the other day and I thought it would be a nice shooter. It's a PP in 7.62 and it shoots really nice so I bought it. Now the more I started to look at it I'm thinking this may be a really old one. Proof marks are crown over N marked on the breech and on the slide. What I have been able to find through my research is that Walther used this mark prior to 1940 and then again after 1951. But crown N is a common German nitro proof mark. The slide is marked with the Walther banner and the words.. "Waffenfabrik Walther Zella Mehlis (Thür)" which I believe makes it made at the original Walther plant. Now I find this very curious..I found a list of years and serial numbers of manufacture here:

Pistolen der deutschen Wehrmacht

now my gun is # 960569. According to this chart they did not make that number in the PP but it should be made between 1936 and 1937. But there is a gap in the numbers between years that this gun falls into. Also it has a 90 degree safety and I believe that indicates an older mfg also. Any ideas here guys? There are no other markings on the gun anywhere.

[Joeaksa]

Very very nice find! I love the old Walthers and they are nice weapons.

[mossguy]

Dave, Go here:
WaltherForums

And check out the fifth sticky down.

[mossguy]

Correction: You have to go to the PP forum first. then fifth sticky.

[azasadny]

I love those guns! I have the Manurhin version and mine was mfg'd in 1960-61. Send an email to Walther, they are pretty good about answering questions and keeping detiled records. The Walther forums have some very knowledgeable guys (one is "Tanfoglio") and I bet they can provide lots of info for you. We take the PP to the range and we all like shooting it, it's very accurate!

[ODDJOB UNO]

heres the problemo with older walthers. everyone and his brother claims that theirs is hermann goerings or hitlers or boormans or some such crap.


reality is when the allies advanced towards berlin they literally came upon the walther fabrick with krauts bailing out the back doors as they entered the front door.


everybody and his bruddah went in der fabrick and had every single stinking part already laid out for assembly.


all the completed spoons were obviously snatched.


then all the the following gi's started literally building their own from scratch.



so you have misnumbered spoons, you have spoons that never should of had that part. spoons that have incorrect grips and on and on.



they were just fudged together NOT following the walther fabricks blueprints.



so................walther forums is YOUR FRIEND!



and if ya find a P5Compact 9mm(full sizes are everywhere)....................yell my way.

[ODDJOB UNO]

p.s. since late 44-45 krauts went to cheap azz bakelite orange grips. every damn part for anything mfg'd was cheapened as raw materials were getting very scarce.

earls service is the gurus here in the u.s.


waltherservice.com i think off the top of mein kopf.



also after the war to stimulate frances weak economy and to arm the french po pos, the factory was moved to manurhin france.

remember it was a huge NO NO for der krauts post war to mfg ANYTHING that flew,submerged,launched,or went boom or bang, hence the walther fabricken move.

[targa911S]

Ok so.....have we established by where this was manufactured that it is an early gun?

[mossguy]

Yes!

[targa911S]

Ok good. Now I have just noticed it has a crown N on the barrel muzzle as well. Another thing ...it has a loaded chamber indicator which again puts in in the 1937 38 39 40 line up. This is looking good. Also, there are no serial numbers that I can see on the slide at all. The safety lever is nitre blued too.

[porsche4life]

Wow! Sweet score David!

What'd you have to give for it?

[on2wheels52]

I have a few David, but only one old one ('34 PPK RZM). The slide is marked the same as yours.
My dad brought back a PP from the war (he didn't take it from the factory) that I would have wanted. He loaned it to a son-in-law and it was stolen from their house.
btw, the late model S&W 'Walthers' pale by comparison to the old ones. I ordered one for an old guy (like I'm a kid), it took three different ones to get one that was acceptable. As a retired machinist, he wasn't terribly impressed.
Jim

[targa911S]

That's good info Jim. Thanks. Oh I know only too well about late Walthers and their problems. I have had 3 of them and dumped them all because of reliability problems. I've had 2 PPKS' all Interarms and one PP a .380 also Interarms and they left a bad impression on me until this one came along. It's a different animal. Well made to say the least and I put a box of 50 through it before I bought it and it ran like e sewing machine. I had to have it. I posted this info to the Walther forum so we will see what that brain trust has to say as well.
Sidney, I got the "employee discount" so I only paid $200.00 for it.......yeah $200.00 (don't hate me ok)

[porsche4life]

I think we will only hate you for a little while.....

[on2wheels52]

"I got the "employee discount" so I only paid $200.00 for it.......yeah $200.00 (don't hate me ok)"

The fringe benefits are few Sidney, we have to make the most of them.
Jim

[azasadny]

Wow! What a great deal! Mags are expensive for it and I only had good luck with factory mags, even the Mecgar mag is flaky... My slIde has a ser # on it, but it doen't match the ser # on the frame, so it's a pain to reassemble after cleaning. Fun to shoot, though! Mine also has a loaded chamber indicator and it was mfg'd in the very early 60's. Great gun!!!

[azasadny]

The build quality and finish on these guns are simple outstanding! Like a piece of jewelry...

[targa911S]

Originally Posted by on2wheels52

"I got the "employee discount" so I only paid $200.00 for it.......yeah $200.00 (don't hate me ok)"

The fringe benefits are few Sidney, we have to make the most of them.
Jim

Yeah I paid them exactly what they gave the guy on a trade in. It went from trade in to their book to me in less than an hour. I don't think they know it was an early gun though. I'll only feel guilty for a little while. As Jim says....a fringe benefit. Knowledge is power.

[targa911S]

Originally Posted by azasadny

The build quality and finish on these guns are simple outstanding! Like a piece of jewelry...

It's German.....enough said. I got two mags with it Art. One, I believe, is original and it's nickel plated. The other is a Walther banner mag too, but blued. The nickel one has the pinkie extension on it ...that would be correct for the build date also.

[Rick V]

The battery operated trigger would have scared me away.

Nice get