Tag Archives: Walther PPK

Omar’s Pistols Headed Home

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Cue the “That Belongs in a Museum” memes, authorities have managed to recover and return dozens of rare collectible guns– some priceless– to the institutions from where they were stolen.

The pieces all went mission in the 1970s, back when security was lax in most public museums, and all that was needed was a big screwdriver and a flashlight to pull off a low-risk burglary.

In all, some 50 items, some dating to the French and Indian War, were returned to 17 institutions located in five states. 

Among the more interesting items recovered were: 

  • An 1847 Mississippi rifle stolen from Beauvoir in Biloxi, Mississippi.
  • World War II battlefield pickup pistols– a Luger and a Walther PPK– once owned by General Omar Bradley, stolen from the U.S. Army War College in 1979.
  • Assorted 19th-century flintlock rifles stolen from Pennsylvania museums.
  • An early Colt Whitneyville Walker revolver, valued at $1 million, stolen from the Connecticut State Library.
  • 18th-century English and Scottish pistols stolen from the Valley Forge Historical Society Museum.
  • A Volcanic pistol stolen from Pennsylvania’s Hershey Story Museum.
  • A rifle from the Daniel Boone Homestead in Birdsboro, Pennsylvania.

A huge Colt Whitneyville Walker revolver (bottom row with CT tag) was taken back to its home state. A powder horn (center right) dating to the French and Indian War was stolen from a Belchertown, Massachusetts, museum in the 1970s. The Walker PPK and Luger in the top right corner had been donated by Gen. Omar Bradley to the Army War College in Carlise, Pennsylvania. An exceedingly rare Volcanic pistol stolen from the Hershey Museum is to the bottom right. (Photo: FBI)

More in my column at Guns.com.

The Walther that isn’t a Walther while at the same time it was more Walther than others

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I love Walther PP, PPK, and PPK/s models and have several. For example, I give you my favorite circa 1974 PPK/s with period Zebrawood grips by Malibu’s Jean St. Henri.

However, despite the Ulm, West Germany rollmarks, the gun above was made in France by Manurhin. Whomp, whomp.

With that being said, check out this gun from mid-1950s East Germany:

The above is a Zella-Mehlis P1001-0, with “fake” ac-code stamps. It was essentially a Walther PP that was made by Germans in Germany on Walther’s old machinery and often included left-over WWII-era parts.

But it’s not a Walther…

More in my column at Guns.com.

Circa 1974 Walther PPK/s, You Say?

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Drink in this PPK/S that was brought into the country by Interarms while Jerry Ford was in office. A Manurhin-produced gun with Walther of West Germany rollmarks and the antler/stag stamp of the Ulm proof house, it is marked “9mm kurz,” which of course is .380ACP over here.

For reference, the blade is a German Puma Medici swing guard from the same era. I’m a sucker for pairing guns and knives. 

Today, tested with a good defense load and a modern holster, this gun could still clock in for EDC as needed.

One thing for sure, when visiting the range, the PPK continues to turn heads and sparks interest. Although it has very small sights, they are workable, and the gun is almost surprisingly accurate– surely due to its fixed barrel design.

Guns like these are not only collectible, shootable, and useable, but are a great device for bringing new people into the shooting community. I can’t tell you how many times I have heard, “I always wanted to shoot one of those,” when the old Walther comes out of the safe for a breath of fresh air.

Shaken, not stirred

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He passed in his sleep at his home in the Bahamas at age 90 Saturday. Not a bad way to go for an old salt.

While we have talked about the (short) naval career of Sir Thomas Sean Connery in the past (see= Warship Wednesday Dec.9, 2015: HM’s Enterprise) we have not talked about the actor’s impact on gun culture.

After all, along a 50-year career and 100 film credits, he made some of the most iconic “gun guy” movies of the 20th Century.

Quick sidebar: Connery carried an M1911A1 in almost as many movies as he did a PPK

More on that subject in my column at Guns.com.

Bond Guns Go Missing

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London’s Metropolitan Police have issued a call for the public to be on the lookout for five guns recently stolen that have been used in a number of 007 films.

In a statement, the Met reported that officers were called to a property in Aldersbrook Avenue, Enfield, on the evening of March 23 to a report of a burglary in progress. By the time the bobbies had arrived, however, the suspects had left the scene after being disturbed by neighbors.

The suspects, who drove away in a silver vehicle, are described as “three white males with Eastern European accents.” The men reportedly broken into the premises and stole five deactivated firearms used in James Bond films, believed to be worth more than £100,000 ($124,000).

Perhaps the greatest loss is the swag AF Smith & Wesson Model 29 .44 Magnum, serial number N60304, featured in Live and Let Die.

The 1973 film has Sir Roger Moore as Agent 007 traveling around the globe with stops in New Orleans and Jamacia, where he uses the hogleg along with a beautiful shoulder holster and tactical turtle neck during the rescue of Solitaire (Jane Seymour).

You remember Solitaire, right?

Anyway, more on the firearms in my column at Guns.com. 

The PPK/PPKs is back in town

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Crafted by Carl Walther Waffenfabrik + the gang back in the Weimar Republic of the late 1920s and pitched as a police gun, the Polizeipistole (PP) was beautiful for its time soon edged out its contemporaries to a degree. By 1929, a shorter and more compact model, designed specifically as a concealable detective’s carry piece, Polizeipistole Kriminalmodell (PPK), hit the market and hasn’t looked back.

Fueled by Bond films and a hungry import market in the U.S. for the gun after WWII, the rebooted Carl Walther GmbH shipped the PPK by the boatload to the States until 1968 when the Gun Control Act lowered the boom on the design.

Walther ad from 1955, note the prices

Tweaked to meet the “point” system to make it qualify for “sporting purposes,” the PPK/s model took over as Interarms/Ranger/EMCO built the standard PPK under license from Walther in Alabama starting in the 1980s.

Eventually, this all changed as S&W replaced EMCO and made the guns for Walther starting in 1998, a relationship that ended around 2012-ish.

Now, after a hiatus, both the PPK and PPK/s are being made here in the U.S. again, this time in-house in Walther’s plant in Arkansas.

The PPK and PPK/s compared, with the latter being a skosh larger and with a 7+1 capacity of .380 rather than the standard 6+1 of the PPK

They are set to hit the market this month, priced around $700~ which is about 3x as much as a polymer-framed LCP with the same capacity, but Bond didn’t carry an LCP.

Better trigger D is recommended…

More in my column at Guns.com