Tag Archives: Walther

My Favorite Walther

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While visiting Walther’s state-of-the-art factory in Ulm, Germany earlier this year, I came across my favorite pistol that carries the company’s iconic banner.

Walther has been around in one form or another, and one location or another, to the 1880s. Whenever you say the company’s name in a conversation, the immediate Pavlovian response is typically PPK, PDP, P99, or P-38.

However, my favorite Walther is the seldom-seen, and almost unheard-of, P4 (also seen as “P38 IV”).

A factory cutaway of the P-4 in Walther’s Museum in Ulm, Germany. (All photos: Chris Eger/Guns.com)

A shortened version of the P1– which itself was an updated P-38– the P4 was adopted by the West German Border Protection (Bundesgrenzschutz) and Customs (Zoll) agencies during the chilliest days of the Cold War.

So what makes it my favorite? Check out the article in my column at Guns.com.

Enhancing Excellence: Walther’s Meister Manufaktur Program

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I recently hit the road and visited Carl Walther’s state-of-the-art factory in Ulm, Germany for a factory tour that also included a peek behind the curtain of the gunmaker’s custom and engraving shop. 

Those who know Walther are well aware that the company has long produced exhibition and presentation-grade pistols for special occasions and to meet customer requests. Just drink these in.

More in my column at Guns.com. 

Home of the PDP and PPK along the Danube

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Ulm is a beautiful city by any standard and has been home to Carl Walther GmbH since 1945

The current Walther factory, in Lehrer Feld along the autobahn just outside of the Danube bastion city of Ulm, contains nearly 130,000 square feet of floor space and opened in 2006. It is the birthplace of such innovative firearms as the PPQ and its all-steel sisters, the Q5 and Q4 Steel Frame, and today’s PDP series while continuing the company’s Olympic sports heritage with designs such as LG 400, LP 500, and KK 500, along with being the home of legacy designs such as the PPK.

I was lucky enough to be invited inside for a behind-the-scenes tour of the facility.

More in my column at Guns.com.

Le Glock Mle 2020

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French trench raiders during the First World War, winter 1917 Bezange Forest, Lorraine, note the Ruby pistol.

The French military has flirted with modern semi-auto pistols for longer than most. During the Great War, thousands of Spanish-made Ruby and Star pistols augmented the country’s rather lackluster Modèle 1892 revolvers.

This cleared the way for the later FN 1922-inspired MAB Model D pistol and Charles Petter’s famous Mle. 1935, the latter design one that went on to morph into the Swiss SIG P210, arguably one of the best handguns of the 20th Century.

After WWII, the MAC Mle 1950, itself very P210-ish, was adopted and, coupled with the PAMAS G1, a domestically-made clone of the Beretta 92F, is still in service today.

The French MAC 50 PA modèle 1950 pistol

Now, 115 years after the Ruby was first ordered, the French defense ministry has placed an order for 75,000~ new Glocks.

The Glocks, reportedly a two-tone Gen 5 G17 MOS with a threaded barrel, suppressor-height night sight, and optics plate, will be delivered through 2022.

Besides the Austrian polymer pistols, the French are also going FN when it comes to a rifle to replace their venerable FR F2 (itself a souped-up MAS1936).

Sniper overwatch by a 3e RPIMa marksman with a French FR-F2, Rwanda, 1993. These rifles will be upgraded to SCAR H PRs in the coming years. 

More in my column at Guns.com.

P-38 101

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I’ve always had a soft spot for P-38s (the guns, not the can openers, as I find the longer P-51 type a much better form of the latter and don’t even get me into the P-38 Lightning) since I was a kid.

With that, I had the great opportunity recently while in the GDC Vault to find examples made by all three WWII makers– Walther, Spreewerk, and Mauser– as well as some Cold War-era West German Ulm-marked guns.

There you go…

For insights into how to tell them apart and what to look for, check out my column at Guns.com. https://www.guns.com/news/2019/12/04/the-world-of-german-p-38s-walther-mauser-spreewerk-and-otherwise

Even the Mona Lisa has cracks in it

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Portugal has a long and treasured military history. For more than 115 years the Portuguese Army (Exército Português) has issued German-made 9mm steel-framed pistols starting with the DWM Luger in 1906 and moving to the Walther P-38 after WWII.

Dubbed the M1961, the single stack P38 saw lots of service in places like Angola and Mozambique during the African bush wars of the 1960s and 70s, and still equips soldados in Afghanistan and Mali today.

Now, at the end of an era, Lisbon has gone Glock, adopting the Austrian-made polymer-framed G17. The model selected by the Portuguese Army, a Gen 5 variant, includes several features from the G19X such as a Coyote Tan scheme, night sights, and lanyard ring.

Note the Exército engraving and Portuguese rampant lion

More in my column at Guns.com.

One must follow zee rules, ja?

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Those damned orderly Germans. A kid walking along the beach in Schleswig-Holstein after a storm last week stumbled upon something interesting in the sand– a box of 30 former Wehrmacht handguns ranging from P-38s to Astras and at least one Browning Hi-Power. So of course, he called it in and the local Kripo came by to dutifully cart them off for destruction.

But he did get some snaps of them before that occurred.

Honestly, the can they were in was likely sealed until very recently judging from the low level of corrosion.

More in my column at Guns.com

Steel frame aesthetics done right

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Walther a couple months ago introduced what they bill as the Q5 Steel Frame Match pistol, which takes their standard Q5 and ditches all the polymer (frame, guide rod, etc) for steel, which is a throwback that I can get behind. Kinda like what CZ did for the 46-ounce Shadow 2 a while back. Sure, it adds a pound to the gun but translates to easy recoil and better accuracy on the 9mm longslide.

Plus it gives you a lot of canvas for engraving, should you be into that sort of thing.

That flat trigger…

More in my column at Guns.com.

5 Guns for 21st Century Plinking

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For generations one of the most popular hobbies and sports for the modern gentleman is that of target shooting with rimfire handguns. Practiced by kings, Olympians, and sportsmen, the controlled act of punching holes in paper and tin has developed from the days of clunky pistols to the thoroughly modern handguns of today.

A couple of my personal favorites. To see the rest, click the link ahahah

A couple of my personal favorites that lurk in my closet. To see the rest, click the link ahahah

Read the rest in my column at Firearms Talk