Walther CO2 Powered Air Guns

Carl Walther in 1886 started his humble beginings as an arms manufacturer. Little did he know the impact his designs would have on firearms to this day when he started his business with the Walther Models 1 through 9. The model 'PP', Polizei Pistole, or Police Pistol, is a direct descendant of the Model 8 produced in 1920.
The Walther PP, first produced in 1929, was the first successful double action automatic pistol manufactured. The pistol could safely be carried with a round in the chamber, ready to fire. The trigger pull on the first shot would be a longer heavier pull than subsquent shots. After the first shot, the retracting slide would cock the hammer for follow up shots if nessesary. The PP pictured in the above link was, according to the serial number, one of the first 20,000 pistols produced. Probably late 1929 or sometime in the first quarter of 1930. This example has the 90 degree safety and the large ring hammer, but does not have the loaded chamber indicator common to later pistols. The PP series is a blowback, or unlocked-breach design, meaning that the barrel is fitted and pinned to the receiver and does not move. When a round is fired the recoil ejects the spent casing and the slide strips another round from the magazine into the chamber ready to fire again. This design is used in smaller, lower power chamberings, typically 9mm Kurz or less.

Handguns have been around almost as long as the earliest firearms, but the history of effective automatic pistols is only about a century old. In the turbulent 20th century, during which the automatic pistol came of age, the Carl Walther Waffenfabrik grew to become one of the world's leading handgun developers and manufacturers. Although Walther has produced numerous firearms designs and other products, including sporting and military rifles, submachine guns, air rifles, adding machines and so forth, this book is concerned strictly with the company's handgun business, the product for which it has gained worldwide renown.
The history of Walther's early handgun efforts is somewhat confused, due to several factors: an official company history that is as much legend and advertising as it is solid fact; the loss of factory records in 1945; and the company's understandable reluctance to reveal company secrets which, if revealed, might hurt their position in a fiercely competitive firearms business. What follows is therefore a reconstruction based on what records are still available, plus research, conjecture and extrapolation from handguns still in existence.

The Walther PPK became one of the world's most famous guns after 007 put one in his holster...

History of the Walther PPK

The armourer, Boothroyd, had been played by Peter Burton in Doctor No, and had supplied Bond with his legendary Walther PPK. Boothroyd (he was not credited as Q until Thunderball) and was in fact a character from Fleming's Dr No, in which he is responsible for kitting 007 out with a Walther PPK to replace his Beretta. This was because in a letter Fleming was corrected by a Glasgow guns expert, Geoffrey Boothroyd who wrote, 'I like everything about your James Bond except his deplorable taste in weapons. A Beretta 22 is utterly useless as well as being a lady's gun - and not a very nice lady at that!'. Fleming rectified the oversight, and the Walther PPK became Bond's gun of legend.

In 1931 when the model PP was the main production weapon, Walther introduced a pocket version. The gun was the same as the PP except that the barrel had been shortened. The internal mechanism was the same, however the parts that were affected by size were of course different. The most significant change was in the frame. The total length of the PPK is 155 mm. The magazine holds one less cartridge. The barrel has six clockwise riflings. The back strap had been eliminated. They utilized a wrap-around plastic grip to give the frame a corrected contour. The firm then came up with the model designation PPK or 'Polizei Pistole Kriminal'. The name symbolized that it was to be used for covert undercover police work.

The PPK was highly praised because of its compactness and reliability as well as the unique signal pin indicating that the gun was either loaded or unloaded. It protrudes from the rear of the slide when the chamber is loaded. If the chamber is empty it stays inside the rear slide. This loaded chamber indicator does not exist on the rim fire models, only the centre fire guns.

The PPK was readily suited for undercover and intelligence work. It was compact, reliable and of reasonable stopping power. Many of the post-war intelligence agencies standardized on the PPK. In addition to MI5 and MI6, the PPK has been used by German BND, Frances' SDECE, Israel's Mossad and Switzerland's Intelligence and Security Service. The Chinese intelligence service actually issued a PPK clone. After the World War II, both the PP and PPK were manufactured outside of Germany by the French firm Manurhin under the license from Walther. Only some design documents, which had been barely salvaged, served as start-up capital. As a result of the lack of production capacity and the prohibition of manufacturing, the decision was made to grant licenses for the production of various products. Walther was not able to begin manufacturing again until 1957.

After the 1968 Gun Control Act went into effect and the PPK was barred from import, diplomatic pouches from Germany often bulged with brownish-red Walther PPK boxes. The GCA prohibited the importation due to the size of the gun. Under the legislation, a pistol must earn a number of points for various sporting features. The PPK could not earn the required points. The Walther firm, not wanting to lose US sales of the PPK, developed the PPK/s. By combining the frame of the PP, which was deeper than the PPK, and the slide of the PPK, the PPK/s was born. The PPK/s met all of the requirements for a handgun to be imported into the United States.

The PPK/s was first manufactured in the United States in 1978 by Ranger Manufacturing in Gadsen, Alabama. Today the PPK and the PPK/s are both manufactured with the .380 ACP or 9mm Short standard. Those that still own the 7.65 guns have found that the newer .32 ACP Silvertip loading from Winchester still offers more than adequate stopping power. The Walther PPK or PP are still best carried with .380 ACP loads, a good personal defence calibre. This is provided that the shooting range is short. Only the American models have been produced in stainless steel. The German handguns are made with the blued finish.

Now the Brosnan era of Bond films has ushered in the next generation from Walther, the P99...

The design of the P99 was initiated in 1994, and a handgun was presented in 1996. The main goal was to develop new, modern style police and self-defence handgun that incorporates all latest developments and will cost less than its predecessor - Wapther P88, that did not achieve any significant commercial success, mainly due to high prices.
Walther P99 is a recoil operated, locked breech gun, that used modified Browning style locking via extraction port in the slide. It is striker fired, and has no manual safeties and three automatic safeties: Striker safety, Trigger safety and Out of battery safety. Also, it has manual decocking button in the rear upper part of the slide. Also Walther developed QA action, which has partially pre-charged striker that must be manually charged to full stroke via each trigger pull (somewhat similar in appearance to Glocks' 'safe action'). P99 has polymer frame with removable backctrap of the handle, to provide to shooters better fit in the hands (3 sizes are standard). Also P99 incorporates recoil compensator. 'Military' version of the P99 differs only in the colour - frame is in 'military green' colour instead of standard black. Licensed version of the P99 is manufactured in the USA by Smith&Wesson under designation of the Smith&Wesson 99. This guns has USA-made slides, the frame and mechanism are Germany-made. This guns is reported as extremely reliable and very accurate, especially in 9mm version.