A LGS has a P5 9MM with box, papers and 2 factory mags made in 1983. It has slight edge/muzzle wear and finish is dull but otherwise appears to be in great condition.

Out of curiosity I looked at the online auctions and BBGVs. Gee, these pistols are expensive.......anyone know anything about the P5?

Only interested as an investment. LGS has a FIRM price of $499.

Thanks for any feedback of the P5!

No first hand experience but ........
What's not to like in an "great condition", German made, probably high quality, unusual, original condition, and very reasonably-priced Walther with box? A quick check of Gun Broker suggest you could get a good return on your money from day 1. If you're not interested in it please PM me with details of the location.

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Scoundrel & Ne'er-Do-Well

g8rb8,

PM sent.

Great gun at a great price

I do not need a second one, but I would buy it if I saw it in one of my local gun shops

It's just a modified and updated P-38. I can say that magazines do not interchange between the P-5 and the P-38. I'd say that's not a bad price in today's environment.

Since you are interested in an investment, I don't know that this helps, but I have a couple of these and have found them to be well made and reliable. Internet lore says they won't reliably feed hollow points but I have not found that to be the case.

There are two models, the compact and the full size. The compact is more valuable. A few years back a fairly large number used P5 guns hit the market when they were traded in by European police. That suppressed the prices a bit, but not many of those guns are still on the market and they are easily identified as police turn-ins so prices have begun moving back up on the P5 in general.

If you get it and wish to shoot it, I would suggest replacing the recoil springs and mag springs for best results, due to age of the gun and uncertainty about prior use.

There is a section devoted to the P5 on the WaltherForums.

This is the P5 that now has a new home. It is in need of a cleaning. The manual is in German so maybe I can follow the pictures for breakdown, etc.

Thanks to all for the feedback.

On second thought, this is a shooter grade pistol so to the range it will go!

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Still a very good deal at that price,
There were actually several P5 variations , you can see a comparo on the Walther forum,
The P5 is actually a cousin to the Walther P4 and the P4 was an updated P1 design (The P1 was an updated P38).

Walthers in general are not cheap, ( wondering if there is a Century import stamp somewhere?) as several years ago Century imported a batch of former German PD guns which IIRC sold fairly quickly at $500 , Commercial import P5's were at the time closer to $800-$1000 .

Do like the P5's left side lever which drops the slide and also doubles a decocker, no manual safety is required or included as the design requires the trigger to be fully pulled back to raise the firing pin into battery, the hammer also has a slot cutout to insure it cannot strike the firing pin if dropped.
Dont like that it doesnt share magazines with the P1 series as they are cheap and plentiful, also these guns eject left which is kind of odd.

PS if you search the web you will probably find a P5 manual in english
The Walther forum had one a few years back,
WaltherForums

Here is a good site detailing P5 variations
Commercial P5

Dawggunner:

I can't quite make it out upon magnification of your photos, but it looks like a crossed-out BMI (= Bundesministerium des Inneren, Federal Interior Ministry) stamp in front of the slide serial. That would make it a surplus police pistol, but somewhat interesting as the P5 to my knowledge was never a general-issue federal police gun.

Congratulations. That's a neat piece. Post a range report please.

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Scoundrel & Ne'er-Do-Well

I would have bought it at that price. Good snag.

Yes, it has the BMI crossed out. The importer was PW ARMS REDM, WA. It has a mark to right of the BMI which I need to investigate. There is also a mark to the right of the 11/83 on the right side of the slide. I am not sure the white dot on the front site is original.

Will be next week before I can run some ammo thru it.

Thanks again for the feedback.

PS: I was able to get the LGS to pay the sales tax so effective sale price was $465. Yea, that is some rationalization I know!

Bought one a few years ago used for $500. Always wanted one after a friend bought it in the 80s. After shooting, and not really liking the long trigger and creepy double action, sold it. The 8 round capacity was low too. Now have a Walther PPQ that I like much better. The P5 is a classic gun though. Personally, the HK P7 from the same era is a better choice IMO.

Very nice.

It's a shame we will probably never see the Royal Air Force guns that replaced the BHP some time ago. I suspect they have been/will be melted down when the UK armed forces get Glocked.

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Release the Kraken

Steve-

Are you saying that the RAF bought P-5's to replace the Browning HP? When?

I had a British correspondent whose husband is retired RAF, a fighter pilot. She asked him for me which pistols he carried. He saw and carried only Brownings, but they said that a recent large purchase has been made of Glock 19's. I think some went to other UK forces, too. It seems to be the general replacement for the Browning in both military and police forces in the UK.

I'd asked if it was true that pilots were being equipped with PPK's. I read that somewhere on the Net a few years ago.

Were you maybe referring to those? Or, are you saying that P-5's are involved?

The Dutch police used P-5.'s May still. I read that the ammo is loaded a little light and is all FMJ. The officers who commented didn't trust that combo. But I think the complaint was mainly about ammo.

They are cool guns. I had a chance to buy one last year for $700 in excellent condition but I just couldn't do it.

Dutch may still use the P5 to some extent but when I was there in 08 all I saw were Glock, HK, and Sig I believe but 97% Glock. Granted I wasn't everywhere.

Edit to add...
Going by Wikipedia the now mainly use the Walther P99Q (PPQ) with the P5 still in service (doesn't say to what extent. Probably grandfathered) and G17.

UK military pilot I was talking to during a commercial flight in about 2000 told me they were carrying "9mm Walthers" during Desert Storm. I didn't know about the P5 at the time, so I thought he meant 9mm Short, AKA .380, in a PP or PPK. Then I came across another RAF guy who said "9mm Walther" who said it used the same ammo as a BHP. Could they both have been mistaken? Possibly. The use of the P5 and P5c by the UK seems a little murky, and one branch mentioned is the Fleet Air Arm. Maybe one or both of the guys were FAA.

I came across mention of RAF pilots being issue the Walther PP in several places.

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Release the Kraken

Before the decision to go Glock, the Sig P 226 was for several years the leading candidate to replace the BHP as the standard sidearm of British armed forces, since it already had done so in British special forces since the early 1990s.

Britain purchased a limited number, a few thousand, of the P5 (the compact model IIRC) and added it to their line-up as the L102A1 during the late 1980s or so. These pistols were mostly issued to undercover intelligence personnel for personal protection, and were meant as an upgrade of the widely used PP and PPK. They saw some use in Northern Ireland. A small batch of guns with NATO-supply number-stamped frames, supposedly left from that order, were sold by Walther in the civilian market, and occasionally pop up on auction sites as "SAS Walthers" at insane asking prices; never had anything to do with the SAS.

I'm not saying some RAF pilot couldn't have ended up with one, but the P5 was never a general-issue gun to any part of the British military in appreciable numbers.

I was given two while in Germany in 1980. We fired exclusively 9mm NATO and some German ammo that today I think would be called +P. I don't think that designation existed at the time. It had a significantly louder report than even the NATO and, though recoil was snappy, it was not at all more difficult to control.

The P5's were reliable, tough, accurate, everything one would expect of a Walther. The appearance was sometimes controversial. I heard people call it "Space Age" or "Science Fiction," as well as clunky, even bizarre.

Holsters were hard to find and I used a German military one with a strap over the top until I got back to the US. Then I bought an Uncle Mike's belt slide with a thumb-break strap that I felt worked well.

They were quite expensive in the US at the time ($800?), and I think the price of the one you show is a steal.

More modern 9mm autos are more streamlined and of higher capacity, so I think buying one today would be more for the novelty than for actual use.

I owned one for a short time. Very cool design, especially the DA trigger that simultaneously rotates the hammer block. I love the way The pistol looks.

Biggest drawback for me: the aluminum frame. First, this is a 1970's formula. Second, the feed ramp is aluminum. I've seen p5's with aluminum feed ramps that have been worn down to the White by the constant friction of the jacketed rounds. I've even seen a p5 that didn't Ppear to have been fired all that much, but the feed ramp appeared to have bee hairline-cracked by being worn thin by the bullets.

If it had been made with a steel frame, I'd be all over it like my HK P7.

Great price, and the P5s are great guns. I used to have a regular one, but now I have a P5 Lang with a long P38-esque target barrel. I find the trigger to be quite nice for DA/SA, with a very smooth DA pull and a good SA. They are fine shooters, and the P5 Compacts are surprisingly excellent too.

Finally able to fire the new to me P5 today. Pleased with the tight groups (for me) with variety of ammo. Had one FTF. Overall it shot as well as my 3rd Gens.

The white front site dot was easy to find. Recoil was light. The trigger was nice, very broken in I guess.

The only negative is the mag release button at the bottom of the butt. It is stiff and awkward for me to operate.

I have ordered new magazine springs. The originals seems too soft/worn.

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I'm bad to carry a pistol in my waistband without a holster (plenty of fat roll to hold it in place). More than once the magazine release button was depressed enough to dislodge the magazine.

I believe originally semi auto manufacturers valued magazines more than we do now and designed their pistols with a heal release for that purpose. When the 1911 was originally introduced, it had a lanyard loop on both the pistol and magazine, so the mounted soldier wouldn't loose the magazine and end up with a single shot.

I carry a spare magazine on me. However if I'm in a self defense shooting that requires a combat reload, I'm pretty much screwed anyway. I'd love to have your P5.