Date 1940-1941. Civilian 4th variation PP from Dieter H Marschall's book on Walthers. (From Walther forum)

It's a shooter grade gun which exactly what I wanted. Something I can shoot without any reservations.

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Beautiful. Buy ammo! Range report! Sincerely. bruce.

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Mine is a bit later and was a police issue. I often carry it.

Nice find. I saw that on the Walther forum. The serial puts it in late 1940.

If you did indeed get it for under 500, that was a really good deal. Post-war police surplus PPs sometimes bring that much.

Maybe the seller had trouble getting more because of the lack of Nazi stamps. By that time officers still had to buy their own pistols. Since the start of the war many were acquired through Wehrmacht channels and got Waffenamt marks even if sold to officers. But at the time this pistol was likely sold commercially, after France and before Russia, many units were re-equipped in Germany, and it is still more likely than not this ended up as a military gun. Just speculation based on probabilities, of course

First handgun I ever owned was a WWII bring back PP a family friend gave me when I was twelve. He had been an infantry officer who fought in North Africa, Italy, and southern France. He said he took the gun from a Wehrmacht officer "who no longer needed it."

The pistol was in a military holster that had the late owner's name penciled inside the flap. It had checkered wooden grips, not plastic or hard rubber. Bluing didn't show a lot of wear.

I never got to shoot it. Someone tried to steal it, and my mother sold it to a pawn shop for much too little money. Never quite forgave her for that.

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Oh well, what the hell.

I had an early wartime Model PP .32. I was very pleased with how it shot at 25 yards. Very accurate and easier to shoot well than small .38's.

I did have occasional jams, so sold it and carried a Beretta M-34 .380 that NEVER jammed. But it had a very hard trigger pull that made long range shooting harder than with the Walther. But where I'd probably need it, from 10 feet to 10 yards, it was plenty accurate. I could fire the whole magazine into a space that I could easily cover with my hand at 25 yds.

I eventually began to depend on .38's with three inch barrels for small guns and haven't changed since.

But that Walther PP was darned accurate and easy to shoot well.

Nice old PP!

Thanks for the extra history! I think you may be close to the truth but we will always speculate as we cannot know for sure.
I did in fact pay $500 cash for it.
I was a little skeptical because of the asking price at a gun show, that it was anything but a parts gun. But I wasn't looking for anything more than a shooter so it really didn't matter to me. I just wanted a German proofed non import marked PP. I also am a smart phone junkie and always rely on it for technical, dating and pricing info when at a show and encounter something I am not 100% sure of. I inadvertently left it home so I was just going off head knowledge of pricing that I had looked up the night before. I sort of figured I couldn't get hurt no matter what it was. It may have been serendipitous that I didn't have it, as I made the deal quite quickly and as I was paying the owner a guy came up behind me and was a little put out that he had "missed it by that much".

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John 1:17
NRA Life Benefactor

I've got a 1983 Model PP 7.65mm that was imported by Century. I'm pretty sure it was a former Police gun due to it having a lanyard ring. Its in about the same condition as yours. Great shooter! I had it the range one time and another guy tried to buy it from me right then and there. I didn't sell.

Good score. Very neat indeed.