German Made TPH

Retired W4

Retired W4

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Now here is something you do not see often. This little Walther is proofed 1976 and is in excellent condition. According to a friend who carried and used one as a back-up (to his HK P7) back in the day they are somewhat ammunition sensitive. His recommendation is CCI Stingers, round nose, not hollow points.

Enjoy the pictures. I know I'm going to enjoy this little gun.
 

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A good friend would have convinced you to sell that thing. “Finicky” doesn’t do that firearm justice. Don’t count on it to work well other than as a conversation piece.

Here is my former TPH. Look at the sights.
 

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ColbyBruce said:
A good friend would have convinced you to sell that thing. “Finicky” doesn’t do that firearm justice. Don’t count on it tqualitity o work well other than as a conversation piece.

Here is my former TPH. Look at the sights.
Click to expand...

I'll have to try mine out Colby. I too have one of those 317's like yours pictured above. No worries with that little revolver. 8 well placed Stingers might stop an attack. My friend told me of the night he had to defend his girlfriend from an armed assailant with his German TPH. He did not kill the bad guy but he was in no condition to continue. The girl picked up all seven casings off the ground, so his TPH worked well. There well may be a difference in the quality of early German Vs later American TPH's.

As for the sights, they are definitely not target pistols. I'll report back once I get to shoot this vest pocket gun.
 
I have an Advantage Arms .22 LR kit on a Glock 29/30 sf frame. It is ammo picky as well, mostly with Winchester Super X and Federal Premium. I found that I can shoot those reliably if I alternate them when I load the magazines. That gun does love CCI Mini Mags.

I bought the S&W 317 from Jumbo Sports when they went out of business. $250.00 well spent!!
 

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My Interarms stainless TPh .22 prefers Winchester Super-X solids. I haven’t fired it in quite awhile. I have a fair supply of that ammo, but it is getting old now.

For what it is, I was always pleased with the gun. I had no reliability issues, and I could see well enough back then to use the sights. I practiced with it at 50 feet and 25 yards, just to see what I could do with it. It did shoot quite a bit high at longer range. :o Up close, that was not a problem. It’s no powerhouse, for sure, but I had fun with it, and I guess in an emergency it would be better than nothing. :)
 
My TPH runs really well.

It did not like some Norma .22 ammo but everything else that I have put in it runs quite reliably. As for the sights. They are better than the ones on my baby Browning that is about as far as I will go. They are pretty cool little guns, about like carrying a pocketknife around with you.
 

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One of the best things about the German mfg and marked Walther TPH is that they command quite a higher price if in collectible condition over what the USA mfg pistols go for.

Both mfg's seem to have some issues especially the .22LR cal version.
Some people say the German made version is the better choice there. There has always been complaints of the TPH in .22lr w/ jamming and being ammo specific. Others seem to function just fine.
 
ColbyBruce said:
I have an Advantage Arms .22 LR kit on a Glock 29/30 sf frame. It is ammo picky as well, mostly with Winchester Super X and Federal Premium. I found that I can shoot those reliably if I alternate them when I load the magazines. That gun does love CCI Mini Mags.

I bought the S&W 317 from Jumbo Sports when they went out of business. $250.00 well spent!!
Click to expand...

I bought one of the Advantage Arms .22lr conversion kits for my Glock 19. The manual recommended CCi 40-grain round nose solids. It is flawless with that ammo, but it works equally well with Aguila Extra high velocity 40-grain solids.
 

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ColbyBruce said:
A good friend would have convinced you to sell that thing. “Finicky” doesn’t do that firearm justice. Don’t count on it to work well other than as a conversation piece.

Here is my former TPH. Look at the sights.
Click to expand...
When they first came out with the stainless, I was very excited.
When I finally got one of them, I tried it with every ammo I could find.
VERY finicky.
Polished everything I thought might help.
Still finicky.
Tried to hope it would get better with use, but several hundred rounds later I was so aggravated clearing jams it had to go away. ;)
 
Retired W4 said:
Now here is something you do not see often. This little Walther is proofed 1976 and is in excellent condition. According to a friend who carried and used one as a back-up (to his HK P7) back in the day they are somewhat ammunition sensitive. His recommendation is CCI Stingers, round nose, not hollow points.

Enjoy the pictures. I know I'm going to enjoy this little gun.
Click to expand...

I find it curious that your friend recommended Stingers but said "round nose, not hollow point". Mainly because the Stinger has always been a specialty hollow point load. Not made in a round nose (solid) profile. The Stinger is also distinguished by having a case that is one tenth of an inch longer than a standard 22LR case.

Years ago I recall seeing warnings about using Stingers in European made guns due to many of them having tighter chamber specs than many US made firearms. The slight difference in case length was just enough to cause occasional functioning issues and possible pressure spikes in some guns.

The only TPH I ever had any experience with belonged to a friend. He only used the CCI Mini Mag (their high velocity, copper plated load) in the round nose loading and it ran fine with those.
 
handejector said:
The Beretta 21A is the only reliable Pocket 22 auto I have found.
Click to expand...

One of our local retired city officers had one of those that couldn’t clear the case from the chamber (it uses no extractor) to save its life. He gave it to me to fool around with. I told him I assumed the chamber was just fouled and I’d get it going for him. Famous last words. I cleaned that thing repeatedly and nothing I put in it would eject a full magazine of shells. Finally, in desperation, I tried Remington Golden Bullet .22 high velocity ammo and the little devil ran like a charm! It is the only .22 I can recall that liked the Remingtons.

I gave the gun back to John, along with a couple of boxes of Remingtons, and told him to be sure to keep it clean. He said he had stray cats that “needed taken care of.” Unless they were extremely stupid, I doubt much harm came to any of them. :D
 
handejector said:
When they first came out with the stainless, I was very excited.
When I finally got one of them, I tried it with every ammo I could find.
VERY finicky.
Polished everything I thought might help.
Still finicky.
Tried to hope it would get better with use, but several hundred rounds later I was so aggravated clearing jams it had to go away. ;)
Click to expand...

I have a theory. There are people, otherwise competent, experienced shooters, that can’t make an absolutely perfect 1911 run, and I think that likely has more to do with their hands, technique, etc., than the gun and/or ammo. A couple of my buddies could not make my TPh run, too. One could shoot rings around me with anything he picked up. Maybe you were just not a TPh-man? :D
 
Have owned a number of the small 22s over the years, tho not a TPH. All of them were ammo sensitive. Nature of the beast I guess. Probably the most reliable one I have is an older Taurus PT22. As long as I keep it clean and well lubed its pretty tolerant of most ammo.
 
I have looked at getting one of these over the years. My recollection is the magazines were terribly expensive.
 
I have had two stainless TPH pistols. Both were bought in the $400 range and ran perfectly with good ammunition. I normally carried Stingers for anything I thought it may be important to shoot. They have skyrocketed in value the last few years and I sold one just because. I keep on the lookout for a blued German model but they are ridiculously high for me.
 
desi2358 said:
I find it curious that your friend recommended Stingers but said "round nose, not hollow point". Mainly because the Stinger has always been a specialty hollow point load. Not made in a round nose (solid) profile...
Click to expand...

You are absolutely correct. He must have been thinking Mini-Mags RN.
 
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