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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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. 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.

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.

I will just have to get mine out to shoot. I'll bring the Stingers, SuperX and a few other loads to see what it likes.

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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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.

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Regards,
Lee Jarrett

The Beretta 21A is the only reliable Pocket 22 auto I have found.

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Regards,
Lee Jarrett

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.

I've always held a mild lust for one of those in stainless. The contents of my wallet have never quite aligned with the availability of one at the time.

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.

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?

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.

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Alan
SWCA LM 2023, SWHF 220

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.

My TPH eats it up without issues.

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

Reliable .22 pocket autos. Astra Cub and Beretta 950 in .22 Short with the plated 29 grain solid bullet

Never had much luck with small .22 semi-autos.

Sticking with .25's and an occasional .32

A small gun for me, that I am comfortable with is a "j" frame

I've wanted one of these for years, but unfortunately they're long out of production, tend to be hard to find, and when you can find them are on the expensive side.

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Shooting Comfort is bilateral.

My TPH is an Interarms gun. I was seriously disappointed when it couldn't get through one full magazine without a failure of some kind.
I sent it to M&M Gunsmithing and Mike worked his magic. The little sucker is completely reliable now.
Here it is along with a few of its brothers.

Man the .22 TPH's have gotten pricey and the .25's are ridiculous

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Jim
Many K and N Frames

While quite common in Europe, the .25acp TPH is extremely rare in the U.S. Prices on those are up to $1500- 2000 or more IF you can find one for sale.
From what I hear, the .25 version is usually absolutely reliable as well. Its the .22LR versions that are the troublesome, problem child.
As for spare magazines, .25 mags can be bought at reasonable prices. Maybe $40. .22LR magazines generally start at $150.

I have a blued American Arms distributed by Interarms as the PX-22. This is marked Designed by Erma-Werke. Slightly different magazine release, otherwise a TPH copy. It too likes only round nose, and as others noted, 100% reliable with Remington Goldens. After I used up all the Goldens I had in other 22's, I tried CCI Mini-mags and it shoots dead-on the sights at 15-25 feet. Found it in a pawn shop in 1989 for $100, and I found 2 Erma-Werke branded mags for it on FleaBay a few years ago at a good price.

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Heavily armed old man.

German Walther TPH pistols were banned from import for being "Non-Sporting" firearms under the 1968 GCA. Only law enforcement could buy them. That is the primary reason they are so scarce - and so much more valuable now. My local chief of police bought mine directly from Interarms for me in 1980.

The stainless Interarms-made guns were manufactured in the United States under license, hence could be sold to anyone. I bought one as soon as I could get one, in 1988. Mine is reliable. For reasons unknown, both stocks split at the screw hole after a couple of years. Fortunately, I was able to buy a replacement set from Interarms and the replacement set has never split since.

The chief advantage of the blue imported TPH pistols is that they have an alloy frame, thus making them much lighter. I wrote Interarms asking it to manufacture a stainless/alloy "lightweight" version, but, of course, never got a reply, and it never did.

I agree with Lee about the Beretta Model 21. The tip-up barrel is a great feature, allowing charging and clearing without withdrawing the slide. It's downside is that it is "fat." The Model 21's alloy frame does not help much to make it lighter, probably because it is so "fat."

Perhaps the best "mouse gun" design is the Budischowsky TP-70. It has all of the design features and appearance of a miniature Smith & Wesson Model 639. All it needed was an alloy frame and better build quality. The slide even locks open after the last round on early ones. The Mother Ship should have bought the design and perfected it instead of going with the Model 61. Oh well.

I got a 629-4 Mountain gun, an 11-87 special purpose and a 1.75x6 Leopold from the Jumbo Sports in Lafayette when they were going out of business all at "theft" prices.

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