Help Identify my Walther PP

[Dwaine]

Recently inherited PP and not planning on selling. Wondering about the age, value and whether collectible...has what looks like a eagle over an N and the letters NDS on both sides.

 

[Texas Star]

Can't read the lettering, but the NDS mark means a govt. property gun. Someone else will ID that. I think it's the state of Niedersachsen. (sp?)

Why do you store the gun with trigger back and safety on? That would seem to stress springs unnecessarily, and it grates at me something awful to see Walthers that way.

 

[Mike in Reedley]

Trigger back safety on bugs me too. Isn’t that funny.

 

[Dwaine]

I don't store it that way.... I had been handling the pistol and dry fired it a couple of times just prior to taking the pictures.

 

[Absalom]

Yes, as Texas has said, it is a standard West German ex-police PP, marked by the state of Niedersachsen. The serial should put it in the 1960s; the year should be visible next to the Ulm proof in the ejection window.

Made at Manurhin in Mulhouse/France, shipped in parts and in the white to Ulm and there stamped, assembled, finished, and proofed, as “Made in W. Germany”.

 

[Mike in Reedley]

I don't store it that way.... I had been handling the pistol and dry fired it a couple of times just prior to taking the pictures.

Thanks, I feel better now. I have the same gun. I got an ammo can full of Remington.32 ammo in a previous trade, so I shoot mine frequently. These are surprisingly accurate for pocket pistols.

 

[max]

Maybe 40 years ago or so, a bunch of these showed up in this country. I sold one to a co-worker and just a year or so ago he gave it back to me. I much prefer shooting the 32 over the 380.

 

[DT75]

... the year should be visible next to the Ulm proof in the ejection window...

Depending on the year of manufacture, there could also be a two-digit letter code, not numbers, in the same location :

A=0
B=1
C=2
D=3
E=4
F=5
G=6
H=7
I=8
K=9

I own a .22lr PPK that is marked with HH, meaning it was proofed in (19)77.

 

[Kurusu]

Trigger back safety on bugs me too. Isn’t that funny.

But that how it's suposed to be carried.

 

[Absalom]

Depending on the year of manufacture, there could also be a two-digit letter code, not numbers,....
I own a .22lr PPK that is marked with HH, meaning it was proofed in (19)77.

Correct, but for the OP‘s vintage, 1965/66, that should not apply, as the switch to letter codes at Ulm occurred just about the mid-1970s.

 

[Mike in Reedley]

But that how it's suposed to be carried.

Um, no. Trigger forward, with safety on.

 

[RGVshooter]

Um, no. Trigger forward, with safety on.

What are you talking about? It's a double/single action pistol.

 

[Mike in Reedley]

What are you talking about? It's a double/single action pistol.

To fire it from the pictured position you must release the safety, allow the trigger to travel forward and then pull the trigger to the rear for the first shot double action. If you apply the safety while the pistol is in single action mode, the hammer falls, but the trigger remains in the single action pistol. It’s not capable of operating in a single action mode with the safety on.

The safest way to carry the weapon with a chambered round is in double action mode, with the safety engaged.

 

[Kurusu]

To fire it from the pictured position you must release the safety, allow the trigger to travel forward and then pull the trigger to the rear for the first shot double action. If you apply the safety while the pistol is in single action mode, the hammer falls, but the trigger remains in the single action pistol. It’s not capable of operating in a single action mode with the safety on.

The safest way to carry the weapon with a chambered round is in double action mode, with the safety engaged.

That implies lowering the hammer on a loaded chamber, and then engaging the safety. The normal way, which is pictured, is racking one round and engaging the safety.

 

[Ivan the Butcher]

As to how the pistol is to be carried: You are both all right and all wrong! You should have read the instructions. OR you had training from your service training days. Either way the gun will function and function safely, BUT you are suppose to follow the training you received. I knew a US Nave doctor from the end of WWII that always carried a 1911 "Cocked and Locked" on an empty chamber. I thought it was stupid but it is the way he had trained at OCS. (I think it was about the REMF's not hurting themselves but looking uniform!) None the less, that's how he was trained, and that makes it the correct way to carry!

NO ONE EVER GOT IN TROUBLE FOR FOLLOWING THEIR TRAINING!

Ivan

 

[Absalom]

That implies lowering the hammer on a loaded chamber, and then engaging the safety. The normal way, which is pictured, is racking one round and engaging the safety.

Standard procedure as far as I remember has always been to simply disengage and re-engage the safety to let the trigger come forward into the DA position, and then carry the gun trigger-forward and on safe.