Interarms PPK/S (update on post 22)

[BB57]

Pine Tree Castings was Rugers owned and operated Investment Casting facility.
They did all the castings forRuger of course but took on contract work from much of the rest of the firearms world as well as other industries.

>>>>
Interarms was never a mfg'r of Walthers. Just an importer of the German product and marketer of the USA made version.

The USA made version came about becasue of the GCA68 ban on importation of the PPK.
Make it here was the solution. The popular PPKS and the TPH got made here as well.

The actual job of mfg'g the USA Walther pistols was given to MidSouth Industries in Gadsen (sp?), Alabama.
Midsouth had many corp names under the Midsouth name, one of which was Ranger Arms Co. Under that mfg name is what the Walthers were made in the USA.
This is the info I was given on the Walther Forum as to the time-line of sorts about the USA mfg of the PPKs/PPK


Investment cast parts were used for many of the components and I wouldn't doubt that Pine Tree and other firms in that business had provided the service.
It's a specialty business and not something that makes sense to set up on your own.
Ruger did at the time as no one else could provide exactly what he wanted for his style of mfg'g. So he built his own in NH.

Walther, as a German company, was prohibited from making small arms for ten years after WWII. They entered into an agreement with Manurhin which made them in the Alsace region of France (French Germans). Walter forged the frames and slides and shipped the forgings to Manurhin which milled them heated treated roll marked and finished them. They also made the small parts and assembled the pistols.

When Walther again started making pistols, the PP series pistols were made the same way, with the exception of the slides which were shipped to Walther prior to being heat treated, roll marked, finished, assembled to the Manurhin finished slide and small parts and proof tested. Under German law that was enough to qualify as “made in Germany”.

Consequently you will often see Walther marked pistols with slightly mis matched bluing on slide and frame.

The PPK/S was developed as a work around to GCA of 1968 as the PPK was too small to meet the minimum size requirements for imported pistols spelled out in GCA68.

In 1984 Walther finally started making their own pistols in their entirety and discontinued its manufacturing and licensing arrangement with Manurhin.

That also ended the distribution agreement in the US with Interams. Interarms knowing it was coming and having no guarantee of getting the US distribution rights in the future, started importing the FEG AP9S, APK9S, AP7S and APK7S, steel framed PP and PPK/s style pistols made to a very high degree of fit and finish. They initially did it as a back up to the PP series pistols but then h kept them as an affordable alternative to the PP series.

Interarms ultimately was granted the US distribution rights and distributed the PPK and PPK/S pistols made under license by MidSouth under the Ranger name. The main advantage of a US manufacturer was the ability to produce the PPK for the US market as the import restrictions did not apply. Oddly though, the PPK/S comprised most of the sales and they opted not to produce the PP, which in some respects is the best of the PP series.

 

[rwadley1]

So, I brought her home today.

The seller gave me a $50 break off his asking price and since you all seemed to think the asking price was good, I couldn't let it pass.

It came with everything Interarms shipped it with (manual, warranty info, test target, lock, 2 mags and the original box).

It's definitely a late Interarms gun. The target tells me it was test fired on 8/12/99, but the box tells me S&W was starting to play a roll (it's a late nineties J Frame box with a Walther logo applied over the S&W logo).

The fit and finish is great on this one and yes, the double action trigger is very heavy.

There are few blemishes in the stainless, but it will clean up nicely with a few minutes with a gray and a white scotchbright pad. I haven't cleaned it, but I did pop the slide off and the internals show basically no wear and has more dust under it than oil or carbon.

All in all, I'm very pleased to finally have a PPKS in the stable. Thank you all for the education.