Walther 7.65 PP .. How do I find our the history of this pistol ??

[Coltman]

Hi all .. What I believe I have is a WWII German officers sidearm complete with black leather holster and spare clip. The marking are as follows Waffenfabrik Walther Zella Mehlis (Thur) 7.65 Mod PP

both frame and slide have matching numbers and both frame and slide have what looks like a stamp that is not factory of maybe an eagle with matching letters and numbers below of wsA368 ???

Holster if a full flap with " Made In Germany" and Z/'III stamped on the inside ??

Any help or thoughts would be greatly appreciated !!!


Coltman

[rintinglen]

If it is a German WWII gun, it will have Nazi Proofs. Somewhere on the slide or frame you should find an "eagle-over-a-swastika" stamp. It is definitely pre 1945, as post-war gun were made in Ulm, not Zella-Mehlis. It should also have either a"480" or "ac" stamped somewhere on the frame near the trigger guard, IIRC.

[Harry O]

I have a pre-war one in nice condition. I tried to find out information on it and found out that the Walther records were destroyed near the end of the war and just after (when the Russians took over their plant).

The best information is to get a book with pictures of various Walthers and their serial numbers. There are minor external differences on them. There are also some books that show changes in internal parts and approximate time the changes were made. There were more changes internally than externally. I was able to narrow down the date of mine to within a few months (late 1937).

One of the picture books is "Walther Models PP and PPK" by James Rankin. I forget the name of the book that had the information on proof marks.

[prsman23]

There is a guide on waltherforums.com
Lots of info to help out there

[Coltman]

Thanks to all for the info .. I spent 3 hours last evening checking out the sites you good folks suggested !! I gained a wealth of information .. Found out that it is pre WWII, and with a better magnifying glass determined that it is an N under the Eagle on the right side and WaA359 under some stamp on the left side .. Ser # is 2410XXP which is late 30's I believe .. Thanks again for all your help .. This forum and all of its followers are wonderful .... Coltman : smile:

[Outpost75]

The Walther PP is one of the great .32 ACP handguns. The postwar German police trade-ins, which were replaced by 9mm P5, P6 or P7 pistols after the Munich Olympics terrorist attacks, were imported in great numbers by Century Arms, Interarms, HK-USA and others, and were sold cheaply, as they had little collector value, but are great shooters. I have two of these, one made in 1963 which was formerly of the Poliezi Bremerhaven, and another made in 1964 which came from the Bavaria State Police (ByP).

They are solid 2" groupers at 50 feet and outstanding small game guns which are more effective than a .22LR.