LAST EDITED ON Jan-06-20 AT 04:56 AM (EST)
 
And spent a bit of time with a friend, shooting his gun at the local police/homeguard shooting range. Much fun was had and a pleasant time was spent.

Ok, so, why am I posting that here? Well, because of this: (big image so no direct link)

http://seanchaithe.net/images/GunSlide.jpg?x

For those not too well acquainted with German handguns, that's the Walther PP, or Polizeipistol, and the precursor to the PPK, the famous James Bond gun. (the PPK is the Polizeipistol Kriminal, or detectives version). Ok, that's cool, right? Yeah, it is, but there's a bit more to it than that.

First, is the chambering. As you can see in the image, the gun is chambered for .22. Now, you could get the gun(obviously) in .22, but the VAST, and I do mean vast, number of guns were made for .32ACP/7.65. Finding one in .22 is not impossible, but they're rather rare.

Secondly, is the manufacturing place. As can be seen, the slide reads "Zella-Mehlis (Thur)". And that's where Carl Walther founded his shop. Zella-Mehlis, in Thüringen, way back in antiquity. And then came World War 2, and Walther relocated to Neuengamme, and the guns weren't marked Zella-Mehlis any longer. After the war, Thüringen was in the Soviet sector (This led to Fritz Walther, son of Carl, having to start over with basically a collections of esigns and patents).

What this means is that the gun we went out to shoot today is not only chambered for a, for the model, rare caliber but it's also on the order of 80 years old at least. The serial number, which I didn't get a picture of because serial number, was(I think) 5 figures long, so it's probably not much less than that, but it's still pre-WW2 from the markings.

I had a fun time, AND also quite and interesting one, and thought there might be others who would find it interesting too.
...!
Stoke Mandeville, Esq & The Victorian Ballsmiths
"Nobody Want Verdigris-Covered Balls!"