We have come to the end of our popular Bargain Basement offers, which many of our esteemed clients took up to take home several interesting firearms at great prices. Our seventh and last offering consists of three .22LR rimfire Walther/Manurhin PP Sport pistols that we are offering individually. This is an opportunity to acquire one of these highly collectable and very shootable pistols affordably. Read on for another LSB journey in firearms history…

The Carl Walther factory in Zella Mehlis, Thüringen was destroyed soon after WWII ended. It was first briefly occupied in April 1945 by American troops, who carried off whatever they found there, including the last few MKb42(W) prototype rifles. Then the Soviet troops moved in, as this area of eastern Germany fell within their area of occupation. They did not find much there, so they dismantled the tooling and carried it eastwards before destroying the factory early in 1946.

Fritz Walther restarted the business from scratch, moving to Ulm and eventually beginning to manufacture air guns. The LP53 was their first air pistol – it was made famous by James Bond 007, who is seen brandishing the air pistol (!) in the iconic movie poster! The licence to produce Walther pistols was contracted to the Manurhin factory in France. Starting from 1953, the French factory produced classics such as the PP and PPK, both under the Manurhin brand and the Walther brand. The latter were sent to Germany as kits to have the frames hardened before being finished. The quality of these guns is superb. Early Walther-brand PP or PPK pistols with the ‘made in Germany’ legend on the slide were therefore actually manufactured in France.

However, one model was exclusively produced at the Manurhin factory, irrespective of whether it was marked Manurhin or Walther: the elegant .22LR PP Sport, which is a sporting version of the PP and came in two barrel lengths, 150mm ('C' suffix serial numbers) and 200mm  ('L' suffix serial numbers). Production of PP Sport pistols appears to have started soon after Manurhin received Walther’s licence in 1952. PP Sport serial numbers started from 50000 while the highest number seen is just below 75000. Hence, it is assumed that 25,000 of all models were built until production ended in the late 1960s.

The PP Sport pistols are not only beautifully made, they are also very accurate and can outperform modern target pistols. The rear sight is adjustable, the hammer has a spur for easy cocking and the 10-round magazine has a plastic extension to fit into the contour of the grip, which has a thumb rest. Like the PP and PPK pistols, they are wonderfully easy to take apart and clean. All PP Sport pistols have a threaded barrel, which is required to remove the front sight ramp so that the slide may be drawn forward in disassembly.

We are offering three PP Sport pistols today, all of which formed part of the extensive Clemens Käfferbitz Walther collection before being acquired by LSB. All three pistols are in excellent original condition with the original high polish blued finish and bright bores.

1. 59768C  Standard 150mm barrel and standard hammer, Walther brand and Ulm proofs (1950s)

2. 62279L   Long 200mm barrel and sport hammer, Manurhin brand and St. Etienne proofs (1950s)

3. 70406C  Standard 150mm barrel and sport hammer, Manurhin brand and Ulm proofs (1966)

These Walther PP Sport pistols are being offered on a first come, first served basis, as part of our Bargain Basement deals. You can snap them up at a considerable discount based on how fast you react to our post to confirm your order with a deposit:

 Prices for EACH pistol:

• Within 1 hour:     20% discount, or € 350

• Within 3 hours:   15% discount, or € 370

• Within 24 hours: 10% discount, or € 390

This could be the opportunity that you have been waiting for – act fast to avoid disappointment! A sale will be considered as closed only if you contact us (SMS, WhatsApp or Messenger) and follow up with a 50% deposit by BOV Mobile Pay or Bank Transfer to our account. Details will be provided in our reply to your message.

Thanks to LSB’s knowledge and experience in historical firearms, all the pieces that we offer are covered by a lifetime warranty that you get is what we describe in detail, to ensure that you will never be disappointed with your purchase.

You will require either a 2020 Collector Licence A or a Target Shooter Licence A to purchase this firearm.

We take great pleasure in bringing you these daily snippets of firearms history and we hope that you enjoy reading them. 

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