I am curious about my Walther and wanted to know when it was manufactured. The Serial Number is 136081S Thanks, Jim. The PPK was determined to be too short in the grip to pass the size standard, so Walther took the shorter PPK slide and barrel, and mounted them on the longer PP frame. This was known as the PPK/s. The PP with it's longer grip and magazine holds 7 rounds in the magazine.

Online assist I too, am now the owner of a Walther PP, and would like to do some research as to the firearm's dob/pob and any other information. It has CAI Vt as the importer, and a Stag horn with a 75 which I am taking to mean the barrel was proofed in 1975. When it was assembled and sold might be something different. Number is something like 435356 and the 356 has been etched into the plastic of both magazines. I'm also confused about the weapon's restriction of 68 and how it impacted the PP/PPK with one holding 8 rounds and the other holding 7 but making sense of gun laws is a contradiction of terms. You Walther's Place of Birth is 'officially' the Walther plant in Ulm Germany. In fact, your gun was made at the Manurhin plant in Mulhouse, France.

After the war, the Walther company had no production plant, so they contracted with Manurhin to produce Walther firearms. By the later 1950's Walther had a new plant up and running at Ulm and took back production of most guns.

However, the Manurhin company had done such a good job, and the price of production was so attractive, Walther just left production of the PP/PPK series guns in France. The guns were manufactured in France, and the mostly finished guns were shipped across the border to Ulm, where they were blued, stamped 'Made in Germany' and proof fired. In Europe, the country where a gun is final proof-fired is considered to be the country of manufacture, so this is legal. In 1968, the US passed the Gun Control Act of 1968. This set standards on importation of firearms, including the size of the gun and presence of safety systems.

The PPK was determined to be too short in the grip to pass the size standard, so Walther took the shorter PPK slide and barrel, and mounted them on the longer PP frame. This was known as the PPK/s. The PP with it's longer grip and magazine holds 7 rounds in the magazine. The short grip PPK holds 6, AND has a 'skeleton' rear frame.

Armitron Pro Sport 44 1001 Manual Transfer. The PPK frame is open on the back side, exposing the mainspring, and there is no back strap. Instead, the PPK uses a wrap-around plastic grip to cover the open frame, and provide a rear grip surface.

The PP has an enclosed steel grip frame that uses slap-type plastic grips, and the PPK/s also has the same frame, along with the longer PP 7 shot magazine. Wealth of Info Thanks for that wealth of info. I'm kinda familiar with that Ulm/Mulhouse area as we lived in Germany for more than a couple of years. One last question, involving the production. Any idea when Walther shifted totally to the Ulm facility?

Since mine was proofed in 75, I am guessing it was assembled about the same time and then went to some Politzei Patorlman that crusied the Autobahn for a number of years before being retired and making its way to U.S. Guess this gets back to the serial number. Walther Serial Numbers I just got a book written by Gene Gangarosa ' The Walther Handgun Story'. Very informative, and some info on Serial numbers. Still, the numbering system is vague even for Manurhin and German made Walters.

It really takes some digging to get even close. It seems to me with all I have heard about German record keeping being way above board, that Walther, which built an excellent firearm, just couldn't get it's numbering system down. Try this web site: Re: Walther Manurhin PP.32 sn# 138XX Year Made?