I put this up for sale for a little bit. I'm so glad it didn't sale. I can't find a whole lot of information, and the expert on this is no longer with us. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the picture. Manurhin PPK/S 22lr.
That's a beautiful little gun. Glad you kept it! Well, or given it to me!
I can't find hardly anything on the 22's, but I have the computer skills of a drunk monkey and that's insulting the monkeys
Take the following info with a grain of salt as I have not been able verify it to my liking. This combines info from various sources, but what little I can verify from authoritative sources, does seems to match up.
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"The Manurhin marked guns are every bit as good as the German marked guns....because Manurhin MADE the German marked guns."
After WWII the Walther company was not allowed to make guns in Germany. So they contracted production of all Walther firearms to the French Manurhin company who produced them as "Under License to Walther".
In the later 50's, Walther was again allowed to make guns and built a production plant in Ulm Germany. They took back all production except the PP series guns. The quality was so good and the price was right so Walther just had the French build the guns, shipped them across the German border to the Walther plant where they were final finished, proof fired, and stamped "Made in Germany". (In Europe, the country where a gun is final proofed is considered to be the country of manufacture so technically Walther could claim they made them in Germany.) No mention was made about Manurhin, and they were marketed as "German Made".
In the 1970's Walther ended the licensing agreement and sent production to the USA were Interarms was the new licensed maker of the PPK and PPK/s. The gun writers then informed us that they'd known all along the guns they described for years as "Wonderful German quality" had been made in France.
With the agreement ended, Manurhin decided to market the gun in the USA under the Manurhin name. This set off the famous "Walther War" in gun magazines. Walther bought ads stating that only Walther marked guns were the "real" guns. Manurhin responded with ads stating that since THEY had been the actual maker all along, THEY were the real guns. Finally, after a couple of years Walther and Manurhin came to some sort of agreement and Manurhin stopped marketing the guns in the US.
So, the Manurhin made guns were also the Walther marked guns and quality was the same.
Even the box and instruction manual were the same as the Walther marked guns, only the pictures in the owner's manual had the Walther markings airbrushed out and Manurhin markings added in their place.
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Interesting
I have a Walther PP in .22 LR. Perfect trail gun.
You guys know the rules......You MUST post pictures.
