Airguns

The Falcon · Post by **The Falcon** » Thu Apr 17, 2003 7:51 am

Vagrant,

I feel your confusion. You don't know which of the WWII losers made it. But fortunately it wasn't thrown together by the C.H. Ina Co.

Vagrant · Post by **Vagrant** » Thu Apr 17, 2003 4:42 pm

LOL
I wonder if some Vietnamese is on a forum lumping us and the French togeather as "losers"? That would be typical of the commies, [we should have nuked 'em].

Fritz · Post by **Fritz** » Thu Apr 17, 2003 8:53 pm

Vagrant wrote:I got the PPK/S back today, It reads Carl Walther/Germany for Crosman
on one side of the slide. The other side has a safety warning and behind the trigger Made in Japan. The box also reads Made in Japan [or as a friend used to say "made by the J.A. Pan company". The Crosman address is on the box but printed on a piece of tape that is taped over something else. Attempts to remove the tape reveal Walther Ulm and that's it because the tape removes anything else beneath it. Umarex does not appear anywhere. Now I'm more curious as to what DO I have? It sounds just like the Umarex I read the reviews on, but I thought they were made in Germany and this is clearly not made there. Walther is "all over" the box and gun. Crosman apears to have been stamped [or rolled]
onto the gun at the same time and in the same print as Walther but was printed on a taped on sticker on the box. Is this a "different" PPK/S? When it comes to weird the best one I have is some of the rare "Craftsman" wrenches that were made in Japan and discontinued quickly when Sears recieved massive protests from irrate customers. I kept mine because they worked fine and I figured someday might be worth something. [I've already won a few wagers on these].

The year was 1995. A friend called to ask me if I would like to go on a shopping trip. “Sure,” I replied. It was already late November and I had yet to start my X-mas shopping. My friend was willing to drive 35 miles, to an all-inclusive shopping area. “Great,” I thought – I would hitch a ride with my friend, have some lunch, and do all my shopping in one shot (pun intended). After a long afternoon of shopping, we made our final stop in the camping/outdoors shop. My friend wanted to pick up some clearance camping equipment. “Would you like to wait in the car?” my friend asked. “No” I replied, “I will have a look around” (curiosity and cats

). Not in the market for any camping equipment, I immediately made a beeline for the gun counter. About 25% of the gun counter was devoted to one of favorite pass-time obsessions; airguns. It was then that I noticed the Walther CP-88 pellet pistol, sitting in the display case. It looked great, I thought – Walther hadn’t made an air-pistol in many years. Subsequent to WWII, the German’s were not allowed to manufacture firearms, so the emphasis temporarily shifted to the luftpistol. Early James Bond movie posters actually show Bond (Sean Connery) posing with a Walther LP-53 luftpistol. I asked the clerk to allow me to inspect the CP-88 – a near exact replica of the famous P-88 pistol. The weight was just right; the nickel finish was essentially perfect. It came complete with a molded carry-case, 2 CO2 cartridges, some Walther pellets, and a cleaning rod. “I’ll take it” I exclaimed, without further consideration.

The entire trip home, all I could think about was my new toy. I would first take some target shots, until I aligned the sights perfectly. I would then spend the remainder of the afternoon taking out soup-cans, silhouette shooting, etc. Upon my arrival, the first thing that I did was crack out my .22 rim-fire trap and 33’ NRA pistol target. I charged up the new pistol, waited for the gas to settle, then loaded one of the two provided rotary-clips. I decided to fire my first shot in double action – I was curious as to whether or not the new pistol would benefit from a professional trigger job. I took a breath, let half out, and began to squeeze the trigger. It seemed to go on forever, and actually surprised me when it finally fired. I decided then, that I would be using the pistol in single-action mode from now on. I walked over to examine the target. I had missed the bulls-eye considerably, but this was to be expected. I planned on taking several shots to determine sight correction. Before returning to my firing position, I noticed the one pellet in the trap (I empty it after every session) – to my utter disgust, it was pretty much intact. That pellet that struck my iron trap should have been flat as a piece of tin-foil, but was sitting there with minimal contortion. I checked the gun for a leak – there was none. I checked the manual for the power adjustment screw – again, no luck. I took a few more shots – all the same. I checked the receipt – “no refunds on ….. airguns”. I discharged the pistol, put it back in its case, and forgot about it. Two years later, I would auction it off on ebay (before they became “politically correct”). I was very happy to have gotten most of my $200 back, despite the fact that the retail price had begun to drop, as airgun enthusiasts began to blast the Umarex look-alikes. Prior to this, I had never even heard of Umarex. All of the accompanying literature bore the Walther logo.

It turns out that Umarex is a German company, but must also have a factory in Japan, based on your guns “Japan” label. I found the entire Umarex/Walther line on the new Crosman website here. http://www.crosman.com/Walther
There are a few variations of the PPK, as well. People who bought the Umarex/Colt pistols report similar performance. So far, their S&W revolver line is their best product. It is a shame also, because S&W used to make their own, high-quality airguns. I own a mint condition S&W 78 target pistol that they made in 1975. S&W made the pistol, but actually put Walther barrels in them. A fellow airgunner, that also owns a 78, used this gun in competition against the modern, high-priced, target pistols, and won! When S&W discontinued their airgun line, Daisy bought the rights to the S&W 78. It isn’t nearly as good, but the Daisy version is still a highly sought collectors item.

-Fritz

The Falcon · Post by **The Falcon** » Fri Apr 18, 2003 2:06 am

Vagrant,

We didn't lose the Viet Nam War. We got the silver medal for finishing second.

The Falcon

Vagrant · Post by **Vagrant** » Fri Apr 18, 2003 4:29 am

Falcon,
We didn't lose it our leftist politicians did.

Vagrant · Post by **Vagrant** » Fri Apr 18, 2003 4:49 am

Fritz,
I think know some Walther barrels are made by Lothar Walther not Karl Walther. Not the same but still outstanding, in fact they are becoming a hot item in some areas.

The Falcon · Post by **The Falcon** » Fri Apr 18, 2003 4:58 am

Fujimoto Walther?

Vagrant · Post by **Vagrant** » Fri Apr 18, 2003 5:12 am

THAT'S probably next but it will be a few more years.

Fritz · Post by **Fritz** » Fri Apr 18, 2003 1:47 pm

Vagrant wrote:Fritz,
I think know some Walther barrels are made by Lothar Walther not Karl Walther. Not the same but still outstanding, in fact they are becoming a hot item in some areas.

Are Lothar and Karl related? I am reminded of all the Beltrames.

Vagrant · Post by **Vagrant** » Fri Apr 18, 2003 4:32 pm

No relation I know of but Lothar Walther has been doing such a great job that some companies that used to put the "Lothar" in fine print, now put it in very large print.

Fritz · Post by **Fritz** » Sat Apr 19, 2003 6:37 am

I wonder what they will do when Fujimoto Walther makes his debut

Vagrant · Post by **Vagrant** » Sat Apr 19, 2003 7:16 am

Karl and Lothar will be VERY upset.

Fritz · Post by **Fritz** » Tue Apr 22, 2003 9:18 am

Airguns are tools of the Devil

http://www.airguns.net/history.html