Manurhin PPK .32 ACP

bluethunder

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I have a post war Manurhin PPK in .32 ACP. It is in excellent condition with the original two magazines and serial number matching box with French manual. The serial number is six digits and starts with 508***. Anyone know the manufacture date range, collectability, value or have any recommendations on where I could find this information.
 
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The various Walther books don't seem to help much, but the accumulated opinions are that Manurhin pistols were the earliest post-war guns made, with parts manufactured in Germany and then shipped over the border to the French factory that assembled them and sold them on. I'd guess somewhere around 1954 for your pistol.

As for value and collectability, the Manurhin pistols seem to fetch less than the Walther marked ones. Some of my favorites are Manurhin PPK .22 pistols, which shoot wonderfully and are 50's guns. They were cheaper to buy than their Walther marked brothers, but no less fun to own.

I'd say your pistol, with box and all, maybe $400. If it was a .380, or .22, $600. .32 is the most common model. I say this, not from manufacturing records or books, but from years of reading, watching and buying. The Manurhin pistols will have pre-war compatible parts in them, such as the squared firing pin and square hole safety.

Some of the early examples in the same serial number range were Dural (Aluminum) framed, which might increase the value slightly. Again, most collectors will stick to the Walther marked guns, the same model of which will typically fetch more, in the same condition with the same accessories. But yours is complete, and should sell for more than a later, incomplete, and slightly used Walther PPK in .32, which people can't seem to sell for $400 lately.

Enjoy it, not a huge dollar value, but it's still the same model Walther PPK that James Bond started with (after they took away his Beretta).
 
For your information, post war Walther were parts all made by Manurhin as Walther did not have a plant but had a contract. So Walther assembled in Germany with parts from Manurhin in Mulhouse. Later on, The PP, PPk, PPK/S were manufactured in Mulhouse and shipped to Walther and were marketed as both Walther and Manurhin on the grips. The Walther were proofed in Germany. BTW, the manufacture of parts and pistols were done with a handshake and no contract was signed. By the late 80s, the tooling wore out and Walther sold the rights to Interarms in the US. These were cast and not forged. They were poor copies. Myself and the US agent bought everything that the plant in France had. I got 350 PPK/S in .380 and the last 10 PP in .380. Schulmann in the US got the last .22 Target PP. I wish I had that one. I have the last two consecutive serial number PP in .380 and are available. I also have one of only 4000 made .380 hard nickel PPK/S. My usual carry in the US is a blue PPK/S in .380 in an inside the belt holster. I am a Canadian in Montreal.
 
I think it was in Virginia, if I remember. The blue was reddish and had 6 pound double action compared to 4 for the Europeans.

I think I found my answer on the Walther forum:

Interarms itself never made or assembled Walther pistols, nor did Walther USA LLC. Manufacture was sub-licensed to a defense contracting firm in Gadsden, Alabama, Mid-South Industries Inc. Among other things they made fuses for cluster bombs for the Air Force, and for the Army rebuilt M16s into M16A2s. Mid-South wore many different corporate hats, including Etowah, Ranger Manufacturing, Black Creek, etc., etc. on whose books the Walther manufacture was internally assigned at various times. It was the same factory.

I had one of these US made guns, a PPK/S in .380 and it was not even close to my post war PPK .32 in quality. It was made by Ranger Manufacturing in Alabama for Interarms.
 
There were NO aluminium Manurhin Walthers made!

Sorry, I have several "Dural" aluminum frame Manurhin Walthers. The serial number range the OP gives, according to Marschall, belongs to an exclusively Dural run, but then Marschall is wrong here and there, as are we all.

They are too deep in the safe, but the Dural / Aluminum Walthers include PPK and PPK/S, mine are mostly .22, since I'm not a fan of the .32 Manurhin marked pistols (only because my wife says I can't get another safe). I had to decide not to be a fan of the .32 Manurhin, not because there's anything wrong with them, but because there's just no room...

Just Google "Manurhin" and "Dural" and marvel at all the nice pictures. Most of the 500,000 series pistol proof marks I found, seem to start in 1955, so I was off by a year or two.
 
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I own a Manuhrin PPK in .32 acp, i was buying a Ruger mark 11 from a fellow living north of Montreal after the transaction he asked me if i had my 12.6, i said yes he then asked if i was interessed in a prohib pistol. I asked what the pistol was and he procedes to show me a blued PPK in .32 acp. It had the brown carboard box,pamplet , factory target and two magazines. It also had a black military or police type holster with the pistol's serial no imbossed. He told me pistol was 100.00$ , i didn't squeeze on the price so he gave me 3 boxes of bullets. Best deal i ever made. Great little handgun.
 
I did not find any Dural as they were made when I was still in diapers. The book that I have on the PP, PPK and PPK/S does not mention the aluminium frames. The Manurhin factory in Mulhouse kept poor records of model types. As a side note, French law prohibits fully assembled handguns to be shipped. So, I had to match the slides to frames for several hundred pistols in my living room!
 
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