Please help to identify my PPK..

Dmitri

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I just bought this Walther PPK, rebarreled to restricted length. i would like to find out what year it was made, but when i searched the serial numbers.. i couldnt find anything. The serial on my gun is 147### only 6 digits without any letters.(last 3 digits on the pictures are smudged in photobucket), also that is the only place on the frame that has a serial number, at least from what i found. There are 3 "nazi eagle" marks in different places (circled green)
Here are the pictures...

STOCKFINAL011-1.jpg

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Any ideas..???

Ok, i couldn't hold my self... here are more pics...:) Fake Can... :)
STOCKFINAL007.jpg

STOCKFINAL006.jpg

STOCKFINAL002.jpg

STOCKFINAL005.jpg


And for size comparison.
STOCKFINAL008.jpg

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STOCKFINAL011.jpg


Enjoy.. :)
 
The German Eagle vs. Nazi Eagle are sometimes hard to tell apart but, depending on when it was made, most PP and PPK pistols have a marking on the barrel shroud that you can see through the ejection port, with a symbol and two numbers. The numbers (eg. "65") represent the year the gun was made.

Your slide is marked ULM, so made post-war. A large number of post-war Walthers are made in France by Manurhin and simply marked with all the German markings. In Europe, where the pistol is "proofed" (those eagle stamps) is where it is "made". Don't worry, the Manurhin PPKs are very nice, as yours is, and work excellently well. According to Dieter Marschall's book Walther Pistols, From 1954 to 1985 all PPKs from serial 100,000 to 329,000-some were Manurhin made and Walther proofed. This fits with what other people say too. At some point they started finishing the pistols in Germany (Ulm is very close to the Manurhin factory) and eventually took over complete fabrication in the later 80's.

If all the eagles are the same (frame and slide) and there is no marking of year manufacture on the barrel shroud, then you have an early (50's) pistol. No serial number on the slide means it was never in military or police service, since it seems those agencies all insisted on every part, including the magazine, being stamped with the pistol's serial number.

7.65mm caliber marking means it was, like most PPK pistols, a .32 when it started out. To convert it from prohibited (caliber and barrel length) to restricted (longer barrel and new caliber) it was obviously rebarreled with some additional work done (headspace opened a bit and probably the slide's barrel port opened up a bit to accept the thicker .380 barrel). The ejector also needed to be ground down, or changed out, to let the bigger .380 go by. That's the part that sits to the left of the magazine well (looking down with the pistol pointed away from you) and also serves to lock back the slide on empty.

The pre-war and wartime .380 PPK used bottom magazine releases, since the recoil would jolt the magazine loose. If that happens to you, you can get a stronger magazine release spring, or there may already be one. For some reason, Walther PPs and PPKs recoil much more than most .380s. There's a guy on watherforums.com doing a study as to why.

The magazines for post-war PP and PPK in .380 are ribbed on the left side, where a small extra magazine follower part contacts the ejector / slide stop. If your magazines aren't ribbed, the ejector has been hand fitted to allow the .380 bullets by, but to still contact the magazine follower on empty and lock open the slide. That means, if it ever breaks, the replacement needs to be fitted again. Not a big deal, but careful work. Also, don't buy modern "380" magazines for this pistol, since they won't fit. You need the .32 magazines, which, again, hold .380 just fine.

So 50's gun, commercial, in nice condition. It looks like you have the original wrap-around 50's grips, before they split them at the back. Zehr Kool, ja!
 
I have a question about these guns... I'm a little confused about the change from prohibited to restricted.
If someone has one of these completely original, is it prohibited ?

The reason I ask is because I know a guy that was given a PPK 7.65mm, by his grandfather. It was brought back from the war by a family friend that served. The gun is mint, has the "Eagle/C" markings (issued to german police officers), and the serial number is from 1939. My friend is working on getting his restricted firearms course so he will be able to keep it. Will it be legal, or is it prohibited ?....I know nothing about this stuff.
 
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It's a prohib. Looks like it is a pre 46 gun, so your friend can inherit it under the 12 (7) rules, once he has his RPAL. - dan
His grandfather is gone now, his Grandmother was the one that gave it to him.....would that matter ?
I know what he's like...family belongings are very important to him. He has all sorts of things that relatives have given him. If there's a chance he will lose it, he will hide it away and it will remain a hidden gem until the day they put him in the ground.
According to all the info I can find on it, I'd say the gun could go back to just being an old family story, like it has been for years. It wasn't left in a will, his grandfather passed away years ago, and the gun was brought back from the war in a duffel bag and was kept hidden in the house since the 40's. It's not registered, and I also know that there's no way he would ever take it to a gunsmith and have it made inoperable, so I would say it's something the RCMP would just love to snatch up quicker than you can blink an eye. Not a chance in hell that he is going to risk losing it by trying to do things the right way, and keep it legally... and I can't say I blame him.
 
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I know a guy that was given a PPK 7.65mm, by his grandfather. It was brought back from the war by a family friend that served. The gun is mint, has the "Eagle/C" markings (issued to german police officers), and the serial number is from 1939. My friend is working on getting his restricted firearms course so he will be able to keep it. Will it be legal, or is it prohibited ?....I know nothing about this stuff.

The PPK in original configuration is Prohibited by barrel length (and sometimes calibre). Prohibited hand-guns [12(6)] can only be passed on if they date prior to 1946 (World War II and earlier), and by direct family only (parent, grand-parent, spouse, or sibling); death is not necessary to thus convert them to an inherited war relic [12(7)].

This story sounds a little convoluted. Was the gun ever registered? Is proof of such registration handy? I ask because it appears he has already acquired this gun through back channels (‘Oh here's grandpa's gun, he would have wanted you to have it’). If it was registered to grandpa or grandma or similar, even if their licence had expired or the old paper registration (green slips) was never up-dated into the current computer Registry, it can eventually be brought back into the system. Oh, there will be hoops to jump through, and the RCMP will want to keep and fondle the gun until it's all straightened out.

If it was registered to the family friend only, there is no path to inheritance and 12(7) status for his RPAL. There is a slight possibility that it could be handled through the estate of the last registered owner, then transferred (sold) to someone within the family who has 12(6) endorsement, and ultimately passed to the younger fellow who wishes to hold it as 12(7).

If it was never registered, it is very likely that it ends there. Without such paper-work in place, no gun-smith will even work on it to convert it into a non-Prohibited long barrel as above, or de-activate it into a non-gun which requires no licence. It cannot be owned, held, or transported; it may have to remain under the floor-boards. The law would like to see it put into a smelter.
 
The PPK in original configuration is Prohibited by barrel length (and sometimes calibre). Prohibited hand-guns [12(6)] can only be passed on if they date prior to 1946 (World War II and earlier), and by direct family only (parent, grand-parent, spouse, or sibling); death is not necessary to thus convert them to an inherited war relic [12(7)].

This story sounds a little convoluted. Was the gun ever registered? Is proof of such registration handy? I ask because it appears he has already acquired this gun through back channels (‘Oh here's grandpa's gun, he would have wanted you to have it’). If it was registered to grandpa or grandma or similar, even if their licence had expired or the old paper registration (green slips) was never up-dated into the current computer Registry, it can eventually be brought back into the system. Oh, there will be hoops to jump through, and the RCMP will want to keep and fondle the gun until it's all straightened out.

If it was registered to the family friend only, there is no path to inheritance and 12(7) status for his RPAL. There is a slight possibility that it could be handled through the estate of the last registered owner, then transferred (sold) to someone within the family who has 12(6) endorsement, and ultimately passed to the younger fellow who wishes to hold it as 12(7).

If it was never registered, it is very likely that it ends there. Without such paper-work in place, no gun-smith will even work on it to convert it into a non-Prohibited long barrel as above, or de-activate it into a non-gun which requires no licence. It cannot be owned, held, or transported; it may have to remain under the floor-boards. The law would like to see it put into a smelter.

I don't know if it was ever registered. I will pass along what info you guys have given me, for which I thank you very much, and he can do what he feels fit from there.
 
The OP's pistol looks like one of the police turn in guns that came over in the mid-late 80's. You could get one in the box with spare mag for $150 (I had one as my first 'registered to me ' gun when I got my FAC at 19) Strangely enough, the world didn't end and no one died when one of these deadly weapons was owned by a 19 year old from Surrey. Very cool conversion with the fake can - nice!
 
Good information from "dan belisle" and "gunzik". I would amend just a bit. Pre-war and wartime PPKs used the button magazine release. "gunzik" is quite right about the meaning of the Ulm-Donau marking. I can't see the same detail that he can, but I agree with what he wrote about the work necessary to convert the gun from 7.65mm caliber to 9mmK. It looks to me like an early post-war gun, so a manufacturing date in the 1950s sounds about right. Nice acquisition.
 
You got a post war PPK.
Just check the adress, which is Ulm/Do, instaed of Zella-Mehlis.

The Nazi eagle you refer to is in actuality the "Bundesadler", symbol of the Federal Repuplic of Germany.
 
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