help ID'ing a PPK?

S

sandy eggo

Inactive
It's just my year for older guns, I guess. I just posted looking for info on my grandfather's gun over in the Revolver Forum, and now here I am looking for info on another gun presumably from the same era.

Our neighbor inherited a gun from her grandfather (US Army). Her family's story is that he was a tank driver in Patton's division (weren't they all?) and brought it back from WW2 at the end of or shortly thereafter.

It's marked with the Walther banner, and

Waffenfabrik Walther, Zella-Mehlis (Thur)
Walther's Patent Cal 7,65 m/m
Mod PPK

serial is 231XXX K

I tried to look this up at the Walther web site a few years ago and came up with a late 1930's date range, but I'm pretty sure I didn't get the model right.

Thanks for any assistance!
 
That serial number dates to 1939; the "K" indicates a PPK. Those pre-WWII pistols were beautifully made and really nice guns. In order to determine a value, we would need good pictures to determine the condition. There are also some other markings that could increase the value beyond that of an ordinary PPK.

Jim
 
It's in beautiful shape, and there are two original magazines and what seems to be the original leather flapped holster. The bluing? seems near perfect, no holster wear even. It could probably *almost* pass for "new old stock" :-)

I'm pretty sure she isn't interested in selling, just wanted to know if the family legend could be true. I'll probably recommend that she have it appraised for insurance purposes, if nothing else.

Thanks!
 
I cannot say that the family legend is true, only that there is no reason disbelieve it. The PPK was a common pistol with German security forces, ordinary police detectives (the "K" stands for "Kriminal", the German word for detective); and the many other officials authorized to carry guns in the Third Reich. It was not normal issue with the armed forces, but many high ranking officers carried them as personal weapons.

Jim
 
Based on little differences, that gun could go from "nice gun, that's worth some money" to "dude! That's one of the holy grails...."

Need some pictures.
 
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