Tiger 2 Tank
Senior Member
Late war April 1945 Walther factory pick up
Hello,
Found another late 1945 PP. This one is one of the mismatches that was either put together right before the U.S. Army rolled into Zella-Mehlis or right after. Research has found that many of the mismatched pistols were already assembled BEFORE the Americans came into the city. This one is getting pretty late as the frame is a 39XXXX serial number; the last of them. This one has a lot of different things that isn’t normal with PP’s which I will share. I’ve seen and collected many of these late ac PP’s. I have seen many with handmade, polished or modified parts with these. This is one of them. I included another late ac PP for some comparisons. Some of the oddities will be pretty quick to notice where others won’t be.
The magazine bottom is the quickest thing noticed. The mag is a late W (unhardened) PP wartime blued mag. It has a Walther Olympia mag bottom installed. It oddly fits perfectly since it was made for a .22 magazine. It actually makes gripping the pistol a lot better too.
Here is a 1936 Olympia with the same type of mag bottom:
The Olympia is not mine and is on gunbroker for sale. That photo is from seller “HI*LLC”. I’m sorry, but I don’t know the seller’s name so that I could give full credit for his photo.
Next, the pistol was installed with what I believe is a Walther Olympia high polish extractor. Or, it could be an early PP .22 high polish extractor. Not sure which it is from:
I have no idea how the pistol cycles with this installed, but it seems that whoever put this pistol together raided the Olympia/PP .22 section of the factory for parts.
The recoil spring is also different but fits well on the pistol. I don’t know if it is actually for a .32 caliber PP or a .22 caliber PP or what. This recoil spring is a little longer than a normal PP recoil spring. I have two late ac PP’s with this type of recoil spring now. It makes pulling the slide back a lot lighter:
Next up, the trigger bar has been polished. I have seen different late ac PP’s with this going on as well. I have no idea why they felt the need to polish this part, but they did. Most are a combination of either being blued or phosphate gray. This one was blued until it got polished down:
The grips are the typical rejected warped/cracked weighted type found on these. The original ones on this pistol were replaced with a little bit nicer set. But these are also the warped/cracked type that are seen on these, so I installed them on this pistol.
Sometimes different pins get swapped around in these pistols. Under the grips, the pin holding the hammer spring/hammer strut and hammer spring plastic base to the gun is actually a trigger pivot pin. Sometimes, I have seen smaller pins holding the trigger guard to the frame. As long as it fit, I don’t think they cared. I didn’t want to take the grips off to show the pin differences, but it’s there.
This one had been fired quite a bit due to all the carbon crud I cleaned out of it. So, it must have fired okay with all these parts that aren’t meant for this gun. These late ac PP’s are interesting and addictive. They seemed to have multiplied in my collection. I am awaiting a nice late ac PP mismatch with capture papers. So, that will be a nice addition to the collection.
Hello,
Found another late 1945 PP. This one is one of the mismatches that was either put together right before the U.S. Army rolled into Zella-Mehlis or right after. Research has found that many of the mismatched pistols were already assembled BEFORE the Americans came into the city. This one is getting pretty late as the frame is a 39XXXX serial number; the last of them. This one has a lot of different things that isn’t normal with PP’s which I will share. I’ve seen and collected many of these late ac PP’s. I have seen many with handmade, polished or modified parts with these. This is one of them. I included another late ac PP for some comparisons. Some of the oddities will be pretty quick to notice where others won’t be.
The magazine bottom is the quickest thing noticed. The mag is a late W (unhardened) PP wartime blued mag. It has a Walther Olympia mag bottom installed. It oddly fits perfectly since it was made for a .22 magazine. It actually makes gripping the pistol a lot better too.
Here is a 1936 Olympia with the same type of mag bottom:
The Olympia is not mine and is on gunbroker for sale. That photo is from seller “HI*LLC”. I’m sorry, but I don’t know the seller’s name so that I could give full credit for his photo.
Next, the pistol was installed with what I believe is a Walther Olympia high polish extractor. Or, it could be an early PP .22 high polish extractor. Not sure which it is from:
I have no idea how the pistol cycles with this installed, but it seems that whoever put this pistol together raided the Olympia/PP .22 section of the factory for parts.
The recoil spring is also different but fits well on the pistol. I don’t know if it is actually for a .32 caliber PP or a .22 caliber PP or what. This recoil spring is a little longer than a normal PP recoil spring. I have two late ac PP’s with this type of recoil spring now. It makes pulling the slide back a lot lighter:
Next up, the trigger bar has been polished. I have seen different late ac PP’s with this going on as well. I have no idea why they felt the need to polish this part, but they did. Most are a combination of either being blued or phosphate gray. This one was blued until it got polished down:
The grips are the typical rejected warped/cracked weighted type found on these. The original ones on this pistol were replaced with a little bit nicer set. But these are also the warped/cracked type that are seen on these, so I installed them on this pistol.
Sometimes different pins get swapped around in these pistols. Under the grips, the pin holding the hammer spring/hammer strut and hammer spring plastic base to the gun is actually a trigger pivot pin. Sometimes, I have seen smaller pins holding the trigger guard to the frame. As long as it fit, I don’t think they cared. I didn’t want to take the grips off to show the pin differences, but it’s there.
This one had been fired quite a bit due to all the carbon crud I cleaned out of it. So, it must have fired okay with all these parts that aren’t meant for this gun. These late ac PP’s are interesting and addictive. They seemed to have multiplied in my collection. I am awaiting a nice late ac PP mismatch with capture papers. So, that will be a nice addition to the collection.
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