Any Walther LP53 fans?

[jaykb49]

Airguns of Arizona has about five LP53’s in their pre-owned section. Looks like they’re reasonably priced. (Note one comes without a rear sight.) I don’t have any commercial relationship with them except spending too much of my money there. I did buy an LP3 from them yesterday. If there’s interest, I’ll make a post about it when I get it.

Jay

 

[jaykb49]

A bit more background... The Walther LP53 is a break barrel springer made from 1952-1983. The engineering is pretty interesting in that the receiver, piston, spring, et al is contained in the handle under the grips. They're pretty small and light and fun to shoot. As you can imagine with the works the the grip, the piston moving up as the pistol is fired makes for some interesting recoil. Nonetheless one can shoot them reasonably well with practice. The relatively short barrel makes cocking effort high so a hardwood cocking aid is supplied to fit over the front sight so you don't hurt your hand. They're shooting well if you get 400 fps with a 7 gr pellet.

Here is a picture of my first LP53 which I dearly regret selling:

This was an older gun with the smooth blued finish. The later guns had a black crinkle enamel finish. This gun was pretty complete having the fitted case, wooden cocking block, 2 extra front sight inserts, only one of the two rear sight inserts, and a brass rod to clear a jammed pellet. An extra would be a front barrel weight. Recently I found a later pistol in excellent condition. It had the later cardboard box but all the extras were there including the barrel weight. It has the black crinkle finish which isn't as nice in my opinion but it is a very sweet pistol.

Most air gunners probably know this factoid but I'll repeat it incase you don't. When they where shooting the still posters for a James Bond film in the early sixties Sean Connery showed up for the photos but no one remembered to bring the prop gun. Fortunately the photographer was an avid air gunner, went to the trunk (boot) of his car and fetched his Walther LP53. The posters were shot with Sean Connery holding the air pistol.

 

[Steveoo]

Loved the look of the gun so much that I did this modified special as a handy vermin control pistol.

Barrel was shortened to match the lines of the .22 Walther target pistol and Jaegar .22 

I then rebuilt the internals to return 520fps and half the group size. It actually outshoots a FWB 65 and HW45 in my hands.

 

[jaykb49]

Steveoo, that is amazing and it's really a beauty. Any hints about how you got the extra speed out of it?

Jay

 

[Roboslug]

Jay, yes I'm very interested in the LP53. I just bought the distant cousin, the Predom Lucznik at AoA. It's in great shape, but I'm curious how Steveoo improves performance of the LP53. Pretty sure the mods carry over to the PL. 

 

[tinker]

Jay, I would like to see some further posts on the LP3.

Thanks for posting the pictures of the LP53s. I was tempted by the cheapest one at AoA last night - well, because it was the cheapest and it had the smooth finish. I was able to delay long enough that someone else bought it. I suppose one should be enough. I should just get mine out and practice with it.

Steveoo has kindly shared many tips. Here is one such discussion: Walther LP53 Tune - Airgun Nation

Phil

 

[jaykb49]

Thanks for that link, Phil and thanks to Steveoo for that amazing writeup.

Jay

 

[Steveoo]

Jay, the biggest surprise to me was finding power already wrapped up in the gun, but many assume the internals being inside the grip must be too small to bother with tuning.

The piston is a very short design within the chamber, but it means you can have 2” of stroke which is quite respectful and the diameter of the piston exceeds that of the HW45…This equates to a volume which not only exceeds that of the Webley Tempest, but has an in line Transfer port of barely more than 3/8” which must be quite efficient, compared to having to pass through a 90 degree bend for barrel over cylinder guns

So i knew it had to be more powerful than the 420 fps i was getting.

To improve the power and accuracy, you need to chuck out the duel spring set, as the inner spring behaves as the worst inner guide rod of all time. Utilising a HW30 single spring, with a correctly fitted Delrin guide and top hat. This allows free movement of the spring.

I then sized the TP down to 3mm with a stainless steel tube to increase pressure and reduce slam. We now get zero vibration and no slam, but more importantly at 500 fps+ the pellets are leaving the barrel before the recoil takes place. Finally choosing fast start pellets, such as AA express and its difficult to beat.

I did receive some criticism for modding a classic, one shooter commenting it is sacralidge to alter rare pieces from the world, but my take is that it is my gun and nobody else's and will never be sold on….I have also improved the gun no end.

 

[Osprey]

Airguns of Arizona has offered several LP 53’s over the past few days. They are not as overpriced as they are on eBay, either. I hesitated on the LP3 that someone above, snagged. But, I did get an LP53 with an original barrel weight.

 

[holo07]

Thanks for the heads up jaykb49 I picked up a LP53 and the HW 45 Silver Star they had listed.

 

[jaykb49]

That’s great! I’ve rarely seen LP53’s at reasonable prices as they were at AOA and I doubt if there are many people who have been disappointed with the purchase of an HW45.

BTW, AOA is at it again. There are several LP3’s for sale and a bunch of Webleys. It sure would be interesting to have seen this collection together before it was sold off.

Jay

 

[holo07]

Here is mine AOA I am very happy with both of my purchase I think they treated me fair considering what the Walther are selling for on the Bay. My Walther is not marked made in Germany. Were they made in different countries?

 

[Steveoo]

They were only manufactured in the original Walther factory in Germany, but the alloy section left polished and not crackle finished was hit with stamping which is often a bit hit and miss, sometimes the stamping straying into the crackle finish area, sometimes perfect and deep, sometimes barely imprinting and sometimes not detectable.