???? Walther LP53

[jkingrph]

If you want to shoot competition, I think you would be better served spending your money elsewhere. As for dry firing, it is a spring air gun, and I do not know if the piston/seal would strike the top of the cylinder if dry firing, so I honestly would not do so.

 

[Steveoo]

I stumbled across this thread because I have an LP53, and since around 10 years ago it has lost enough pressure that pellets can no longer reliably leave the barrel.

Hopefully I can use the information here to revive the pistol, but on top of that, especially input from steveoo, do you think this would be good enough to compete in ISSF 10M air pistol at a local level? I used to compete back in uni and I wonder if a modded LP53 can do well enough that I can hold off on buying a top level pistol for a couple of years. Will it last going through a couple hundred pelelts a week?

Last question is if anyone has figured out if there is a way to do dry fire training with this pistol. If I manage to get the discipline in I plan to mix training strings a few times a week and daily dry fire.

Never ever dry fire this pistol. It will destroy the leather seal, but more importantly may crack the sear groove flange at the front of the piston.
A rare accidental dry fire will be ok but repeated dry firing will cause damage...
It sounds like a re-seal is in order.
Sadly it's not a match pistol for serious competition use but arguably the most accurate recoiling springer pistol.
I usually edge out the groups made with Webley Tempests and HW45s.

 

[Turbobrick]

That might change the order of things somewhat but I do plan to revive this pistol eventually. Is the leather seal something easy to make or does it need a specific type of leather?

 

[jkingrph]

Never ever dry fire this pistol. It will destroy the leather seal, but more importantly may crack the sear groove flange at the front of the piston.
A rare accidental dry fire will be ok but repeated dry firing will cause damage...
It sounds like a re-seal is in order.
Sadly it's not a match pistol for serious competition use but arguably the most accurate recoiling springer pistol.
I usually edge out the groups made with Webley Tempests and HW45s.

I have a couple of Feinwerkbau Model 65 pistols, that I bought used and had restored a couple of years ago. When new they came with a removable tab that turns them from a recoiless to a recoiling pistol. Sadly the tabs and attaching screws are hard if not impossible to find. I just wonder how one of thes e would compare to the LP53, since I do not have the tabs I cannot compare, but have been thinking about making one.

 

[Steveoo]

I tried the sledge locked on the 65 several times. It prevents the sled sliding on the rails making it behave as any other barrel in front of piston pistol and I outshot it with my 53 but then again it's a tuned special.
Unlocked the 65 outshoots any 53 no matter how much you tune it...