???? Walther LP53

Not sure but I don’t think so because I’ve been looking around for Vintage spring pistols for quite a while and haven’t come across any Like this one.

Hardly any....and v expensive...

Despite a small stroke, they have better cc than a Webley pistol because the piston diameter is larger. (23mm dia x 47mm stroke versus 20mm x 60mm stroke...Thats 18 cc for the Webley Tempest/ Premier variants versus 20 cc for the Walther but also a much shorter TP, without a 90 degree bend meaning there is so much more wrapped up in them. Hair 2 stage trigger of approx 1lb pull, nice lock up and the one piece trigger guard/ cocking mechanism the finest piece of engineering i have encountered on a pistol...

This one does 520 Fps with most 8 grain pellets.

My rat buster special.

6 sold on eBag in the last 3 months. eBaggers pay too much. Everybody spent their China virus welfare check on "wants" this year. They're not really rare. Several variants. I've had one 25 years. eBag brought everything thought to be scarce out of the weeds. Even the Polish copy Predom is fairly common. Steveoo's gun looks cool.

This looks interesting perhaps. I don't prefer a scope on a pistol myself



https://www.ebay.com/itm/Zielfernrohr-Lauf-Montage-Vorrichtung-fur-Predom-Lucznik-auch-LP53/113720166232?hash=item1a7a400758:g:56IAAOSwofdbYgnP

The LP 53 is a pretty "standard" item you'd see in many vintage airgun collections. Not that you're likely to see one at the garage sale down the street or anything, but they aren't exotically rare at the level of, say, a Sheridan model A rifle or Westley-Richards "Highest Possible" pistol.

That being said - the pistol in the OP's photo IS a very desirable sub-variant. Most LP 53's have black grips, and a "crinkle" finish to the receiver. Only early production guns have brown grips and a smooth-finish receiver like that one, which is also boxed in what appears to be excellent condition. 

As with any vintage airgun, the value will be enhanced by original accessories. The LP 53 came boxed with an instruction manual, 3 (?) rear sight blades, a barrel-cleaning brush, and the wood cocking knob. There was also a barrel weight available, with which the gun was considered a top-flight match pistol in its day.

As an aside, the Polish Lucznik - a military trainer which looks like an LP 53 on the exterior but has significant internal differences - is IMHO quite interesting in its own right. They are massive all-steel pistols (the Walther is largely high-quality alloy castings), covered in government arsenal proof marks...

As vintage-collectable German air pistols go, I don't consider LP53s particularly rare. I do consider them interesting; after all, they are vintage Walthers!

In my opinion the LP53s are the most difficult pistols on Earth to shoot well. However Steveoo seems to have mastered them, and achieved accuracy and power I never dreamed possible with LP53s. 

I consider myself marginally behind Len as having the most experience of the LP53 but probably number one in regard tuning it.

It was my research and meddling that resulted in John Milewski article in Airgun World, which annoyingly (for me) detailed his engineers work on improving a 53s power. I gave him all the numbers and his engineer producing a very bad copy of my work. Errors were made in his work but it had some semblance of what I had developed, producing 455 FPS. The article was poor, avoiding any accuracy testing, or pellet testing.

His kit was far too tight, following air rifle trends of the time, in the tightness of the guide and the kits spring was poorly wound. The tightness of the guides did not fully release the springs energy and did not release the torque. The advice for the TP reduction was omitted and a wonderful opportunity missed which completely transforms the gun. 

The LP53 is moderately rare...I had 2 examples but chose to turn the gun into what I wanted, a better looking, shorter K version, following the lines of 50s match .22 pistols and caring less what the collector purists think of me doing so. I found the guns and paid for them. I am not a collector, i just liked the look and how they handled.

Chucking out the duel spring set, replacing with a HW30 spring, and guiding it correctly releases all the torque. My pod literally spins on the original guide, resulting in no felt torque if it is done correctly. Reducing the TP dia from 4mm to 3mm reduces the slam and peaks the velocity. A special seal i later developed (pics to follow) give a cushion to the shot cycle, making it virtually recoiless with the right pellet. If it had been done right, the article should have shown the gun producing in excess of 500 fps with virtually no felt recoil and zero torque, but the kit was crud and the article not much better.

The groups i have supplied on here are only average of what you might manage but I have produced occasional groups cutting these in half.

The stock seal utilised a rubber buffer washer ahead of the leather seal, which was presumably chosen to reduce recoil, but it reduced the volume of the column of air in front of the seal. If we place the buffer washer inside the seal, like mine above, we get the same buffering, but no lost volume.

This adds approx 30 to 40 fps due to the extra 2mm in stroke.

. 

The HW30 mainspring is infinitely preferable to the self wound disaster used in the Milewski AGW article and the Delrin guides here are of a nice slip fit. We really do not want rammed in tight guides with pistols that only have a small pre load. This kit realises much more velocity.

The 53 has a short stroke of 47mm but its is 23mm in dia, bigger than the 22mm of even the HW45 and the 20mm of the Tempest and the TP is directly in line with the bore, unlike the 90 degree bend of the barrel over cylinder models. The TP is also very short in length.

Finally, all pistols really need a sighting aid, as the opens are restricted by short sight base. Going to a sighting system such as a 2 MOA red dot gives infinite sight base and additional weighting helps damp the gun further. 

Open sighting purists are fine...i hear you...but expect moderate performance...

Very casually shot off hand but have produced smaller groups with more deliberate shooting.

Any ideas on how to remove the endcap of the LP53 without buggering it up? Mine is going on 60 years old and the cap is unmovable.

Set gun in vertical position, butt to top...squirt some LPS into space between cap and Tube, tap on top of cap for a couple minutes, should loosen up unless threads are frozen up....

chuck

Yes this is normal as many have not been opened and will have years of dried out grease crud in the threads.

Stand the gun on its base cap and squirt Plus Gas around the top of the cap, getting down at the threads...leave 24 hrs and it will open for fun.

Thereafter wipe the threads inside the cape with a cloth soaked in a light mineral oil and the problem will only occur that first time.

Thanks, I assume LPS and Plus Gas are a brands of penetrating oil. 

yes....strictly do not short cut the product though. WD40 etc can make matters worse...do what I tell you and will be fine.

Steveoo, Do you have any experience with the Predom Lucznic pistol? They look like the Walther LP53, but are your modifications applicable to the Predom? Thanks.

Roboslug

Yes, a similar performance can be had provided you switch the delrin Top hat guide for one of Steel and half again as big. Basically its piston drastically lacks weight and the mod will result in piston bounce without the weighting mentioned and will not achieve the same power.

Once set up correctly, it does better with a slightly heavier pellet than the LP53 …an 8.4 grain JSB.

So looking at my powerplant design above. That black delrin top hat wants replacing with one of steel, and the length in the spring should be 1/2 inch longer, removing 1/2inch from the guide rod end to accommodate it. The flange dia and thickness can stay the same.

I learned to shoot with one of those way back in 1973 when I was 15. My father had me shooting out flames of candles after awhile, wish I still had it.