Well, I returned from the range. I took my 17 year old daughter for the first time and she loved it.
We went through 150 rounds of .22lr in this pistol and she has a good eye and didn't really want to leave, even after 3 hours. I let her try my .45 and .380, too. Quite a difference from the .22!
I just cleaned this gun and took it apart as far as I felt would be necessary. I found one more mark inside the slide but it was just a 4 digit number. The gun is very well made: too well made for an old "knockoff". I'm very familiar with tools from 25 years ago, and the oriental tools were very poor compared to European or US made. Also, the range officers at S&W observed that this gun looks like it had been "restored" and, in their opinion, it looks precisely how an older gun would look if professionally refurbished. The grips, by the way, have perfect checkering: not machine made but hand cut. Anyway, there weren't any obvious, tell tale signs of anything except a quality pistol. I'm hoping that someone reading this long thread will be able to point me in the right direction to be able to make a final determination. All that being said, if this IS an authentic Walther, is it a desirable pistol to own? And if it's in good shape, what would it be worth? Is it really worth all this fuss? It shoots really well and my daughter fell in love with it. I'll buy it for her but am just trying to authenticate is here with all you experts.
Thanks, again.
Rome