Thread: .22 lr pistols
View Single Post
Old December 5, 2011, 12:43 PM   #27
carguychris
Senior Member
 
Join Date: October 20, 2007
Location: Richardson, TX
Posts: 7,523
Quote:
I think you're confusing the Umarex/Walther relationship with the Colt M4.
No, not really. It depends how you qualify the question.

Umarex Sportwaffen GmbH & Co. KG is Walther's parent company. In that respect, all Walthers are made by Umarex to some degree.

Postwar-designed Walther centerfire pistols, including the P99, PPQ, and PPS, are built at the original Walther plant in Ulm. (Well, it's only kinda the original plant. The first Walther plant in Zella-Mehlis was destroyed during a little disagreement various European countries had between 1939 and 1945. ) Ulm-produced pistols bear an antler proofmark.

Umarex produces post-buyout rimfire pistols, including the P22, SP22, and the "Colt" AR replica, at a separate plant in Köln (aka Koeln / Cologne). It's my understanding that this plant was originally built to produce airguns under the Umarex badge. Köln-produced pistols bear a crown proofmark.

Some Walther purists view the Köln guns as inferior-quality counterfeits that bring shame to the vaunted Walther name. That's why you routinely see people saying that the P22 and SP22 are "not real Walthers". OTOH many shooters don't really care as long as the guns shoot OK.

Just to introduce a little more confusion, yes, Walther products are distributed in the USA by S&W, which also builds all US-market PPK and PPK/S variants at their plant in Houlton, ME to skirt the 68 GCA import regulations.
carguychris is offline  
 
Page generated in 0.03273 seconds with 7 queries