Walther PP Super Prototype Set of Three

Three Walther PP Super pistols from the same development run, kept together since they left Ulm. That alone is what stops a Walther collector cold. Sets like this almost never survive as a group, and the fact that all three carry sequential factory numbering ties them to a single chapter in the PP Super story. Look at the slide rolls and the picture gets clearer. Two read PP SUPER Cal. 9mm x 18, while the third is marked Cal. 9mm Kurz, the German designation for .380 ACP. That split is the whole point. It shows Walther working through two cartridge options during the same evaluation, testing the heavier 9x18 Police load against the established .380 before settling production direction.

These are the late-1970s Ulm guns, the ones built to chase the West German police service trials of the era. Each wears deep commercial blue, a fixed barrel, the slide-mounted decocker with its red signal dot, and the familiar Walther banner on the forward slide. The frames carry the full Carl Walther Waffenfabrik Ulm/Do. address rollmark. What makes the trio fun to handle is that no two grips match. One wears standard checkered walnut service panels. Another carries a tall target-style grip with a thumb shelf. The third has a thick orange-toned competition grip with a palm swell, clearly fitted during testing to evaluate handling.

Finish across the group runs from bright and glossy to honest working wear, with some high-edge thinning and a few handling marks on the slides. Bores show strong rifling. One pistol ships in a period Walther Mod. PP leather-textured presentation box with the worn factory label still attached.

For the Walther student, a matched development group like this is the kind of thing that anchors a collection. It documents a decision in progress, not just a finished product.