Dennis E. Hiller's Collector's guide to Air Pistols
Early Model LP53 fitted with brown grips, curved rear to action, and blacked finish to body instead of crackled finish.
Model: LP53
Maker: Carl Walther, Sportwaffenfabrik, 79, Ulm-Donau, Germany.
Date: 1953 to 1976.
Valuation: £75- £150.
Details:
Measures 13 inches from barrel to butt with a 91/4
inch barrel. Barrel and trigger guard blued whilst the action has a crackled finish. Serial number stamped on L.H.S.
of barrel, near the pivot pin, serial number of above 099278. Black moulded grips for right hand usebear the
Walther name. Smooth area on L.H.S. of frame above the grip has "WALTHER - LP Mod53 - Cal. 4.5 -
Walther's patent". This can be stamped with either "MADE IN GERMANY" or
"MADE IN WEST GERMANY". On the R.H.S. of the barrel is stamped the "F"
in the pentagon for Germany muzzle energy limit. Sold in brown cardboard box with compartments for wooden
cocking aid for end of barrel, two sapre foresight blades, two rear sight blades, and a barrel cleaning rod.
Included in the box should be a manual and a test card for five shots from 10 metres. Barrel weights can also
be obtained. A de luxe padded case for LP53, with or without barrel weights could also be ordered.
Advertised weight 40.6 ozs. The LP53 was designed after the Walther Olympic pistol.
Advertised accuracy was 1 inch circle at 20 to 25 feet and at that distance each click of the adjuster screw
on the rear sight will move the point of impact 1/8of an inch. Only about 8 inches
of barrel is rifled as the final inch has been widened to accept another type of cocking aid other than that supplied.
The mainsprings and air chamber is in the butt.
The butt contains two mainsprings, one inside the other, as does the Relum Tornado air rifle. Early
models had brown grips and lacked the black crackled finish to the action body. During the middle 1960's the
muzzle weights were available and around the 1970 mark the rear of airpistol was redesigned to give a slant
back to the top of the grip rather than the earlier concave shape. Apparently the LP53 was used in
early advertisements for the James Bond films. The LP53 was the second airgun to be produced by
Walther. Apparently, when thew first were produced, about 850 were called the LP52 when production
first began in 1952, but after minor changes in design during 1953, production really got underway and from that
date it became the LP53. These first 850 LP52's must surely be desirable collector's items.
The LP52 may have been fitted with chequered walnut grips, production of the LP53 began
with serial number 1000, or 1001 and ceased with number 124500 in 1976.
