Shear_stress
Member
- Joined
- Apr 27, 2005
- Messages
- 2,728
Congratulations, now you can win a bar bet. There was, in fact, a 22LR pistol issued as a defensive sidearm by a major Western military. Not a Mossad popgun for offing Black September members. Not an El Al air marshall piece. Not something dropped in a vest pocket by someone in the "diplomatic corps" stationed overseas.
The military was the British Army and the pistol was the Walther PP.
In the mid-1970s the Royal Army Ordnance Corps purchased about 3000 Walther PPs in 22LR for the Ulster Defence Regiment, an infantry regiment operating out of British-controlled Northern Ireland. These guns were designated L66A1 and described, maybe a touch grandiosely, as a PDW or "personal defense weapon". The choice of a 22LR PDW is an odd one and I've never found a really definitive reason for it. My conspiratorial instincts lead me down some purely speculative avenues, but who knows? Ostensibly, these pistols were used for off duty carry by UDR members, were popular among servicewomen and occasionally used for training.
L66A1s fall in the 41693 to 45088 serial number range. They bear no British proof marks, or any other marks of British issue. Unlike commercial Walthers (see below), they were not proofed at Ulm and lack a date code and "antler" stamp. Instead, they were proofed at the West German military proofhouse at Koblenz.
Commercial PP 22LR:
Whatever they were for, the L66A1s were used pretty hard. Most underwent FTR ("factory through repair"), the British Army arsenal rebuild process. Firing pins were replaced (indicated by a "P" stamped on the slide) and the guns then parkerized and covered in Suncorite, a thick black lacquer as famous for its carcinogenic properties as for its resistance to solvents. Its jolly olde name nothwithstanding, Suncorite is banned in the States and the only way to get it here is to buy a surplus gun finished with it.
The L66A1 was retired in the 1980s. In a shockingly sensible move by modern standards, the British decided to sell these surplus pistols on the commercial market. Most wound up in Europe, but about 1500 were imported by Interarms in the mid-1990s. They were sold with two magazines and a non-matching box. In the case of the box, it's clear that someone--the British, Frankonia (the German distributor who got the pistols to Interarms), or Interarms itself--had a pile of pistols and a pile of boxes and didn't bother to match them up.
My pistol falls in the middle of the serial number range and was made around 1976. It has eagle over 129 proof stamps and has also obviously been FTRed. The Suncorite finish is in pretty good shape, with only shallow scatches and minor chipping. The Suncorite was not applied with any great care and was allowed to pool toward the front and rear of the slide.
Besides the pistol itself, I am fascinated by the words grease-penciled on that non-matching box. Corporal Hayman, if you're out there, I don't have your gun but I do have the box it came in.
The military was the British Army and the pistol was the Walther PP.
In the mid-1970s the Royal Army Ordnance Corps purchased about 3000 Walther PPs in 22LR for the Ulster Defence Regiment, an infantry regiment operating out of British-controlled Northern Ireland. These guns were designated L66A1 and described, maybe a touch grandiosely, as a PDW or "personal defense weapon". The choice of a 22LR PDW is an odd one and I've never found a really definitive reason for it. My conspiratorial instincts lead me down some purely speculative avenues, but who knows? Ostensibly, these pistols were used for off duty carry by UDR members, were popular among servicewomen and occasionally used for training.
L66A1s fall in the 41693 to 45088 serial number range. They bear no British proof marks, or any other marks of British issue. Unlike commercial Walthers (see below), they were not proofed at Ulm and lack a date code and "antler" stamp. Instead, they were proofed at the West German military proofhouse at Koblenz.
Commercial PP 22LR:
Whatever they were for, the L66A1s were used pretty hard. Most underwent FTR ("factory through repair"), the British Army arsenal rebuild process. Firing pins were replaced (indicated by a "P" stamped on the slide) and the guns then parkerized and covered in Suncorite, a thick black lacquer as famous for its carcinogenic properties as for its resistance to solvents. Its jolly olde name nothwithstanding, Suncorite is banned in the States and the only way to get it here is to buy a surplus gun finished with it.
The L66A1 was retired in the 1980s. In a shockingly sensible move by modern standards, the British decided to sell these surplus pistols on the commercial market. Most wound up in Europe, but about 1500 were imported by Interarms in the mid-1990s. They were sold with two magazines and a non-matching box. In the case of the box, it's clear that someone--the British, Frankonia (the German distributor who got the pistols to Interarms), or Interarms itself--had a pile of pistols and a pile of boxes and didn't bother to match them up.
My pistol falls in the middle of the serial number range and was made around 1976. It has eagle over 129 proof stamps and has also obviously been FTRed. The Suncorite finish is in pretty good shape, with only shallow scatches and minor chipping. The Suncorite was not applied with any great care and was allowed to pool toward the front and rear of the slide.
Besides the pistol itself, I am fascinated by the words grease-penciled on that non-matching box. Corporal Hayman, if you're out there, I don't have your gun but I do have the box it came in.
Last edited:
