De Wilde Firearms

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Carl Walther Waffenfabrik, Ulm-am-Donau, W Germany. (formerly of Zella Mehlis)

The Walther Waffenfabrik was founded by Carl Walther in 1886, for the production of sporting arms. By the early years of the 20th century it was a sizeable establishment, and in 1908 he began to produce a pocket automatic pistol. It was a commercial success and was followed by gradually improving designs until by the 1930s Walther was one of the world’s premier pistol manufacturers.

The model 4 was introduced at the same time as the model 3 in 1910 and was a larger 7.65 mm model intended as a holster pistol for police rather than a pocket pistol. Basically it was a model 3 with the butt extended to take an 8 shot magazine and the barrel lengthened 18 mm. 

The pistol is a well designed and manufactured, single action blow back pistol. It use the same concentric spring around the barrel as the earlier model 2 + 3 with the same type of bayonet catch as the muzzle bush of the model 3, using the same studs in the slide but the spring lock was abandoned. The cartridge is detonated by a striker and the safety catch block the sear. True to early Walther’s the magazine latch is located at the heel of the grip. The ejection port was moved to the upper left side of the slide. It is unusual for the cartridge discharge port to be located on the left of the slide for it is upsetting for a right handed shooter to have casings thrown across his front. 

The model 4 was widely adopted by police forces and by military officers during World War 1 and it was taken into official military service. A contract for about 250000 pistols was given to Walther in 1915. It is classified as a relic in the USA. (Ref. ‘Famous pistols and handguns’ by A J R Cormack, ‘Pistols of the world’ by Hogg and Weeks p255)
De Wilde Firearms
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