Another big break came when the Berlin Wall came down. In those formerly communist nations, firearms were prohibited, but air and alarm guns could be purchased over the counter. One industry veteran described stores in the former East Bloc as crammed and as garish as “Radio Shack, except for filled with airguns and alarm pistols.” And they sold, and sold well. How well? Enough for Pflaumer and Wonisch to purchase the first name in German firearms, the financially struggling Carl Walther, which they did to the shock of many in the firearm industry in 1993.

The Umarex business model of licensing and partnering is a fascinating and extremely successful one. Why compete with a company when you can partner with it? It began with realistic-looking and -feeling replicas and airguns, and Umarex has currently or has had licensing arrangements with a who’s who of gunmaking, including Beretta, Colt, FN Browning Hammerli (now owned by PW), H&R, H&K, IWI, Magnum Research, Mauser, Ruger, S&W and, of course, Carl Walther (before purchasing it). As the leading maker of replicas, Umarex makes and sells airguns, air soft guns, paintball guns and even offers a line of “Tactical Rimfires”—firearm replicas of other firearms, including a .22 replica of its own PPK/S.

Pick Two, Any Two
I elected to pick only two of the guns offered by Walther Arms to add some empty brass to what was starting to look wholly like a company history story. Those guns are the PPK/S .22 made in Arnsberg and the PPQ M2 in .40 S&W made in Ulm, as they represent two of the almost incongruous paths taken by Walther today. One of the company mantras is Franz Kafka’s “Paths are made by walking.” And indeed there are two distinct paths represented here. The fun of recreational shooting with the .22 and the serious business of a sidearm designed for law enforcement use and personal protection with the .40 S&W.

The nickel-plated PPK/S .22 follows the layout of the original, but it is rendered a mix of materials. Umarex’s engineers use steel, aluminum, die-cast metal and polymer; a common theme in all their guns. For example, the slide is polished aluminum yet the actual breechblock dovetailed and pinned into it is steel. The frame is polished die-cast metal, which gives the gun a weight—24 ounces—similar to its center-fire cousin. The frame’s rear has the more generous beavertail contour that protects the web of the shooter’s hand from the recoiling slide. The barrel in the blowback-operated pistol is fixed, and like the original, acts as the recoil spring guide. The barrel is a thin rifled liner surrounded by a steel shroud that is pinned into place. A decocker is on the slide’s left rear, and depressing it drops the hammer and moves a block between it and the rear of the firing pin.

The double-action-trigger pull was noteworthy in that it was 14 pounds, 2 ounces. In its defense, it was consistent all the way through its travel with no stacking. Who am I kidding? It was still 14 pounds. The single-action pull at 3 pounds, 8 ounces, was much better, and that is how the accuracy testing and most function firing were conducted. Based on that of the P22 pistol (and discontinued G22 bullpup carbine), the magazine holds 10 rounds of .22 Long Rifle and is one of the best features of the design. In more than 700 rounds of testing for accuracy and function firing, there were three failures to fire, all ammunition-based as firing pin hits were clean and consistent.

I visited the Arnsberg factory as these guns were rolling off the line. From the outside, it appears to be the very epitome of modern, industrialized Germany. Not only did it look like a plant that makes medical machinery, but it was clean enough that there could have been an operating room next to the rifling machines. I watched the rifling of barrels, CNC machining, quality control operations and assembly of the guns, and saw the government proofhouse where each and every firearm is proofed. This is the gun that I fired far more than was requisite. It sells the dream of Bond’s pistol, but is an affordable delight to shoot.

An evolutionary gun, the PPQ draws the majority of its design features from the P99—a gun that was one of the best by far in its generation—but there have been improvements and updates to the P99. There were enough changes from even the latest P99s for the American market to warrant a name change to PPQ M2. The style and location of the magazine release (which is reversible) for example, has moved from the paddles on the trigger guard to the frame.

The polymer frame has the heavily stippled grip with interchangeable backstraps of the P99 D, and there is an integral accessory rail on the dust cover. There are generous and useful grasping grooves cut on both the front and rear of the slide, and the long bilateral slide lock of the P99 has been retained. There are two drop safeties as well as a passive firing pin safety. Lock-up of the recoil-operated pistol is of the Browning linkless style, and the recoil spring and its guide are in the familiar location under the barrel. Disassembly is like that of the P99.

The trigger has an articulated blade safety within its front face, much like the PPS and P99QA (Quick Action), and the striker is pre-cocked. The PPQ’s trigger pull length (0.4 inches) and weight are the same for each shot, but the distance the trigger must be released before the striker resets is quite short—the manual states 0.10 inches —so the shooter never needs to release the trigger its full length of travel. Pull weight is 5 pounds, 2 ounces, but the length of travel and reset are reduced so dramatically that the PPQ has perhaps the finest trigger of its type. It even has its own name, Quick Defense.

The PPQ is offered in 9 mm Luger or .40 S&W with 4- or 5-inch barrels. There is even a Navy Tactical model, in the event your duty gun ends up in the drink a lot. On the range, the 4.1-inch barreled .40 S&W shot well with no malfunctions, was ergonomically excellent and demonstrated that this pistol has a bright future among American pistol buyers.

Another Day
It appears that the company kept in the public eye by a fictional secret agent is poised for a much bigger and more aggressive presence in the United States, and the new guns introduced by Walther Arms are sure a sign of that. But the Bond tie still remains strong, despite anti-gun rants by some of the actors who have portrayed him. I attended Wulf-Heinz Pflaumer’s 70th birthday party last year in Arnsberg, and part of the celebration was a personal video birthday message from none other than Bond number six, Pierce Brosnan. Oh, and the PPK in actor Daniel Craig’s hands in lobby cutouts for the movie “Skyfall”? It wasn’t a firearm at all, but a replica made by … you guessed it, Umarex.