Walther P5 .22 LR

Most people who know the P5 know it as a 9mm police pistol, the gun that armed German state forces and a few foreign agencies through the 1980s. Far fewer have ever handled one chambered in .22 LR. That is the catch with this example. It carries the full P5 silhouette and the unmistakable Walther address, but the slide is rolled Cal. 22 l.r., and that single line moves it out of the common and into the seldom seen.

The layout is pure P5. You get the enclosed slide that ejects from the top, the frame-mounted decocker doubling as the slide stop, and the wraparound checkered polymer grip that gives the gun its blocky, purposeful profile. The slide wears the matte silver barrel shroud against deep blued flats, a two-tone contrast that reads clearly in person. Markings are crisp. The Carl Walther banner, the Ulm address, and the Made in W. Germany line all sit clean on the left flat, which dates the gun to the pre-reunification period before 1990.

Condition is honest. The blued surfaces hold strong color with light handling marks along the high edges and a few thin scratches on the slide flat. The bore is clean with the muzzle crowned and protected by the front barrel collar. The checkered grip shows the usual sheen from holster and hand contact but no cracks or chips.

Rimfire builds of service pistols were never volume production. Walther made them for training, for sporting use, and for markets where centerfire ownership was restricted, so survivors turn up far less often than the 9mm guns. For the collector chasing the full breadth of the P5 line, the .22 is the piece that completes the shelf and almost never comes up when you go looking for it.