Walther CP1 - well travelled.

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webley701
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Walther CP1 - well travelled.

Post by webley701 » Mon Apr 21, 2014 8:08 pm

Some pistols just look as if they'll shoot tiny groups & this Walther CP 1 certainly did in a March 1982 advert.

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A radical departure from the LP53, LP2, LP3 progression of rather 'upright' pistols which seemed to always keep trying to be trainer pistols for fullbore rather than an all out 10m match pistol.

The grips on the CP series were a good starting point, a far better grip angle & the sights were superb being borrowed from the rather rare Walther free pistol. A very useful feature was the dry fire mechanism. The only snag was they needed an FAC in the UK. I had a certificate but I didn't end up buying a Walther in the end because FWB brought out their Co2 pistol a little later & a local dealer had one in at a discount (used but only months old) so I ended up with a FWB Model C10, however as Robin has mentioned in another thread it wasn't always straightforward to use what was then classed as a firearm on some airgun ranges so the FWB didn't get as much use as it should have done.

Several years came & went as did various pistols but I never owned a Walther CP1 until around 2001 when I was working in Asia & found one for sale at a dealers in Australia; I had it shipped back to the UK.

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The superb sights.

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It was in excellent condition aside from some modifications to the grip (rare to find a target pistol of some age without such mods). It came with the normal two full length cylinders, various tools (some possibly not original) & the filling connector. Also included was an optional short cylinder & the cylinder mounted weight.

A copy of some type-written instructions carried the stamp of a dealer who I assume originally sold the pistol in Australia.

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There was another set which were a photo copy of the Walther manual & I think post-date the typed set.

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I do like the early CP series pistols. There's nothing about them other than just what's required to be an excellent target pistol - no styling features, go-faster strips or fancy colours. They are solidly constructed & made to a high standard.

As purchased it worked fine although a few years later I had to replace the seals to the cylinder mounting & valve chamber plus the tiny return spring to the valve actuation rod. I also gave it a strip & clean at the same time.

Below is a link to a Target Gun magazine review of the pistol.

http://www.classicapa.com/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=1071" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Regards
Russell
Last edited by webley701 on Sat Jun 10, 2017 9:53 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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pmh
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Re: Walther CP1 - well travelled.

Post by pmh » Mon Apr 21, 2014 9:21 pm

Excellent post Russell.

I have shot one of these, and they are very good. Relatively rate too.

Kind regards,



Phil
M0KPH
I now have so many airguns I've had to make a list, which is >>HERE<<
>>North Manchester Target Club<<

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kj68
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Re: Walther CP1 - well travelled.

Post by kj68 » Tue Apr 22, 2014 9:47 am

Hi Russell thats a really nice pistol, would love to own one of them. I like the fact that its made to do what its built for without any fancy mods or go faster stripes. Enjoy shooting her. :clap:

kj68 :)
Happy Shooting

Certus
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Re: Walther CP1 - well travelled.

Post by Certus » Tue Apr 22, 2014 12:26 pm

Hello,

Thanks for taking the time and effort to post this very interesting and informative thread. Sharing stuff like this can only add to our collective archive relating to these early non-spring powered target air pistols. I remember one of our older club members had one of these pistols back in the 80s and couldn't seem to get on with it due to it's apparent inconsistent performance. As he was giving up shooting, he kindly donated the pistol to the club for general use. Once we had it properly serviced it went on to provide excellent service to some members who were unable to afford this level of dedicated target pistol at the time.

I also seem to remember some police forces treating the ownership of Co2 guns as being prohibited and classing them as 'firearm's. As sometimes still seems to be the case today, the regulations weren't always clear, which can't have contributed to the success of these pistols.

Regards

Brian

RobinC

Re: Walther CP1 - well travelled.

Post by RobinC » Tue Apr 22, 2014 1:50 pm

Certus wrote:
I also seem to remember some police forces treating the ownership of Co2 guns as being prohibited and classing them as 'firearm's. As sometimes still seems to be the case today, the regulations weren't always clear, which can't have contributed to the success of these pistols.

Regards

Brian
Hi Brian
The police at the time of intro were correct, under the then law the propellent was termed as a "noxious gas" and put all Co2 pistols of that day onto FAC.
I and George Darling saw them at Ulm in the previous Autumn as prototypes, they were so revolutionary we had the first two into the country when they were introduced, superb as they were it was a pain to travel to a county shoot half way across the country to be told that we could'nt use them as they are firearms, so we both also travelled with our FWB 65's which were used more often than the CP1's. Norfolk police FAC dept was superb, they did us letters explaining that they were air pistols and on FAC due to a legal technicality and could be used on any air range, but the jobsworths at shoots insisted they could not, some things have not changed, the good old British jobsworth!!
I bought a CP2 which is virtualy the same a few years ago for nostagia's sake. Both George and I now in our sixties shot it at our club and re lived those days! George incidently went on to win a Commonwealth gold in air pistol with a FWB 80, then he became Britains most successful coach before retiring. Now full circle he is again the GB air and free pistol coach.
Good old days, Have fun,
Robin

webley701
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Re: Walther CP1 - well travelled.

Post by webley701 » Tue Apr 22, 2014 10:05 pm

My FAC at the time (early 1980's) had the usual condition for target firearms which read along the lines of - 'the firearms shall only be used on approved ranges for which a safety certificate has been issued by a competent authority....'. This condition strictly speaking would have prevented me using a Co2 air pistol for 'live' practice at home as well as on a normal airgun range.

To bring some common sense to the issue a further condition was added to my FAC which specifically exempted my FWB Co2 air pistol from having to comply with the usage/range restrictions mentioned above (for real firearms) - in other words I could use it anywhere I could use a normal air pistol safely. I can't remember now if I had to ask for this exemption or if Cheshire police did it automatically but the exemption should have made life very easy.

As Robin mentioned the Great British Jobsworth (sub-species - marksman) still managed to ignore not only common sense but also legally correct exemptions on my FAC. The aggravation happened enough to take the pleasure out of using the pistol at the time.

As an extension of this 'nanny' attitude, the first time I attended a certain range I reversed my car into a parking space so the rear of the car was adjacent to the white painted wall of the range. I'd hardly switched the engine off before someone came up to the passenger side & asked if I'd move my car so the front was facing the white wall to prevent dirty exhaust marks on the white paint - I was in a Caterham 7 with a 4 into 1 side-exit racing exhaust (on the passenger side) which the most motoring-unaware person couldn't fail to notice. I still had to turn the car the other way though, I was told "it would set a bad example to others to leave it as it was".

Regards
Russell

RobinC

Re: Walther CP1 - well travelled.

Post by RobinC » Wed Apr 23, 2014 11:26 am

Hi Russell
I did initialy have the range conditions on my cert for the Co2 but they did revise it when asked and also did a helpful covering letter to try to explain to the jobsworths but it was rarely accepted. It just made it a pain to train with the CP1 in our own range and then travel to the various meetings to end up using a different pistol, I reverted to my trusty FWB65 until the LPM -1 appeared and I could return to the Walther fold.
Its a problem that has carried on to this day with alledged H&S law, the greater part of which is myth and not actualy law!
But back to the CP, a great milestone in air target pistols, still nice to shoot, although by modern standards a little long in the tooth.

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