The Walther, Interarms/Ranger, S&W arrangement

[MGMike]

Without wasting a lot of time trying to correct Earl's prejudiced assertions, most of which are only partly true, the following are at least some of the facts:

1) Interarms itself never made or assembled Walther pistols, nor did Walther USA LLC. Manufacture was sublicensed to a defense contracting firm in Gadsden, Alabama, Mid-South Industries Inc. Among other things they made fuses for cluster bombs for the Air Force, and for the Army rebuilt M16s into M16A2s. Mid-South wore many different corporate hats, includiing Etowah, Ranger Manufacturing, Black Creek, etc., etc. on whose books the Walther manufacture was internally assigned at various times. It was the same factory. A marking variance had been obtained from BATF so that the only names that appeared on the guns were Walther's and Interarms'.

2) After Umarex bought Walther it also purchased back the manufacturing license and exclusive North American distributorship held by Interarms. Mid-South's sublicense had not yet expired, so for a couple years thereafter Mid-South, through one or another of its subsidiaries, continued to produce Walther PPK, PPK/s and TPH pistols for Walther USA LLC, a shell that was set up by Umarex to replace Interarms as the importer and distributor.

3) When the sub-license to Mid-South expired, Umarex chose not to renew it, but to move manufacture to S&W, and production thereafter was marked with S&W's name.

Thus the Walther USA LLC guns are not "leftover parts" guns, but simply a continuation of Mid-South's normal production. The new serial range was, probably, simply an easy way to identify guns for which interarms had no responsibility for product liability and record-keeping purposes.

I believe, but do not know for sure, that all of the guns that S&W has manufactured from the beginning of its production are of the later, long-tang version.

M

[searcher451]

This information is too good to leave at the bottom of a thread on brown grips; thus, it's getting moved to Sticky status for easy retrieval the next time the issues come up.

And thanks again, MGMike, for that excellent information.

[Umbrella]

Member "uncut" also posted this in the original thread and I thought it was good info:

Interarms till 1999 (VA location)
1999 to 2000 Carl Walther USA LLC (VA location)
2000-2001 Walther USA LLC (MA location)

[uncut]

Mike
thanks for posting this....
now I would have one question in relation to Umarex and S&W
what was the difference from Carl Walther USA and Walther USA......was this just the location change still run by Umarex or was the "Walther USA LLC" already a S&W run operation ??

[MGMike]

Sorry. I don't know.

M

[me109g4]

So, if i read this right a "Walther USA LLC. Springfield Ma" ppk/s was made down in Gadson Al?