I picked up a nice USA manufactured Interarms PPK/s .380 at my LGS yesterday. The pistol came with the original black plastic hard case, two magazines, cleaning rod, instruction manual and the 5/92 dated test target. Other than a small spot near the muzzle the pistol is in fairly good condition. My question is whether or not the nickel magazines are original to this pistol. One would expect the original mags to have been blue, though I do know Ranger manufactured a disproportionately large number of stainless PPK & PPK/s pistols during this time period. I guess it is possible (for any number of reasons) blue pistols were shipped with nickel magazines. Does anyone own a blue Interarms PPK or PPK/s pistol from this time period or recall if they were ever shipped with nickel magazines? Thanks for your assistance!

1992 Interarms/Ranger Mfg. Walther PPK/s .380

Both my 80's era stainless PPK/S and PPK had nickel magazines.

I have purchased blued ones that fit. They were marked "Walther".

My blued PPK/S imported by Interarms and made in Germany had blued magazines.

Trooper Joe

The Ranger/Interarms blued PPK/S I sold earlier this year had the nickeled mags, and others I've seen for sale had them.

My German blued Interarms .380 PPK/S, purchased ~1970, came with two blued mags. One with pinky extension, one without. It’s a pretty little safe queen. My SIG P238 is a much better pistol.

quote:

Originally posted by mesabi:
The Ranger/Interarms blued PPK/S I sold earlier this year had the nickeled mags, and others I've seen for sale had them.

Thank you for confirming this. I've owned blue finish imports as well as stainless steel domestic examples but never a blue US model for comparison. From what I have gathered, it appears earlier blue US manufactured pistols were supplied with blue magazines. As time went on, Ranger's production of stainless pistols surpassed that of carbon steel models and we begin to see nickel mags included with blue pistols. I suspect Ranger either had a shortage of blue mags or more likely a surplus of nickel mags (possibly supplied by the contractor at volume discount). And while I'm sure there are other explanations, over the years I've known firearms manufactures to do some seemingly odd things with the simplest explanation of business expedience usually making the most sense.