Walther Experimental Hybrid Olympia/Woodsman
Semiauto Pistols
•
5m 5s
In the early 1930s, Walther began to experiment with changes to its Olympia target pistol in hopes of beating the Colt Woodsman out of its place as the most popular pistol of the type. The most distinctive difference between the Woodsman and the Olympia was in their grip angles; quite straight for the Olympia and sharply angled for the Woodsman. In an effort to answer the question of which was better, Walther built this prototype Olympia with a Woodsman-style grip angle.
They clearly decided that they preferred their existing grip design, because the new 1936 pattern Olympia would continue to use it, leaving this gun as a dead end of an experimental hybrid.
Up Next in Semiauto Pistols
-
South Africa's Berettas: The Vektor Z...
In the 1980s, the South African military and police were using substantial numbers of different handguns, and began looking for a way to consolidate to simply maintenance and logistics. Studying the different guns they had, they decided to pursue a copy of the Beretta Model 92. No foreign manufac...
-
Boberg XR9S & XR45S: The Bullpup Pistols
Arne Boberg founded Boberg Arms in 2009 and released his first pistol in 2011, the XR9-S. This was followed by the longer XR9-L, and then the XR-45S in 2014. The conceit of the Boberg pistol is basically that of the Bullpup rifle: maximizing barrel length while minimizing overall length. To this ...
-
AJ Ordnance "Thomas" - A .45 Locked b...
Designed by one Frank Thomas Jr. in the 1970s, this pistol was produced by the AJ Ordnance company of Covina California, and named after its creator. It was designed to be a concealed carry pistol chambered for .45 ACP ammunition without needing a manual safety. Thomas wanted to avoid exposed ham...
