Walther KKM International Match

[Nathaniel Myers]

I was offered two Walther KKM international match rifles by a friend. Overall one is very good, it appears complete, has sights, I don't know how the bore is. The other is rough, stock modified, no sights, though he said he may have them somewhere.

He wants $1000 for both, does this seem ok? My thoughts were to mix and match to make the nicest rifle I could and then strip the other for the action, sell the stock. I have a 22 Mauser action I intend to build a rifle for my son, I thought the Walther would be nice for my daughter.

Opinions?

[Kiwi_bloke]

KKM simply means Klein Kaliber Match or small rifle match (competition). What this means in practise is that the target barrel is likely to be quite heavy, though this varies somewhat according to which year and which category of competition. So it might be an OK rifle for a young lady, if she's doing that sort of competition, but otherwise perhaps not. The barrels tend to have a long life but you really need to put it in a gun vice to shoot test groups with match ammo to be sure. The tension on the front king screw can make quite a difference too as can barrel crown wear. That can be fixed at least.

The ejector is not so long lived and several that I know will not flick their shells out once wear sets in. That can be a problem for newer shooters. It can be hard to fix as new parts are non-existent and second hand parts likely to be no better. The model did have some later modifications, especially the bolt. But many parts should interchange. However they're typically a bit different to Anschuetz so the 2 brands don't just swap over without some modification. One will have an 18mm front sight, the other a 16mm and the interchangeable elements will be proportionate, (assuming you have original target sights). At out 25 yard indoor target shooting club we have 3 KKM's and I have a 4th. We use them for training youth mostly.

In terms of value, it sounds pretty expensive for this part of the world, but perhaps not where you are? The Anschuetz Models 54 and 64 are probably going to be a better bet if you want a target rifle and especially of you want to fix, replace or change any part of it later.