My KK500 has arrived (in California)

[ShootWithStyle]

After a long wait my KK500 has arrived! Many thanks to McKenna Shooting Sports for securing one for me and to Walther Arms as well. As I understand I'm currently one of only three shooters with a KK500 in the USA.



Unfortunately, as I live in California it will remain with the FFL for 10 days before I can take it home. So it will be a couple weeks before I can take it out to the range and put a few rounds through it. But she's a beauty and very well put together. My initial impressions are overwhelmingly positive.

Stay tuned for a more detailed review in a few weeks.

J.

[Cumbrian]

Lovely but just one question: your rifle does not appear to have the double swivel joint in the middle of the butt that that the early models had/have. Yours appears to have only one swivel joint or is that a trick of the photo and a mistaken impression on my part?

[Jordan1s]

That gun is absolutely beautiful! You have no idea how jealous I am :)

[patriot]

Very nice. After you take possession, I'd be interested in knowing the barrel length and diameter.

Thanks,
Mark

[Marc Orvin]

I'm sure you will love it. Two of my favorite people involved in this deal, Jober and Mr McKenna.

Hope to see you at nationals this summer with it.

Marc

[imac]

I've had mine since end of January. Stunning bit of kit that shoots AWESOME. Couple of great features are the ease of loading in prone and kneeling. I also shoot with the bolt in the opposite hand operation in standing which I really like. I load with my support hand in standing so having bolt on body side of rifle makes it easier and more efficient. Accuracy wise.....so far I've shot rws lapua and eley it shoots all of them very well. I haven't done any testing as such just from the shoulder. I would imagine with a little time brand testing then lot test then torque testing I'll find some more improvement. My last outdoor shoot I shot a very tidy 200.20 on the NRA A23 TARGET the worst group was outside measurement of 8.9mm (we shoot a23 at 50 meters not 50 yards ) HAPPY DAYS
Anyway enjoy your new rifle, I think Walther have smashed this new bit of kit out of the park! I'll be interested to hear your views.

Imac

[Tim S]

Very nice. After you take possession, I'd be interested in knowing the barrel length and diameter.

Thanks,
Mark

Mark,

a British visitor to the Walther factory at Ulm reported the options to be 650mm x 22mm standard, and 650mm x 20mm light. These being the same as the KK300. A 690mm x 24mm Border could be fitted as an optional extra.

[patriot]

Thanks Tim. The barrel on the 54.30 is a little shorter and thinner than the 1813 and 1913 690's. It's producing excellent groups at 100, without a tuner or the bloop tube. So has Anschutz figured something out or have they just gone with one size fits all to simplify the product line. Or maybe it is the 1:16.5 twist. It seems to shoot well in the cold, once warm, but with the open precision stock it cools down quickly.

Mark

[pfiori]

Mark,

What is the diameter of the 54.30 barrel?

Thanks,
Pete

[ShootWithStyle]

Thank you all. I'm very excited to be able to take it home in about a week and give everyone the full rundown.

Lovely but just one question: your rifle does not appear to have the double swivel joint in the middle of the butt that that the early models had/have. Yours appears to have only one swivel joint or is that a trick of the photo and a mistaken impression on my part?

Cumbrian - Its just the angle of the photo. It indeed has the same parallelogram joint in the rear of the stock.

That gun is absolutely beautiful! You have no idea how jealous I am :)

Jordan1s - You wouldn't believe how many offers I've had to take it from my cold dead hands. ;-)

Very nice. After you take possession, I'd be interested in knowing the barrel length and diameter.

Thanks,
Mark

Mark - I have the blued 690mm barrel. Not sure of my barrel diameter, I will measure it when i get it back home. There are four options available. Blued 690mm. Blued 650mm. Blued 650mm light. Stainless fluted 690mm.

I'm sure you will love it. Two of my favorite people involved in this deal, Jober and Mr McKenna.

Hope to see you at nationals this summer with it.

Marc

Mr. Orvin - That's the plan. I'll be using these few months to set it up and get used to it and hopefully put in a good show in Fort Benning.

I've had mine since end of January. Stunning bit of kit that shoots AWESOME. Couple of great features are the ease of loading in prone and kneeling. I also shoot with the bolt in the opposite hand operation in standing which I really like. I load with my support hand in standing so having bolt on body side of rifle makes it easier and more efficient. Accuracy wise.....so far I've shot rws lapua and eley it shoots all of them very well. I haven't done any testing as such just from the shoulder. I would imagine with a little time brand testing then lot test then torque testing I'll find some more improvement. My last outdoor shoot I shot a very tidy 200.20 on the NRA A23 TARGET the worst group was outside measurement of 8.9mm (we shoot a23 at 50 meters not 50 yards ) HAPPY DAYS
Anyway enjoy your new rifle, I think Walther have smashed this new bit of kit out of the park! I'll be interested to hear your views.

Imac

Imac - As i recall you have number 60 in New Zealand. I have number 166. :-)

Mark,

What is the diameter of the 54.30 barrel?

Thanks,
Pete

Pete - When I spoke to Uwe Anschutz last year he indicated to me that the 54.30 has the exact same barrel dimensions of the 1907. 660mm and whatever the 1907 barrel diameter is. I asked because i was interested in the rifle and wanted to use an existing sight extension tube that I have for a 1907. But not having an actual 54.30 I can't say if that is the case.

[patriot]

Mark,

What is the diameter of the 54.30 barrel?

Thanks,
Pete

The muzzle bulb is .941. The barrel is .889 behind the bulb with a slight taper thicker to the shank. I don't want to risk re-torquing after pulling it out of the stock to measure until after the championship season. The 5.5 NM I use on my 1913's seems to work.

Mark

[VicRC87]

After a long wait my KK500 has arrived! Many thanks to McKenna Shooting Sports for securing one for me and to Walther Arms as well. As I understand I'm currently one of only three shooters with a KK500 in the USA.



Unfortunately, as I live in California it will remain with the FFL for 10 days before I can take it home. So it will be a couple weeks before I can take it out to the range and put a few rounds through it. But she's a beauty and very well put together. My initial impressions are overwhelmingly positive.

Stay tuned for a more detailed review in a few weeks.

J.

Gorgeous rifle, I am or was 5th on the list so right now I should have been bumped to the second slot been waiting forever to receive my rifle.

[conradin]

Whenever one of you get the electronic version one please show me pictures of the trigger system.

[imac]

I'll be able to get some pictures of electronic trigger later this month

[ShootWithStyle]

After the mandatory 10 day hold that is imposed by the government of the State of California, I was able to take my KK500 home last night. So far it is everything I had hoped for. Of course, I dropped any plans I had last night and just worked on setting it up for prone.

Using my Anschutz as a reference I replicated everything as best I could on the Walther. So Length of Pull, position of handstop, pistol grip orientation are basically the same as on my Anschutz. But with the new position of the loading port I now enjoy the ability that Grunig and Bleiker owners are able to enjoy....loading rounds in prone without lifting elbows off the mat.

Here is a short video of me dry firing it. Clicking on the photo below should take you to the video. I can't wait till Saturday when i can actually put some live rounds through it.



J.

[Tim S]

Nice. Am I right i thinking you've cast off the butt? As someone wirh a broad face who can't get behind the sights without excavating the cheekpiece and/or a hefty cant/ offset sights I'm rather envious of this feature.

[ShootWithStyle]

Nice. Am I right i thinking you've cast off the butt? As someone wirh a broad face who can't get behind the sights without excavating the cheekpiece and/or a hefty cant/ offset sights I'm rather envious of this feature.

Tim! That's the one thing I actually didn't adjust. I left the parallelogram joint alone and the stock is completely straight. I too was originally going to offset it a bit just like the built in offset on the Anschutz Precise stock, but having spoken to the Walther engineer who was sent to the US Olympic Traning Center to service some of our Air Guns, he suggested trying it first without offsetting the butt.

The cheek piece has quite a bit of lateral movement and I found no issues getting behind the sights. And the sights are not offset either. The rifle comes with two sets of riser blocks which actually must be used. Mounting the sight directly on the receiver will not work as the sights will be too low. The cheek piece must be at a minimum height for the bolt to clear. Proper sight alignment head to rear to fore sight can only be accomplished with the supplied sight risers.

My only wish would for the cheek piece to have the same in-position adjustability as the cheek piece on the Precise Stock. The KK500 cheek piece elevation can be done in position, but it's not as easy as with the Precise stock. Micro adjustment laterally is not possible given it's ambidextrous design.

Other than that....this rifle is AMAZING!!!

[Gru]

You are going to LOVE that close loading port in prone!! You may even wonder how you ever shot prone without it. It does take some getting used to but it is far and away my favorite feature on my Grunig. Not lifting my elbow has noticeably improved my NPA and scores.

[Modena]

Oh niiiccceeee. What are those plastic snap caps you are using?

[ShootWithStyle]

Oh niiiccceeee. What are those plastic snap caps you are using?

Modena - Those are just #4 plastic drywall anchors. They are of a sufficient size and shape that they make perfect dry firing snap caps.





There are several manufacturers but the best i have found are made by a company called Hillman Group. The plastic they use is similar to the plastic used in some snap caps I got from NSRA many years ago (see below). The firing pin leaves satisfying indentions on the back of the anchors and they can be struck multiple times.





The benefit is the cost. For the price of 100 of those NSRA snap caps (12.00 GBP, about 17.00 USD) i can get 300-400 drywall anchors depending on the vendor.

Other "snap caps" are unsuitable of course. The A-Zoom aluminum snap caps cannot be used for dry firing. Tipton snap caps use a brittle, translucent plastic that just cracks when it is hit by a firing pin.

The anchors work in almost any rifle. I believe Bleikers with Eley headspacing have an issue as the rims on certain anchors are just too thick and the bolt can not be closed without a lot of force.

J.