A new air rifle that performs beautifully. Meet the Walther LG400, a new application for Sapa extrusions.

Visit any village in Germany or much of continental Europe and you will prob­ably find a local shooting club. ”Air rifle and air pistol shooting is a very popular sport,” says Thomas Bretschneider, head of Sports Development for the Carl Walther company.

But finding a gun that adequately complemented one’s own shooting style was an ongoing challenge for shooters who vary tremendously in body size, arm length, and grip strength.


"Adjustable to any body size"

”We recognised the problem and set out to design a new air rifle that was adjustable to any body size and shooting style,” says Bretschneider. ”We wanted the gun to fit the shooter, not the other way around.”

Sapa heard Carl Walther was redesigning its popular and highly successful lg300 sport air rifle and approached the company about cooperating. ”Top quality, high performance air rifles often have aluminium components,” explains Jürgen Schulz, key account manager for Sapa components in northern Germany. ”We thought this could be an interesting product for Sapa extrusions so we sent some sample surface treatments to Carl Walther. They liked what they saw.”

”Top quality, high performance air rifles often have aluminium component"

The rifle, which took two years to develop, was launched in 2010. In addition to the gun’s brushed aluminium surface, Sapa fabricated four interconnected components that comprise the rifle’s stock and contribute to its overall adjust­ability. ”Tooling and milling were a challenge,” admits Schulz, ”because rifle components in­volve a lot of detail and must fit together perfectly. They were not your typical extrusions.”


"We chose Sapa"

But Carl Walther had no doubts about its choice of partner. ”We chose Sapa,” says Bretschneider, ”because we knew the company had the necessary expertise for each step of the process – alloy composition, profiling, comput­er numerical controlled (cnc) machining, anodising, and printing. We were confident Sapa would deliver excellent components.”

”It’s an interesting product for Sapa,” concludes Schulz. ”Successful companies need a mix of products for financial stability. We’re pleased to be working with Carl Walther!”

Michele Jiménez