I have a December 1944 CYQ, and it's similarly rough around the edges (although no gouge in the frame), maybe a bit smoother internals, but not by much. It was very obviously end times by the time these guns were coming off the assembly line at this point.
CYQ/Spreewerke has a reputation for being at the low end of P-38 quality, but that's mostly in terms of fit and finish. They still had to go through acceptance, and they still had to work. And they made sure everything was to spec in all the places that counted.
Still surprisingly good shooters, or at least mine is. I wouldn't want to run any hot ammo through it, but bog standard 9mm should be fine. I'd take a steel frame CYQ over an aluminum frame post war P-1 any day.
I only get it out maybe once a year, and only put 3 or 4 mags through it. But I don't own safe queens. So far it's been 100% reliable.
You probably already know this (you tend to do your research), but that mag is worht almost as much as the gun. The E/88 mags (there's a lot of debate on who actually made them, it may or may not have been Spreewerke) that got issued with the CYQ pistols have largely evaporated, far rarer than the guns. I'm lucky to have one with mine as well, but probably only about 50% of the CYQ pistols floating around do.
