Walther P38 hand gun

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dauph197

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Hi Guys,

I'm always asking me if I should posted this thread here or in hand guns? It is a milsurp but also a hand gun. I'm more a milsurp lover than a true hand gun aficionados. Well, you'll tell me!!

I'm looking to buy a P38 hand gun to add in my very small German stuff collection. Where can I get the good information about recognizing a true P38 from WW2? Are there any expert or website to read about them?

There are few available on the EE forum but I can't take any decision about which one I prefer!

Any help?

Thank you!

Martin
 
Hey,

I suggest you google it... There are a TON of good resource sites about the P38.

First thing is you need to decide if you want a Russian Capture (RC) or not. They can usually be had cheaper, but most collectors feel they are inferior as they have generally been refinished by the Soviets before they were stored after capture. Sometimes the Nazi symbols were punched to remove the swastikas. They often don't match (parts were mixed when they were refinished), which doesn't effect function, but does effect collection value.

Next thing is do you want a Walther, Mauser or Spreewerke manufacture, or does that even matter to you? The Spreewerke (usually marked CYQ) were made in Czech Republic, and there are always stories that they are inferior quality because the Resistance messed with them. I've seen many CYQ pistols function JUST FINE, so I'm not sure this was true.

Some of the ones on the EE seem to be in decent shape and are ok prices. If you're collecting, it all comes down to one thing: CONDITION.

Good luck!
 
The ac44 on the EE is a good price, looks correct. Nice plum frame. Wrong holster though.

I personally would not buy an RC. They are usually more then the original ones. LOL

P38forum is good for learning. But not buying as its US based.

I've owned a few over the years. They are actually pretty easy to learn.
 
Thank you Phat Eagle.

I know I can google it but when you don't know the basic, like you just explained, it can be quite hard to make a decision. Your input is much appreciated as you have gave me a very good lead. In the perfect world, I would take one for shooting and one for displaying but, this is a lot of money. I think something half way could do the job!

Thank you again!
 
CanadianAR,

Thanks for your comment. The P38 you are talking about on EE is the one that gave me the hardest time. I don't understand why the lower part is brownish... This is the main reason why I posted this thread here. I'll go visit the P38 forum!

Thanks.
 
P38 is one of my favorite pistols so I bought a BYF 43 quite a few years ago. I had it out to the range a couple times and fired a box or two of S&B 9mm out of it, but upon bringing it home I noticed a crack forming in the side of the slide. After that my P38 stayed in the safe and I picked up a Walther P1 as a shooter.

P38's are wonderful pistols, but some of the wartime pistols have issues with metal quality; if you ever see a P1 beside a P38 you'll see how this issue was addressed. By all means get yourself a P38 but watch for the warning signs of metal fatigue before you end up damaging your P38 to the point that it fails on you.
 
There is one sure way to tell if a P38 was manufactured during WWII. Make sure all the numbers match and Waffenampts are present and not scrubbed. WWII pistols all had "steel" frames.

Here's where it gets a bit sticky. It was common for field repairs to be made with undamaged parts from salvaged pistols. Those are usually pretty obvious because there are only three pieces of the pistol that you can see the serial number on without taking the pistol apart. Frame/barrel/slide. Make sure you know the manufacturer's codes. That's the simple stuff.

As mentioned, the Russian captures are presently going for higher prices than the real deal. I would sell mine but not for less than a RC. Some people feel that the RCs all saw battle. Not true.

Another thing to be wary of are the P38 Hi Powers that were assembled at the Manurhin factory in Northern France. The Germans were manufacturing pistols or maybe just parts there. After the war, there were a lot of new parts that needed to be assembled. All of the pieces I've seen have the Walther "FLAG" on the slide. All of the Hi Powers I've seen have mismatched numbers on the parts, some were electropenciled.

The plus side is a steel frame pistol with mostly authentic parts that are usually in VG+ condition and reliable shooters at much more reasonable prices.

Then of course there are the modern versions we call the P1 and it has an alloy frame. Manurhin made a bunch of these for Portugal.

Recently Tradex sold a bunch off at very reasonable prices
 
With my grand total experience of owning exactly one P38, I'll concur with the sentiment that you're better off looking for an all matching.

Mine is a late war (Nov 1944) CYQ, or Spreewerk pistol, which is on the lower end of collectability for many. But the fact it's all matching, with the "Dirty Birds" intact, puts it above the Russian Captures - which went through the typical psot war Soviet Mixmaster Refurbishment Process. And I bought it for significantly less than the going retail for RC P38's.

The CYQ's have a bit of a bad rap for being lower quality, but this is mostly on the exterior - you can see the machining marks as the externals were generally not brought to a high polish. Internally, they are as smooth as any other P38. I don't shoot mine much (less than 200 rounds total from me so far), but so far perfectly reliable, and a trigger as good as my Beretta 92FS. Quite accurate too.

Avoid using +P "hot" ammo in them, in general. They're solid guns, but why take a chance? As far as I can tell, from reading around through forums, the ones that have failed, have failed by people using hot modern defence loads, or hot hand loads. Stick to fairly basic FMJ standard loads, and you should be Ok.

Here's a couple of links on some basic primer info to get you started.

Variations:
http://pistole38.nl/the-p38/ww2-variations

Production chart, to match manufacturer and serial number with approximate production date:
http://pistole38.nl.server3.starthosting.nl/tech/P38ProductionDates.pdf

Me playing with mine Just after I got it. A bit of an early Christmas gift to myself. Just to give you a bit of added incentive.

 
dauph197 said:
CanadianAR,

Thanks for your comment. The P38 you are talking about on EE is the one that gave me the hardest time. I don't understand why the lower part is brownish... This is the main reason why I posted this thread here. I'll go visit the P38 forum!

Thanks.
Click to expand...

A lot of Walther guns from early to late show up with plum frames or barrels.
It is usually considered desirable.

Here's mine. Plum barrel and frame.

 
Another plum coloured frame on a Walther ac42.




I suggest that you join the P.38 Forum and read everything that you can before you proceed to purchase a P.38.

http://www.p38forum.com/

There is a lot to learn and the best books about these pistols are expensive.
The author of these P.38 books Warren Buxton was tragically killed in an auto accident recently.

 
Subscription done on the P38 forum!

Thanks again! However, as a book lover too, I'm now on the hunt to find this very nice book!! Collecting militaria and books are not good for the wallet!! Don't show me too many books... ;-)
 
Grelmar, the P38 is a tough pistol and not nearly as fussy as the toggle action pistols but I can tell you from personal experience that if hot ammo is used in them you will likely end up losing the extractor and spring/plunger behind it.

Back when 9mm surplus was available in quantity we had to be very careful not to use the German made ammo with the black coated bullets. Rumor was that it was made for sub machine guns only. When I was young and $50 was considered to be a good price for a P38 pistol/holster/spare mag/belt I was given two 320 round packs of varnished steel case 9mm with black coated bullets. I didn't bother to check it out before using it. Remember, this was way before laptops and cellphones were anything but dreams and ideas. To make a long story short. That stuff was HOT. I lost the extractor/spring/plunger and the slide top cover. Nothing was broken but I had to search for parts and it was a year later before a friend from Austria sent some to me that he got where he worked on the Military base.

Great pistols. I like mine a lot. IMHO it is at least as good as a P35. Some think it is better because of the DA trigger. I just find them to be more accurate than the P35s in general. Mind you I really like the P35s so it would be a toss up.
 
Bearhunter

Matches with what I've heard (but not experienced, thankfully).

There was another fellow on CGN who ended up with a cracked slide after running hot reloads through his.

But I've never seen a confirmed wrecked P38 from running normal NATO spec ammo, or standard hardball. I wouldn't expect any troubles from defensive ammo either, so long as you stay away from +P rated ammo.

These are great guns, and a design that remained in service well into the 80's in Germany (with various police agencies), among other nations. I have little doubt it would still be popular if it wasn't for the "double stack" revolution that happened in 9mm. As it is, for institutional users, it gets hard to justify a full sized service pistol with an 8+1 capacity.

I love the lines of it. For my money, it's the classiest looking service pistol of WWII. And the ergonomics of the grip are stellar. Makes holding my TT-33 or 1911 feel like grabbing a 2x4 in comparison.
 
P38 pistols are great to collect. I have pre war to 1980s production p38 ,p1 and p4 pistols. There are lots of post war pistol accessories to collect also from the various german police agencies that used them
 
Well... after reading your comments, I am more aware of what I want! It'll be easy... one from each factory and one from each year of production... The meaning of collection, isn't it? ;-)

Many thanks for your input guys!
 
dauph197 said:
Well... after reading your comments, I am more aware of what I want! It'll be easy... one from each factory and one from each year of production... The meaning of collection, isn't it? ;-)

Many thanks for your input guys!
Click to expand...

All it will take to complete this collection is lots of time and money.

At one point I had 14 different variants. The major difference on most of them were the factory codes and dates. In all cases the parts would interchange without alteration and that even included the civilian models.
 
Wow... 14 different versions. I was just joking about trying to get the whole family. In fact, I'm looking to get a shooter for sure and will use in a small German display that I'm working on in my WW2 collection.
 
A friend of mine had a P-38 that we shot Ruko 115gr FMJ out of .It came apart leaving us looking for the parts in the grass.Conclusion was too hot of ammo.Harold
 
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