Walther P38 with Prohibited Barrel?

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Reloadjunkie

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A guy at my club was showing me a Walther P38 the other day. (no import markings)

The barrel has been changed, but the owner said before he bought it, it was classified as prohibited. (he only knows that it was previously classified prohib, but didn't have any other info)

Unless it was someone mucking around with it in the 70's/80's/90's etc, does anyone out there know of why a Walther P38 would have had a prohibited length barrel on it from war time?

Gun Notes- Only one SN on the gun. Parts have varying stamps, so the receiver, barrel etc were mfg'd in different factories in different years, but all stamps range from 1939-42. Steel frame - Waffenamts and Eagle stamps are still intact.

Current Owner is looking to splurge on a new rifle and is looking to sell the P38, so I'm mulling over the potential history/story behind the gun before buying.
 
huh! so a previous owner likely wanted to be able to shoot it, but wanted a barrel in better condition, so they swapped it out for a “new” short barrel since you wouldnt be able to find (likely) another war time barrel in better condition.

thanks for the link!
 
I never saw the gun when it had the prohib barrel.

Last week when the owner showed it to me, it just looked like a regular p38.

It has quite a bit of wear on it, so I wouldnt be buying it for the condition, but I’m just curious about the history of it

The frame was steel. I wrote down the stamp codes and it showed the receiver was produced in 39 or 40 at Zella-Mehlis.

The barrel is from 1943 and the magazine and other parts all had different codes or prod yrs.
 
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A p38 (1938) with a 1934 barrel....
Anyways, the short barrel "gestapo" p38 are supposed to be a myth.... no proof they were ever produced that way. Of course a gunsmith could have cut down a factory original barrel, at any point in time. As it was mentioned before, they did produce factory short barrels post war, just not pre 45. A worn in Mixmaster p38.... maybe around 400-500. Hard to say, I think matching rc's go for 650.
 
After much consideration...... you are forgiven.
Sorry, I should have assumed that. I thought only the slides got an actual date stamp, but I guess certain waa numbers were only uses in specific years, and that's a way to tell.

I've played around a bit, and it turns out. You can't put a postwar barrel in a wartime slide. But, a postwar slide will go on a wartime frame. The barrels tradex has are postwar.
 
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