Walther P38's.

[Grove]

Well have my eyes set on this little beauty & was wondering what all you other P38 owners think of these fine pistols?

These pistols have any certian pro's/con's? Did a search on here but didnt find anything other then a few for sale.

I've had the liberty to put a couple mags through one @ the shooting range a couple months back & I have to say, Love at first sight. (And feel. )

Also, How available are extra magazines & other parts?

 

[Scarecrow]

Some of the old ones are on there last legs and can crack on you. Better leave the collector pistols at home unless you have a really good condition pistol.

However there are some newer production ones that have come in the last few years (Walther P1's) which should make excellent shooters. Magazines can come from ebay and maybe even TSE has a few cause they used to be or might even still have some P1's.

P1 is a aluminum framed P38 made after WW2 for west germany.

 

[.45colt]

P38 is a good pistol. I use a walter made (with cyq replacement slide) and it works perfectly. Not bad for parts.

 

[hnachaj]

If memory serves me right, P4's were exact copies made by Manurhin in France sold as Walthers, under license. As an aside, most if not all PPK, PPK/s made after about 1955 to the mid 80's, were all made and boxed by Manurhin and sold under both names! Those made between 1949 and 1955, were made in France but assembled in Germany. As the tooling wore out, the rest after that, were made in Verginia as invest cast and not forgings.

I have the last two consectutive serial number PP's made in Europe!

Best regards,
Henry

 

[CaptainW]

Yeah, I also like the P38/P1 feeling in hand. Depending on what you want a WW2 P38 or post war P1(basically identical). The current P1 on the market are factory refurbish and usually comes with spare magazine(and holster). Spare parts is not difficult to find. I heard some owner complains feeding problem with the P1 and I solve mine with sightly hotter reloads(and it is now shooting prefectly fine).

 

[goldb]

the p38 is a good solid military pistol about 20 years ahead of its time. It is somewhat heavy and overbuilt by some modern standards but then it was a military pistol and intentionally overbuild for strength. Do not recommend hot loads since it was designed for the parabellum. The trigger pull is a problem for a pure target pistol and the signts are substandard by todays target pistol standards. That said the trigger pull and sights are not bad just inferior to what todays target shooters use. Call it a challenge. Reloading will bring the price down to about 5 cents a round if you cast your own bullets. #2 alloy works well. I got one from Marstar a while back the bore was so good it still had bluing in it.

 

[hoote]

p38's

I have owned a few war time P38s with mostly good results. One thing I observed was that a complete replacement of springs smartened up every one I have had. War time springs with their doubtful quality plus age cause feed problems and general relability problems. All the p38s I have owned also shoot really low with modern ammo which can be solved by carefully lowering and profiling the front sight with a fine file, Spring kits are available from Brownells.

 

[OneBarfly]

I have a very nice '43 mauser marked P38. I was happy with it until I suffered from "top-popped" syndrome. This is a condition where the spring-loaded extractor separates itself from the top of the slide - depositing the rear sight + other "bits" all over the place. I was lucky in that I recovered all the parts. I tried to clean out the area where the extractor fits and put a little more "bend" in the springs to put more tension on it. Some say that this is not a normal condition, (defective extractor and/or hot loads) but I found it very disconserting and had no problem using the same ammo in my Glock and parabellum. Still a nice pistol. It shot extremely well and felt good in the hand - pretty to look at as well.

 

[bobbyjack]

Thats the dust cover comeing off! One must replace the recoil springs(with a good set of Wolfs)and the newer p4's have a full slide !

But still it is a piece of history,first double/sa with first decocker,and round indicator!

I have just bought one an AC 43 ,bring back no import markings,mag with correct markings!

I won't fire it untill I get new springs!

They were the cats ass when they came out,I sure wouldn't want to screw it up by cracking the slide!!!

Bob

 

[Keller]

I own both a P38 and a P1. The P38 is a Byf 43 and the slide did crack on me so now it just stays in the safe. I bought the P1 to replace the P38 and I just love it.

As for the feeding problems with P38/P1 type pistols, you HAVE to use round nose ammo to get any kind of reliability, semi wadcutters and non round nose bullets will rarely feed properly.


P1