P38 Question

I have a post war P38 and a P1. Both have been reworked in the late 1970s but neither got the steel hex insert, maybe that started in the '80s? The P1 got a fat slide but a thin slide is on the P38. Both are good shooters.
 
That was the run of 1500 I described earlier.
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Gotcha. When I read "post war" I got a mental image of "just after" the war.:D

The steel framed guns I was thinking of were something I saw in a fairly late (for me) Gun Digest. I vaguely remember them being around $1100.00 or so.

Interestingly enough, my local pawn shop had a Walther PP Super for sale not too long ago and whole bunch of ammo to go with it. I haven't seen it for a couple of months now, so I guess somebody got it.
 
The P38s had steel frames and had no problems with frame cracking.
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Which P38s? Do you mean the Nazi guns or the 1500 postwar steel guns you mentioned?

Because if you mean the majority of the post-war P38s then I do not understand your meaning.

Because those guns, marked P38, have aluminum alloy frames. Mine certainly does.

Bart Noir
 
The guns marked "P38" were made for the commercial market. Those marked "P1" with the NATO symbol were made for the Federal Republic military, but a production over-run was sold on the commercial market. Some P38's were given a phosphate finish, others were blued.

Only P1's received the hex-bolt upgrade, since those could be recalled; the P38's were sold all over the world and there was no practical way to have them found and returned for the modification.

Jim
 
Because those guns, marked P38, have aluminum alloy frames. Mine certainly does.
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I should rephrase. The P38s produced during the war and 1500 after the war are fine.

For about a decade after the war, P38s were being made with alloy frames before the P1 was released. So these P38s would be impacted.
 
My favorite post war Walther is the P5. It's a single stack 9mm with adjustable sights and a nice trigger. I own two and bot are sweet shooting pistols. I have a post war P38 and a P1, but the P5 is by far the most accurate and best looking. JMHO
 
Actually, the alloy frames were fine for most of the civilian market. It was only when the P1's were subjected to the rigors of familiarization firing and training that the problem with the cam began to surface. Since it is unlikely that Walther or anyone else will ever revive the thoroughly obsolete P38 design, and equally unlikely that anyone with a P38 or a P1 without the upgrade will fire the gun that much, the P1 fix will probably end the upgrades.

Jim
 
"My favorite post war Walther is the P5."

I very much like my P5's as well more so than any other Walther.

But the idea and implementation of using the same spring for the hammer and the heel magazine release is to me kinda dumb. :(

When the slide locks back on a empty mag the heel mag release is the most difficult to press.
 
The P4. I think I saw one 10 years back, at a gunshow here in Washington State

It is a short barreled P1, with a decock-only lever in place of the slide safety, automatic firing pin block, and no loaded chamber indicator.

Bart Noir
 
Just curious, has anyone else owned a P-4 Walther?

I bought two that were probably new in the box in the late 1980's when the police surplus guns were sold.
They came in a new Walther box with a used holster.

The P4 was a "stop gap" design done by Walther to give the German police a better gun then the P-38, until they could get their new P88 design finished.

What they did was modify the P-38 slide to eliminate the top cover and loaded chamber indicator pin.
The hammer had a hole in the face that fit over the firing pin so it could not contact the firing pin until the trigger was pulled, which lifted the firing pin up where the hammer could strike it.
The safety was simply fitted with a spring that snapped it back up when pushed down. This served as as a decocker.

The P4 was a measurably better gun then the P-38, eliminating the top cover loss problem and any risk of firing when the safety was applied and the hammer dropped.

Wish I had kept at least one of them.
 
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