Walter P38 collector and history, but shooting it?

In the post-war era, Walther* produced a new version of the wartime P.38 for the commercial market; those were designated "P38" without the period. When West Germany re-armed, they reinstated the weapon designations G for Gewehr (rifle), P for Pistole, etc., but used the U.S. system of numbering within a class and without a period, hence G1, G3, P1, etc., instead of the year.

So the P1 was the new P38 as made for the Bundeswehr, the West German army.

*Early on, many Walther guns were made by Manurhin in France, but that is not relevant to the thread.

Jim
 
Been shooting mine for years. Its been a fun range gun, very different feel compared to my other semi autos, but that's why I like it.
 
Shoot It!

I had an all matching AC/42. The DA trigger pull was horrible but the SA was pretty nice. Shot hundreds of 124 grain ball thru it with no problems. I had a P5 which is nearly the same gun with a full dust cover and a 3.25 inch barrel. I put thousands of rounds thru that and had to get new recoil springs. The P5's trigger was much better than the P38's.
 
I've shot this one many times. It is okay, shoots like pretty much like any other 9mm from the era. One thing that is different though, it ejects to the left.

1944 cyq (Spreewerk)
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"I suspect S&W more less copied that shape with the Model 39."

A lot of folks called the S&W the "P.39".

Jim
 
I grew up shooting one, wish I had it.

In the early '80s I was 8-10 years old and was with my dad at a department store called Van Leunens in the Cincy, OH area and bought one. It's box looked very much like this one (google search). We shot that pistol for years, factory ammo & a bazillion handloads back in the day when a brass tumbler was myself and a rag :). Accuracy? We used to compete shooting bottle caps at 30 yards and in the 5 years or so that I shot & cleaned this pistol it never had a failure of any kind. I haven't thought of that gun in years, so thanks OP for reminding me of some good times.
 

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Welcome to The Firing Line, digdave. This is a great place to hang out and learn and discuss.

I can target shoot the P38 better than the P1 since the earlier gun has the thin front sight. More target-y like, you see.

But once I am trying to get on target rapidly and the target is black, just like the thin front sight, I find the P1 thicker combat sight to be a better choice. Meaning I can find it and center it on target faster.

Bart Noir
 
My 1943 Walther is a good shooter, some feel the very late war ones are questionable. IIRC German ammunition was loaded hotter than ours, so that is not an issue. A wartime one may benefit from new springs. I got mine cheap because the safety was "broken", turned out it needed a new firing pin. There are some differences in parts-the firing pin e.g.-between wartime and postwar designs, so the correct parts must be installed.
 
I have a post-WWII, commercially sold P-38 with aluminum alloy frame that I & friends shoot several times yearly. It is the particular favorite of one friend; he claims he shoots better with it than any other gun. As mentioned above, it has the thin front sight, but I've added a dot of orange paint to it for visibility. One day, I expect that the frame will develop a crack since it doesn't have the hex head bolt that the P-1's received.

Nice shooter, oversized by today's standards for a single stack 9mm. One little odd thing is that it ejects spent cartridges to the left (the only pistol that does to my limited knowledge).

The WWII models are true pieces of history. Those made later, P38's & P1's - through the 1990's if my bad memory is correct - make excellent shooters.
 
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cc- some earlier Walther designs would eject to the left, some (like the PP / PPK series) ejected to the right. Then the P38 went all lefty again, as did the P5 model which came from it. Following that, the later Walthers stayed as right-ejectors.

I'd sure like to know the reasoning behind that left-right schizophrenia. Maybe I should wander over to the Walther forum and ask.

And another difference between the P38 and the later P1, is that the P1 has a slightly stronger slide. The thin sides on the slide, which lie on each side of the barrel when ready to shoot, are a little taller. You really have to have one of each see the difference. It is not so obvious in photo's.

Bart Noir
 
The left side ejection of the P.38 (and its predecessors and successors) has been a subject for a lot of discussion. AFAIK, no one today knows the real reason, and it would probably have made no difference to the German military.

FWIW, I suspect it might have come about because of the desire to use the same spring setup for both the extractor and the slide mounted safety; putting both on the same side simplified the slide and required less machine operations. The ejector could have gone on either side.

Jim
 
Jim, your theory makes a lot of sense!

In the field of engineering, we call that a bit of elegance. One spring instead of two.

I am embarrassed that I didn't realize that the spring was also used on the safety lever, since I did change out an extractor.

Bart Noir
 
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