Got my P-38

[xtarheel]

I'd been looking for a while but the price on decent WW-II vintage pieces were getting sky high. I found a post war (1962) import. Marked P-38 made by Walther. I assume it was a German Police trade in. Frame is aluminum, the rest is steel. All three numbers match, bore is excellent. It came with a black German holster and an extra magazine. Even came with a Greman cleaning kit. I paid $285 plus tax. I didn't think that was too bad for a "shooter". What do you think?

 

[capttom]

Love mine

I bought one a year or so ago and love it. I think mine ran $300 at the Pasadena, Tx gunshow. It's from 1978 and the German's ran than through an arsenal every 6-7 years to check them out; yours should have the arsenal dates stamped on the frame. Mine shoots 125 gr. HP where I want them to go. I wish i had more opportunty to shoot it. Right now, it sits on the bedside nightstand. The only quibble I have is that it's not a carry gun, but I didn't buy it for that.
BTW, technically it's a P-1.
Hope you enjoy the piece.

 

[alamo]

Your price wasn't bad. If you had ordered it from AIM, you would have paid about that much after shipping and transfer fee:

http://www.aimsurplus.com/acatalog/Walther.html

 

[xtarheel]

I stopped by the gun club on the way home tonight to function fire it. One magazine is marked P-38 9mm, the other P-1 9mm. Both functioned flawlessly with bulk Winchester FMJ. Set up the corono, averaged right at 1,200 fps. I'm happy...

 

[Retro]

You might want to replace the P1 plastic grip plates with wooden ones made by e-gunparts.com:

http://www.e-gunparts.com/DisplayAd.asp?chrProductSKU=882010&chrSuperSKU=&MC=

I have held a WWII P38 before, and the old gun was extremely well-balanced. The P1 however does not look very balanced because of that post-war puny black plastic grip plates; they made the slide seem a lot more bulkier and top heavy.

Originial P38 wooden grips are fatter and oversized, and e-gunpart.com wooden grips duplicated the WWII look pretty well, and my P1 looked amazing after I replaced the grips.

FYI.

 

[xtarheel]

Thanks for the link Retro. I placed a order for the military style.

 

[Retro]

No problem, man.

Another thing, the wooden grip is walnut color (light brown), and original WWII grip is reddish dark dark brown (almost black), and you can always sand off the originial finish with 1000 Grt sandpaper, and repaint and finish with that dark hue.

See the original colors:

http://www.euroarms.net/Mailing/MailingIMG/031220IMG/WALT-P38-031220_01.jpg