Walther P-38 Nazi marked 1943

Although I tend to concentrate on U.S. Military surplus weapons I found this one interesting. It was imported to the U.S. at some point by the IASO company out of Sacramento, CA and was stamped as such on the bottom of the slide.

It looks in very good shape. Nice find. Are ya gonna shoot it?

I keep toying with the idea of looking for a WWII model but I keep balking at the idea of buying one and then not shooting it. I've got a brace of P1's (one "German" and the other Manurhin) and a P4. I have no qualms about shooting any of them as they have limited collector value. But the real thing....I'd think twice about using that a bunch.

Have fun with it...and make your shooting pals envious. As both a piece of history and the precursor to a whole line of S&W's you got a winner.

THREEDFLYER said:

Although I tend to concentrate on U.S. Military surplus weapons I found this one interesting. It was imported to the U.S. at some point by the IASO company out of Sacramento, CA and was stamped as such on the bottom of the slide.

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Nice one. Interesting that it came over so late (after 1986) that it needed an importer mark. At least they were considerate enough to hide it

The importer is IA CO, by the way, not IASO. Stands for InterAmerican Company. Old Sacramento Armory was their retail outlet, plus they did wholesale and class 3.

Redcoat3340 said:

.... I've got a brace of P1's (one "German" and the other Manurhin) and a P4. I have no qualms about shooting any of them as they have limited collector value. ....

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Just a side note about your P1's:

The quotation marks should go around "Manurhin".

Both are German-made at Walther/Ulm.

Very nice. I have a few WW2 P38's myself. To bad it's import marked. I thought it was 1968 not 1986 that all guns imported had to have the mark.

Very nice find, one of "my bucket" list guns too.

Looks like you did OK. Heard the Walther made guns were often better finished than the CYQ produced P-38s. Have shot up a lot in price over the last few years. Guess collectors have really jumped on em.

Absalom said:

Nice one. Interesting that it came over so late (after 1986) that it needed an importer mark. At least they were considerate enough to hide it .

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I think you meant “1968”, but a ton of these were brought over in the 80’s. One company, FGS, used to put their import mark under the grips until the BATF made companies put the marks in more conspicuous places. I’ve had more than one crooked or perhaps just misinformed seller try to sell me an FGS import as a vet bringback!

diyj98 said:

I think you meant “1968”, but a ton of these were brought over in the 80’s...

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No, 1986. These were “military surplus” and banned from import by the GCA from 1968 until the FOPA of 1986, which allowed them again, but only with importer mark.

Absalom said:

No, 1986. These were “military surplus” and banned from import by the GCA from 1968 until the FOPA of 1986, which allowed them again, but only with importer mark.

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You’re correct on the surplus. I wasn’t thinking. There was a ton of P38’s and Luger imported in the 80’s

Nice. I have a Nazi marked FN1922, someday I want to get a Nazi marked Hi Power...some day. I passed one up a couple years ago for $900 thinking it was robbery, I'm kicking myself now.

A nice find. It definitely has the patina. I settled for a much less sexy post war model. I probably would not shoot it.

Very nice Walther, looks all orig and matching.

That was a nice way to mark the Import Marking,,if there is a 'nice way' to do it.
Early on after the '86 law gave the go ahead to start importing Military Surplus once again with the stipulation that this Import Marking had to be present,,many of the importers took a bit of time and effort to place the marking out of sight so to speak.
The lettering was small, some nearly micro in size. The marking on rifles were generally under the bbls at the muzzle and on pistols they were placed on the bottom of the butt if possible, bottom of slide rails like this, or an out of the way spot that didn't scream look at me, I'm an Import Marking.

After a few years, ATF/Customs must have tightened up the regs and larger lettering appeared, the billboard style markings that leave no doubt it's a post 1986 import,,and that dreaded Dot-Matrix type marking that so many dislike.

Desirable style & placement of Import Markings if your are stuck with having them on a firearm.,,and it's been 30+ years already that they've been part of the scene.
They don't change the history of the firearm any, they just tell you that the gun was imported into the USA post 1986 if they are there.

2152hq said:

...
They don't change the history of the firearm any, they just tell you that the gun was imported into the USA post 1986 if they are there.

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And boy, do they tell you sometimes

Here, on a West Berlin police, Manurhin-stamped P1, is the opposite of that IACO placement on the OP's pistol:

Nice example of a Walther made in ‘43.

Since I am mostly interested in Mausers, I jumped on a BYF42 for $550.00, (back 30 yrs ago.) what I received was a BYF43. I called “them” up and kinda complained, so I was refunded $75.00 with an apology. All the BYF42’s were gone no wonder. These two guys had hundreds of P38’s but I can’t remember their business name.

This one is discreetly import marked UNDER the left grip panel.

I can’t understand it being suggested you NOT shooting yours. Shoot it for for sure. My youngest boy shot mine better than I did when he was 12.

Jim

My Dad bought this one, a BYF 44, just outside of Martin, TN in the early 60's. My uncle, who was my mother's older brother, had been offered this pistol by the owner and since he was a "Colt" man, and knew my Dad was collecting WWII handguns, passed the deal on to him. I recall the the price as $75.00, a princely sum in those times.

A little background may be in order. My Dad and Uncles James went through basic training together in WWII. My Dad was in charge of the a particular group of recruits from Jackson, TN and when the train pulled into Nashville, my Dad observed a tall, dark headed guy embraced in a long kiss with a "good looking gal in a full length mink coat."

It was James but, not my Aunt Effie, who he married after the war. James introduced my Dad to his sister Margorie, a/k/a Marge and the rest is why my sister and I are walking on God's earth today.

James and my Dad, also "James" but, called "Jim," after basic, received orders to report to Camp Gruber, Oklahoma with the 42nd Rainbow Division. After attempting to "retrain" several groups of Air Corps draftees to become infantry, my Dad put in for a transfer to the airborne but, ended up in the 32nd Red Arrow. My uncle followed later but, they both ended up in the Pacific and were involved in the Leyte invasion.

Dad was involved in Buna and Gona actions and wounded on Leyte. James went through the rest of the Pacific campaign, including Okinawa. He told me stories where the guys in his outfit would be offered bribes to be lowered down in caves, by rope armed with a Thompson and a 50 round drum to entice the Japanese to surrender or else. James retuned, physically unscathed, married Effie, became an optometrist and raised two sons. One became a CPA and an attorney and the oldest became an optometrist and joined his dad in practice

My Dad, after marrying Marge, finally took advantage of the GI bill and finished dental school. After a one and a half years of dental practice he returned to medical school and practiced medicine for 29 years.

This is just an example of what members of the greatest generation accomplished after their service.

2152hq said:

Very nice Walther, looks all orig and matching.

That was a nice way to mark the Import Marking,,if there is a 'nice way' to do it.
Early on after the '86 law gave the go ahead to start importing Military Surplus once again with the stipulation that this Import Marking had to be present,,many of the importers took a bit of time and effort to place the marking out of sight so to speak.
The lettering was small, some nearly micro in size. The marking on rifles were generally under the bbls at the muzzle and on pistols they were placed on the bottom of the butt if possible, bottom of slide rails like this, or an out of the way spot that didn't scream look at me, I'm an Import Marking.

After a few years, ATF/Customs must have tightened up the regs and larger lettering appeared, the billboard style markings that leave no doubt it's a post 1986 import,,and that dreaded Dot-Matrix type marking that so many dislike.

Desirable style & placement of Import Markings if your are stuck with having them on a firearm.,,and it's been 30+ years already that they've been part of the scene.
They don't change the history of the firearm any, they just tell you that the gun was imported into the USA post 1986 if they are there.

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All guns that are brought into this country since 2002 by a registered importer need to be marked on frame, receiver, barrel or slide with model, calibre, name, city & state of the importer in a conspicuous place. Minimum depth is 0.003" and minimum size is 1/16".

Nowadays most importers and manufacturers use laser engravers that can do an amazing job but cost in between a compact car and a luxury vehicle.

All guns imported after 1986 required the Importer Marking ,,both Military Surplus and Commercial Sporting arms)

The 2002 ruling was to establish that minimum size and depth of the lettering used for those import markings (and for serial numbers as well).
2002 is the answer to my previous post above 'After a few years, ATF/Customs must have tightened up the regs and larger lettering appeared, ..."

Thank you for clarifying that and including the year the minimum size marking was initiated.

Another thing the ATF wasn't thrilled with was with rifles such as the MosinNagant where the mfg ser# is actually imprinted on the bbl of the rifle at the breech end and not on the recv'r itself.
Early on, Importers mearly placed their mark on the bottom of the bbl at the muzzle or on somewhere else on the rifle and that was that.
ATF not liking it at all,,the rifles were being imported w/o a ser# as none was on the recv'r.
For a while some importers copied the orig # off the bbl and restamped in onto the recv'r. Some nicely doing the job on the right frame rail so it was covered when the bolt handle was down and closed.

Time consuming probably and when the flood of M/N came in, the DotMtrix monster was cranked up and an entirely new ser# was assigned to each rifle (and a lengthy one) along with the rest of the importer info required. That ended up punched into the recv'r on the left side starting on the front ring and going back. The markings are huge, but probably quick to do, satisfy ATF/Customs and by applying a new ser# that the importer assigns, inventory and record keeping must be very simple.

No chance of duplicating a ser# from any firearm already imported as the new #'s are all coded with the importers name and rifle type, ect.
That duplication is something an imported is strickly forbidden from doing as weird as it sounds.

2152hq said:

Another thing the ATF wasn't thrilled with was with rifles such as the MosinNagant where the mfg ser# is actually imprinted on the bbl of the rifle at the breech end and not on the recv'r itself.
Early on, Importers mearly placed their mark on the bottom of the bbl at the muzzle or on somewhere else on the rifle and that was that.
ATF not liking it at all,,the rifles were being imported w/o a ser# as none was on the recv'r.
For a while some importers copied the orig # off the bbl and restamped in onto the recv'r. Some nicely doing the job on the right frame rail so it was covered when the bolt handle was down and closed.

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Not only did the ATF not like that the Soviets put the serial on the barrel, but they didn't like the Cyrillic letters either. Some importers attempted to transliterate the letters, with very mixed results. This is why many of the more recent imports have clearly "made up" serials.

As for putting the serial on the barrel, the Soviet view was likely that the barrel would never be removed except MAYBE in a depot. With 27 million (estimated) Mosins out there, it's not like they were short of the things.

"Made up" serials for Enfield rifles came about because of the faint electropenciled marks that were typical on many WWII built No.4 rifles. It would be interesting to know how many Enfields were entered onto 4473 papers with the same serial. "Enfield" can cover at least four different types of rifle, and serials even repeat within types.

LVSteve said:

..... It would be interesting to know how many Enfields were entered onto 4473 papers with the same serial. "Enfield" can cover at least four different types of rifle, and serials even repeat within types.

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On a side note: For that confusion you don’t even need made-up serial numbers. Pre-GCA of 1968, most manufacturers used straight numerical serials for each model. Comes up regularly on NCIC checks. Try to calculate some time how many different guns are covered by the typical parameters “revolver, S&W, .38, #12345”.