need help with ID on P-38

[sheepdawg]

I imagine some here also remember the time when you could walk into any pawnshop in America and find P-38s and Lugers on display priced at $25. Nambus? You could hardly give them away.

The P-38s were $25, the Lugers were more, they had the mystique.

 

[DocB]

P-38's were $35, and I couldn't afford one. Lugers were $65 (the same as a new Smith), and I didn't even think about having one of those. The Nambu was $10, so I bought one. The year was 1960. They were all available for mail-order sale through gun magazine ads; but. I never got one like that. The pawn shops and consignment shops in SE Georgia always had a few available. Had to be within walking distance because I was only 13. I would do a 6 mile round trip to get one. That was about my limit.

 

[PALADIN85020]

When I was in the Army in the early '60s, I picked up a P.38 cheap at a pawn shop, but it turned out to have a bulged barrel near the muzzle. I later chopped off the offending portion, put a front sight from a pellet gun on it, and sold it to a guy who thought the "shorty" was cool.

I also had a bad experience with a late war P.38 (1945 Spreewerke as I recall). After buying it at a gun show, I engaged the safety and chambered a live round in my back yard, pointing the gun at the ground. BAM! Turns out the slave-labor example was either booby-trapped or the safety had crystalized, as many had. I returned it to the guy I bought it from, and explained that I wanted a P.38, not an MP.38!

At any rate, I secured a very clean all-matching ac 43 as a keeper - it's a nice example and excellent shooter. Here's a pic, complete with a WWII iron cross.

John

 

[Absalom]

When I was in the Army in the early '60s, I picked up a P.38 cheap at a pawn shop, but it turned out to have a bulged barrel near the muzzle. I later chopped off the offending portion, put a front sight from a pellet gun on it, and sold it to a guy who thought the "shorty" was cool.
.....

I hope he didn’t think he was getting the uncommon P38k “shorty” ...

 

[captainjohnsofd]

I cracked the original slide on my later model P-1 shooting standard ammo. Luckily CDNN had postwar P-1 parkerized slides for sale stripped for $20. Used parts from old slide. Not matching slide and frame anymore but it fires as good as new.

 

[Absalom]

And if you want to Czech out ... umm, I mean check out some really obscure corners of the P38 collector field, take a look at the parts guns assembled in Czechoslovakia in 1946 (among other things, Spreewerke had a satellite plant there during the German occupation).

CZ 46