Henry Rifle Forums

Hey gang, had a request from Redthies for a pic of the P-38 in my list, so I went out a took a few.

The story here is my dad bought it from another GI on the ship back home when there was an announcement that all the duffel bags were to be searched. My dad, taking the chance they would not search the 10k's of bags, bought it from the GI.

I believe he said he paid $50, which was A LOT of money back then to pay for something that could well get taken away.

The original story was it was crated (new) and all the GI's around grabbed one, the one selling it to my dad on the way home

BTW he had already sent (mail) back a Mauser along with the helmet and a few other things that he found on a dead German (no cool story ). Somehow I ended up with another Mauser, but none have been loaded/shot.

Anyway, back to the P-38, I gave the 2nd clip to best friend, big mistake. Every thing else is there. I've never seen one in better shape, but of course it's not a Walther, or Mauser, so I guess I'll put it out in the trash with my 1975 model 70, and my 70's hardtail strat

BTW, when I did some research a few years back I came up with it was made by Spreewerke in 1943 as a HUGE production run, the. Their claim to fame was the 88mm gun the Americans so feared. My dad hated the shelling the most. Maybe he wanted this as a trophy of payback

Edit to add: For some reason I was thinking 20rds/box instead of 50rds/box (pistol) so probably more like 200 total rounds

Henry88 wrote: The story here is my dad bought it from another GI on the ship back home when there was an announcement that all the duffel bags were to be searched. My dad, taking the chance they would not search the 10k's of bags, bought it from the GI.

That's a great story, Henry88. Thanks for sharing it and the photos with us. It's a national treasure by way of provenance. It also shares some great company with your Fender and Winchester. Very cool.

Very nice ! I have a 1960’s German police P38. They are very cool.

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The one I want has wings.

https://www.lockheedmartin.com/en-us/ne ... /p-38.html

The one I can afford has been called the army's greatest invention.............

P-38 CAN OPENER

Henry88 wrote:.....but of course it's not a Walther.....

Your P-38 isn’t a Walther?

Sir Henry wrote:

Henry88 wrote:.....but of course it's not a Walther.....

Your P-38 isn’t a Walther?

No SirH it is not. Many were also built by Mauser and Spreewerke, the latter being the German national munitions manufacturer. The Spreewerke are usually rougher than the other two. Towards the end of the war, the quality of all three went down, so the earlier the better, 1943 being pretty good (before the bombings).

Shawlerbrook wrote:Very nice ! I have a 1960’s German police P38. They are very cool.

Shawlerbrook, great to hear that. How has yours performed?

Mine has never jammed, failed to fire or eject, etc., but I haven't fired it that much, maybe 100 rnds (and my dad never fired it at all).

If it was busted out of a case, than the original GI would have been the only other person to fire it (if he did), and it looks the part.

LIke I said, you would be hard pressed to find one cleaner, and it would be $$$; priceless if a Walther.

Here's a side by side with my Legends P-08. Hard to tell which one is real............

Where was this one made?

Sir Henry wrote:Where was this one made?

Manufacturer "Mauser Werke A.G." (byf43 code Variation with acceptance E/135 approx. 162,000 pieces - year of production record)

http://www.tague.at/pistolen/en_index.h ... en_p38.htm

Yeah, SirH what CT said. I'm no expert, the extend of my research basically consisting of a few hours.

And I don't care. I can tell you I was down to two guns at one point; this and my Winchester M 70.

Since then I rebuilt. But another thing that bears mentioning is how the M9 was based on the P-38; a fact that did not elude old Hickok45

https://youtu.be/qR_Mnliebmg?t=215

That was a good video.

Henry88 wrote:

Sir Henry wrote:

Henry88 wrote:.....but of course it's not a Walther.....

Your P-38 isn’t a Walther?

No SirH it is not. Many were also built by Mauser and Spreewerke, the latter being the German national munitions manufacturer. The Spreewerke are usually rougher than the other two. Towards the end of the war, the quality of all three went down, so the earlier the better, 1943 being pretty good (before the bombings).

It’s a great pisol either way. It’s likesaying a WW2 Jeep is better if it was a Willys as opposed to a Ford GPW. Frankly, I’d prefer to have a GPW over aWillys. I find it surprising that there are no Wehrmacht proof marks on it?

One of my friends had a foot locker full of really cool stuff from his uncle who was a Major in WW2. Among the neat souvenirs was a silk map of Normandy from D-Day and a Schmeisser MP40. That one came to a sad end though.

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... and the rest of the story is?

Redthies wrote:... and a Schmeisser MP40. That one came to a sad end though.

Mags wrote:.... and the rest of the story is?

Well, full auto isn’t exactly legal here, and they changed some regulations and as part of that offered an amnesty if you turned in any guns. ie: if you have an Uzi buried in the back yard and were suddenly worried about ATF taking you down, you could drop it in at your local PD with no questions asked. Well, he’d just had his second kid and was nervous about having it around and turned it in. He should have had it deactivated and then it would at least be around still instead of being paper clips.

I try not to bring it up often as he still really regrets that choice.

...sad regrettable end indeed.

I have always wanted one of the P38 but never have come across one where I buy my guns.