Good two month
run. Nice front straps on those P38's.
That is the area that separates the keepers from the goers..
Love the super clean ones. November/2018 Tulsa gunshow, I accidently stumbled across a gorgeous P.38 byf43 i block. I was walking and walking (which is something you do a bunch of there with 11 acres of tables-hahaha), getting kind of tired. My eyes were blurring and things on tables were running together as I was scanning tables kind of fast. I had the “P.38 image” in my head as I scanned, which helps me quickly see one as I search. I walked past a table with some miscellaneous crap on it and as I passed this table up, my eyes caught the hammer/back receiver tang that is very distinctive of the P.38 (it was also mostly covered over with papers and such). I stopped, asked to see it and was amazed at how clean she was. Like she came out of the Mauser factory not too long ago. I was getting tired so I called one of my buddies that is HIGHLY knowledgeable in all things P.38, just to make sure I didn’t miss anything. The seller even let us take the grips off to check to make sure nobody etched their ID on it or whatever crazy crap you can think of that people will do to these. All clear, negotiated a little better price and she now sits amoung my other P.38’s.
Love the “plain Jane” ones that aren’t really special but are “rare” because of the gorgeous condition they are in.
Here’s that i block:
Post show photo (I also snagged a super nice “mod P38” there as well):
She even had a nice light layer of dust on it. Once I got after that with my RIG/Hoppies clear gun oil concoxion, it really made the finish come out nicely. Love it when they have that slight layer of dust on it. If they look good with that on it, wait till you “RIG it up”. Like a shinny new penny!
November/2016 Tulsa, same thing. It was dealer Friday and I was real close to our set up. I began walking past a table with two wood boxes, nothing else really on the table and nobody around. A note was left on the table on who and how to contact the seller. Inside one of the boxes was a super clean P.38 byf44 (like shown above in condition) and two Radoms (one late two lever and a three lever earlier one) in the same super clean condition. Called the seller, he came over. Got to tear them down and all clear as to what I could tell. I called another friend I was with that is all knowldgeable in both Radoms and P.38’s, just to have that second eye checking to make sure nothing was missed. All checked out. So, I bought the byf44 and late two lever Radom. Stupidly I left the three lever Radom. But, I was specifically looking for a later two lever Radom and later at the show, I found a nice ac45 that I also bought, so probably it worked out not getting the earlier Radom. Turned out one of the buddies that I came to the show with had it and brought it for sale. The ac45 turned out to be only a few numbers apart from my other ac45 that I have.
Photo I took just after getting home from that show (Before getting white crap out of numbers and oiling them down.) (Please excuse the AR mags. I got them because they were so cheap as I brought money there mainly to get mags I thought would be banned if Hillary had won. The dealers thought they would be worth a bunch too, but Trump won and they were only ten bucks a piece, instead of the forty they were going to be.)
