Tiger 2 Tank
Senior Member
Late war P.38 “Mod P38” pistols
Hello,
Besides collecting G/K.43 rifles, I also collect P.38’s. One area of P.38’s that really intrigues me is a little subgroup of late war commercial pistols called “Mod P38” guns. There was the late “Mod HP”, then the “Mod P38” pistols, then the ac45 “0 series”, which continued from the “Mod P38” pistol line.
So, what was Walther doing at such a late stage making commercial P.38’s? That’s some of the mystique of these pistols that make them attractive to me. Not to mention that a lot of them are in remarkably nice collecting condition. Some say that a lot of these got to Volkssturm units. Also, only qualified people could buy these (that had the money). That translates to me as Party officials, high ranking military officers, etc. Just makes these interesting.
So, one odd thing I have noticed on these “Mod P38” pistols is on the locking blocks. I have 4 “Mod P38” pistols in my collection at this time. On all of them, the last three serial number digits are on the locking blocks, but on the later three of them, also a “K” letter block was stamped on these. On my four, the earlier one does not have the “K”. For the longest time, I could not figure out why this was stamped on these. I’ve also seen this “K” letter block stamped on others I have seen for sale. This past Tulsa gun show, I met with an advanced P.38 collector; Dave Shike. Shike has written the book “The wartime P.38 Pistols, volume 3-1945 Military and Volkssturm Pistols”. I told him about these locking blocks. So, I think he has “unofficially” figured out what had happened and it makes a lot of sense. He stated that; quite simply, Walther had a lot of ac44 k block locking blocks left over and these excesses were moved over to the “Mod P38” assembly line. On ac44’s, the last block before ac45 was the “L” block. There are some ac44 P.38’s where the k block is over stamped with l (“L”).
So, another little mystery may be solved. At least for me it has been. Made a lot of sense anyway as Walther wasn’t discarding anything. Here’s photos of what I am talking about:
So, if you have one of these P.38’s, check and see if yours has this “K”.
Hello,
Besides collecting G/K.43 rifles, I also collect P.38’s. One area of P.38’s that really intrigues me is a little subgroup of late war commercial pistols called “Mod P38” guns. There was the late “Mod HP”, then the “Mod P38” pistols, then the ac45 “0 series”, which continued from the “Mod P38” pistol line.
So, what was Walther doing at such a late stage making commercial P.38’s? That’s some of the mystique of these pistols that make them attractive to me. Not to mention that a lot of them are in remarkably nice collecting condition. Some say that a lot of these got to Volkssturm units. Also, only qualified people could buy these (that had the money). That translates to me as Party officials, high ranking military officers, etc. Just makes these interesting.
So, one odd thing I have noticed on these “Mod P38” pistols is on the locking blocks. I have 4 “Mod P38” pistols in my collection at this time. On all of them, the last three serial number digits are on the locking blocks, but on the later three of them, also a “K” letter block was stamped on these. On my four, the earlier one does not have the “K”. For the longest time, I could not figure out why this was stamped on these. I’ve also seen this “K” letter block stamped on others I have seen for sale. This past Tulsa gun show, I met with an advanced P.38 collector; Dave Shike. Shike has written the book “The wartime P.38 Pistols, volume 3-1945 Military and Volkssturm Pistols”. I told him about these locking blocks. So, I think he has “unofficially” figured out what had happened and it makes a lot of sense. He stated that; quite simply, Walther had a lot of ac44 k block locking blocks left over and these excesses were moved over to the “Mod P38” assembly line. On ac44’s, the last block before ac45 was the “L” block. There are some ac44 P.38’s where the k block is over stamped with l (“L”).
So, another little mystery may be solved. At least for me it has been. Made a lot of sense anyway as Walther wasn’t discarding anything. Here’s photos of what I am talking about:
So, if you have one of these P.38’s, check and see if yours has this “K”.
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