Like the Luger, the P.38's magazine held eight cartridges, and fired the 9mm Luger cartridge. Of course, after the first double-action pull, the pistol ejected the spent cartridge and loaded a fresh one from the magazine automatically, and the subsequent rounds were all fired single-action. Granted, it was a longer, heavier pull than the single action, but it was simple, and in a battlefield situation, Simple is Good. This meant that a soldier could carry the P.38 with a round in the chamber, hammer down, safely, and all he had to do to get the pistol into action was pull the trigger. Secondly, the P.38 was one of the first double-action semi-auto pistols fielded to a military force. First, it was of course cheaper to manufacture. Especially when you’re gearing up to conquer Europe, and maybe the world ( which thankfully didn't turn out so well), you’ve probably got better things you could spend marks on.Īccepted by Germany in 1938 (hence the designation), the P.38 offered some significant advantages over the old Luger. And honestly, when it comes to winning battles and wars, pistols really have a small role to play (unless you’re Sergeant York, but he had balls the size of cantaloupes, and the marksmanship skills to go with them, which makes him the exception that proves the rule), so equipping your armed forces with hand-fitted, expensive pistols doesn’t make much sense. See, the Luger, fine pistol and incredible example of Old World craftsmanship as it was, simply was too labor intensive and therefore too expensive to produce. The Germans were looking for a military side arm to replace the legendary P.08 Luger pistol. The P.38 has its roots in pre-war Nazi Germany.

Though it needs no introduction, for the benefit of the uninitiated I'll go into some detail here. I think Walther did not make a lot of them.The P1's predecessor is the famous P.38. Its frame was not machined to work with a locking block. So far I'm the only one to post that I owned a. However, every time we use a hammer drop or chamber a round moving the slide or bolt quickly in simi-autos, lever actions and pumps we should have them pointed so that we can live with the damage in the rare event one goes bang. Using Colt 1911 vocabulary all vintages of P-38s and P-1s have 'series 80 firing pin safeties.' The original 1930s P-38s had firing pin safeties that made them drop safe and I presume should prevent firing if something went wrong in the hammer drop mechanism. Supposedly they can wear causing an accidental discharge.

A P4 which was the next step in the P38/P1 evolution, these have a spring loaded decocker and trigger safety that prevents drop firing.Ī word of caution with any P38 or P1 DO NOT drop the hammer with the decocking lever when a live round is in the chamber,

Surplus walther p1 for sale