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Posted: 10/1/2015 5:07:56 PM EDT
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I am working on a deal for what looks like a very nice p38 with holster and 5 magazines. The price is around $500 for it.
My question is how strong is the p38? Will it stand up to current commercial and military 9mm ammo or will I have to load special for it? |
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Really depends on what P-38 you are looking at? Is it a wartime P-38? If so you need to watch out for CYQ guns as they were the lowest quality pistols made. If you are looking at a post war Walther try to get one with the steel hex lug in the frame as they will last longer. ETA: Germans used 124gr ball ammo and you will get best results with it. |
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I understand the concept of shooting mild loads in the aluminum framed P1.
But, the steel framed P38 was issued at a time when the Germans were using some very warm ammo. I find it hard to believe that the steel frame guns are that fragile. Not talking about shooting +p or +p+, but the idea that they won't hold up to standard pressure American ammo, which is usually mild by European standards, seems strange to me. Now, aluminum frame guns having a shorter service life I understand. Perhaps I am just failing to understand people's definition of "fragile". |
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Quoted: I understand the concept of shooting mild loads in the aluminum framed P1. But, the steel framed P38 was issued at a time when the Germans were using some very warm ammo. I find it hard to believe that the steel frame guns are that fragile. Not talking about shooting +p or +p+, but the idea that they won't hold up to standard pressure American ammo, which is usually mild by European standards, seems strange to me. Now, aluminum frame guns having a shorter service life I understand. Perhaps I am just failing to understand people's definition of "fragile". |
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I am still not convinced. Slides cracking on 75 year old guns? Many of which were produced during wartime conditions.
No one knows their history. Round counts may be extremely high, and some of that may indeed be with higher than intended pressures and ballistics. If you are going to consider the Walthers to be fragile, then you would have to consider all of its competition to also be fragile. Sounds like some have a case of high expectations, and are disappointed by reality. I am not suggesting using anything warm for practice shooting, and I think that is what the old guns should be used for, newer guns for serious purposes. I just don't accept the idea that they are fragile. It is something I have only read of in the last few years. Or, perhaps, the younger generation uses a different definition for fragile. 
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The original type slides of the P38 and P1 were indeed prone to cracking, which is why the later "fat" slide P1s were designed.
You also must remember that back in the day pistols were not shot to the high round counts folks do today. Unlike in civilian use today, where a pistol is a primary weapon, sidearms in military use then were secondary weapons that were carried a lot and shot very little. It wasn't really until the German Federal law enforcement units that were armed with the P38 and P1s in the late 50s and 60s, that the problems with the P38/P1 started to become apparent, owing to the more modern training regimens, and indeed higher powered ammo. I have heard the number 5000 bandied about as the service life of a P38/P1 when used with 9mm NATO 124gr. ball ammo. It is this issue,among others, that prompted the Germans to solicit for a new design to arm their police, that ended up giving us the Walther P5, Sig P6, and H&K P7, some of the most iconic and best handguns ever to come out of Germany. The general consensus is that if you use standard US spec 115 or 124 grain FMJ ammo you will be OK. NO plus P or NATO spec stuff. OH, and these pistols come from a time when JHP was non-existent, so function with hollow points will be very hit or miss. |
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