Description
One of the finest handguns ever produced, the P38 Parabellum (“for War”) pistol is chambered in 9mm. This fine weapon was manufactured under direct military contract in 1944 by Walther (Code marked AC) and retains 95%+ original finish. The action is silky smooth and the composition grips are in fine condition, as is the bore. All visible numbers match and finish is uniform overall. This fine handgun came from the estate of a US GI who served in combat in Italy and Germany in 1944 through the end of the War in 1945 and was brought back as a war trophy. If you want one of these, this one will NOT disappoint you!
As with any weapon over 50 years old, it is NOT warranted to be safe to shoot–always have a weapon checked out by a competent gunsmith before firing. Mechanically, this example appears to be in fine condition overall. FFL or C&R required for transfer–NO EXCEPTIONS!
—
The Walther P38 (originally written Walther P.38) is a 9 mm semi-automatic pistol that was developed by Carl Walther GmbH as the service pistol of the Wehrmacht of Germany around 1938. It was intended to replace the costly Luger P08, the production of which was scheduled to end in 1942. The P.38 was a cutting edge semi-automatic pistol design which introduced technical features still used today in current commercial and military semi-automatic pistols, including the Beretta 92FS and its M9 sub-variant adopted by the United States military in 1985.
The P38 was the first locked-breech pistol to use a double-action/single-action (DA/SA) trigger (the earlier double-action PPK was an unlocked blowback design, but the more powerful 9×19mm Parabellum round used in the P38 mandated a locked breech design). The shooter could chamber a round, use the safety-decocking lever to safely lower the hammer without firing the round, and carry the weapon with a round chambered. The lever can stay on “safe”, or if returned to “fire”, the weapon remains safely “ready” with a long, double-action trigger pull for the first shot. Pulling the trigger cocks the hammer before firing the first shot with double-action operation. The firing mechanism extracts and ejects the first spent round, cocks the hammer, and chambers a fresh round for single-action operation with each subsequent shot – all features found in many modern day handguns. Besides a DA/SA trigger design similar to that of the earlier Walther PPKs the P38 features a visible and tactile loaded chamber indicator in the form of a metal rod that protrudes from the rear of the slide when a round is chambered.
