It's been almost 60 years since the end of WWII, but my nazi-marked gun just tried to kill me today! So I just recently bought a beautiful 99% P-38 (ac43), and took it out to shoot it for the first time today. On the first shot, I know something is really wrong when I feel the blow as something strikes me on the cheek. Ouch - not a good sign when pieces of your gun are flying off and hitting you in the face [;)] Luckily, I was unharmed - and found the pieces. It turns out that the cover had blown off, together with the rear sight. Does anyone know what caused this? Could it jsut be that the piece wasn't completely firmly in place, and it's fine now that I've re-attached it? Or does this point to some underlying as really dangerous problem? It's additionally ironic, because my old and ugly beat-up byf44 shoots fine. Here are some pictures, showing the gun and the parts. Let me know what you think - I really am curious. I've also emailed the people who sold me the gun (who are kind of experts on these and lugers) to hear what they think. [img]http://www.olin.wustl.edu/faculty/langfred/p38-1.jpg[/img] [img]http://www.olin.wustl.edu/faculty/langfred/p38-2.jpg[/img] [img]http://www.olin.wustl.edu/faculty/langfred/p38-3.jpg[/img] [img]http://www.olin.wustl.edu/faculty/langfred/p38-4.jpg[/img]

Towards the end of the war the NAZI's were turning out junk, pure junk, and using slave labor to make that junk, possibly you got one of that lot ???????

Doesn't look like any damage, If you found all the bits put it back together. That sheet metal cover thingy just snaps on and might be too loose " did the rear sight slop around before selfdisassembly ? " or you blew a primer etc .. I 've owned a couple of ww2 P38's but always felt guilty of shooting a collectable gun and bought one of those cheap used P1's to shoot the $#!+ out of ...

Thanks everyone. I'm hoping it's just something that won't happen again. Maybe I should email Hannah-R, but I don't want to hassle her if it's a minor thing. cyanide - ac43 means that it was built in 1943 at the Walter factory, where the quality was really good, and it was still not towards the end of the war. You are right that some of the 45 models can be pretty rough, particularly cyq-coded guns. tangeant - the rear sight was tight. I spent quite a bit of time with it before taking it out to shoot, making sure the trigger worked, the bolt stop, the double-action, the full chamber indicator, etc. I agree with not wanting to shoot a really nice one, and I am going to continue to shoot my beat-up byf44, but I did want to shoot this one a few times just to ensure everything was working right - good thing I did. [:)] Good to know it has happened to others and is not necessarily a gun-breaker. Thanks ETH! Phil_A_Steen - always do.

Hi DK, I have heard of this happening a few times when the rear sight cover was either not reattached all the way, or had been bent open slightly and loosened. No fatal flaw, just tighten it a bit and reinstall. And also always wear those shooting glasses! None of mine have ever come apart this way, but I don't generally remove rear sight covers for even a detail strip for this very reason. A pistol made at the Walther plant in 1943 is still of very high quality, and is a much better gun that the postwar P-1, IMO. Jusr reassemble, and try her again, this is not in any way dangerous.

Ive heard what might be a GI urban legend from WW2 vets that said when Wehrmacht soldiers were facing either death or capture they would sabotauge their P-38s by removing certain part and when the new owner went to fire it the slide would come back and hit the person in the face. Dont know if thats true or not, but it didnt seem to stop many GI's from picking Nazi pistols up and using them and bringing them home.

[quote]Originally Posted By Kar98: Urban legend, [b]DefensorFortis[/b]. And not even the right one for this gun. The "real" UL goes like "in the end, the Germans used slave labor, and that's why you can't trust the safety on late war P38s". I have yet to see proof of this one as well; methinks it's a variation of "yeah, and all I did was pull the trigger and it went off all by itself".[/quote] Or the "don't shoot any captured or found guns & ammo, the OSS/CIA/etc has planted ammo loaded with HE into their supply system....".

Dk Prof, That AC-43 is screaming "iv'e been refinished"! walther [b]never[/b] blued the locking lug at the factory during wartime production. They all left the factory in the white like this. http://image1ex.villagephotos.com/pubimage.asp?id_=1923704 They also painted the safty marking on the slide. http://image1ex.villagephotos.com/pubimage.asp?id_=1922903 now if i could only get them to show up

I'll trade you a steaming hot cup of coffee for it!!! Its broke! Don't ever use it ever again. My address is XXXXXXXX.

The reason the lug is blued is because the gun is a Russian capture and rework.

Hmmm......Educated Idiots why does this come to mind Hmmmm....Dick Nose Avatar....hmmmm