Posted: 11/5/2024 2:19:50 PM EDT
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This little Walther has been a complete pain in the ass, but it has come a long way. Originally @drobs dropped it off with me to get the trigger working again, which in of itself wasn't a big to do, I really should've tried shooting this thing at that point.  He bought it with the hatchet barrel job already done by bubba at some point in it's life. Oh little did I know how bubba had fucked with this thing. I'd been asked to clean it up & get it looking right. I'm chronically short of time due to work & it turns out, finding a WW2 P38 barrel that isn't shot out & doesn't cost two arms and a leg isn't really that easy to do. It took months to find one. More on that later.  And here is where it went retarded. 100% jam-o-matic. Every time, all the time. Would not chamber or extract 2 rounds in a row, no matter what. Now bear in mind, like a dumbass, I hadn't tried shooting this with the bubba barrel. Asked drobs if he had & that was a big nope. Short story shorter, he told me to keep the thing & me being myself, I can't leave well enough alone. Full & complete 100% tear down & the problems became apparent. Bubba is a bastard. Ever seen a poorly homemade extractor that wonder of wonders, doesn't work. Here's one.  Next issue, the extractor plunger was made out of a piece of drill bit & way to short, or the clicky pen spring behind it wasn't strong enough. Probably both. The retainer lever plunger was literally a pointy bit of brass screw. Then quite literally every single spring in it was home made or reused from from something else. The transfer bar spring, yeah. Pretty sure that was a paperclip at some point in time. We'll the recoil springs may have been original, but they were so worn out, the slide wouldn't feed a round from the mag & lock the breech. Got a complete set of new springs form Wolfe. Then had the brilliant idea, or so I thought. The WW2 slide is rough, fair bit of corrosion. I know a really good restoration guy who can put back to factory fresh condition, but it ain't cheap. The only reason that I'd go that route is the barrel I'd found. Turns out that it's actually something kinda special & rare. It's a factory armorers replacement barrel made by CYQ. These went out to armorers un-numbered. So with the original slide & frame, it'd be correct. But regardless, ain't got the cash for that for the foreseeable future. So I'll just put together a P1 slide & use that for now right..... That was another rabbit hole. I've never messed with P1 pistols. Though they were just a P38 with an aluminum frame. I didn't do my homework. I was wrong. Very wrong. The only fiddly bits that swapped over from the wartime slide to the LATE production P1 slide, the rear sight, extractor & loaded chamber bar. Firing pin, dust cover, selector, both firing pin blocks all are different & I figured it out 1 part at a time. Shipping prices suck ass by the way. Finally rounded everything up, including a replacement extractor & the proper P1 parts. Plus I got out the mini lathe & made replacements for the retainer plunger & extractor plunger. I copied the ones out of the daughter's shooter AC P38. Found some replacement grips as well, since I loath how the P1 grips look. Traded off the shorty barrel for another mag as well, the one it had has some issues I've yet to get lined out. Like the follower is so bent that the slide won't always pick up another round.   Rare barrel. It was just pure dumb luck getting it.    Eventually it'll go to the restoration guy. |
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I was hoping you would find this stamp somewhere on the frame... Attached File https://www.legacy-collectibles.com/rare%20gestapo%20john%20martz%20p.38.html |
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I've had to learn the hard way on a couple of guns like that, a late Radom with a single lever, a CZ-52 that had been bubbaed, and a Iraqi Tariq with most of the small parts gone. I have never seen an unserialed CYQ barrel, that's pretty awesome. Thanks for sharing about the P1/P38 non-interchange. I'm sure I'll be messing with one soon. |
Tennessee Squire - F&AM - PBA
LE Armorer - Montgomery NRA Grad
LE Armorer - Montgomery NRA Grad
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Originally Posted By Cantshootstrate: I've had to learn the hard way on a couple of guns like that, a late Radom with a single lever, a CZ-52 that had been bubbaed, and a Iraqi Tariq with most of the small parts gone. I have never seen an unserialed CYQ barrel, that's pretty awesome. Thanks for sharing about the P1/P38 non-interchange. I'm sure I'll be messing with one soon. I honestly didn't know about the un-numbered replacement parts at all & I doubt that the seller did either, or it would have cost many times what I gave for it. Lord knows that a guy on another forum offered me more than I gave for it and then promptly jumped my ass when I politely passed. Then I wasn't very polite. I usually do better researching on guns before diving into buying parts, I just utterly blew it this time. No excuse for it what so ever. Next up is an HK G3 kit & maybe, just maybe, I'll get to the little double stack Makarov someone gave me probably 10 years ago. It went through a fire & needs essentially everything. Has a fantastic bore though, rest of it is a rusty turd. Evapo rust & a spray finish. |