This is a page about my P38 restoration

This P38 is a Mauser made pistol with the following serial #’s, markings etc.

Matching serial #’s on the Bbl, slide & frame: 1786

Directly under the barrel is stamped 8 82 (or so it appears). Where the barrel and the slide meet the serial number is in front, 1786.

The front sight has “2” stamped in the left side.

The locking block has: 0 85 Stamped on it (this was not original to the gun)

The story behind the gun:

I obtained this gun from a friend when I was about 10 or 12 years old. The only parts that were left were the frame with takedown lever, barrel with front sight, and slide with safety lever but they were all intact as 1 unit. Through the years my father and I remarked how it would be nice to find parts for the gun and restore it.

Fast forward about 18 years to 2003. I dug up the “gun” and decided to put some time and money into finding parts for the gun. I looked through the Numrich site and was just about to make a purchase but really had no idea what I needed. I looked through the tech documents on several websites but was confused about firing pins etc. It was a day later my father emailed me with an Ebay auction for P38 parts. The auction was from Germany for a complete set of parts from a similar year/model P38, minus the barrel, slide and frame. I inquired with the seller, Mr. Uwe Kampe of the Hotel Silbermoewe Norderney (Hotel Silver Sea Gull, Norderney Germany). He said the parts were from a friend whose illegal P38 was confiscated. He said the practice is to destroy the barrel, slide and frame. They were allowed to strip the gun of all its parts beforehand. I bid on and won the auction. Originally from the picture, I was not able to determine if all the parts were there but upon receiving the parts and assembling the gun, I found I had everything I needed. I wound up with a spare front sight, takedown lever and safety lever along with an extended slide release lever and after market wooden grips. I won another auction for some plastic grips and an old P38 magazine. The magazine is rough looking, barely stamped P.38 on one side near the bottom plate. there are no other markings. The grips are kind of black and kind of brown, not really either. There are no date stamps, waffenamts or anything, just what I have photographed.

This was prior to my becoming a Glock armorer so I had reservations about firing it after putting it together. I put 2 rounds into the magazine, 1 to see if it would fire and the other to see if it would chamber the following round properly. Despite a nervous me standing around a large tree, everything was a success, and the gun is a real joy to shoot.

P38 » P38
   
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