P-38 Opinions Please

[sellers34]

Just aquired this for a very low price, but it has some problems. It is all CYQ, however the slide and frame have different serial numbers. the inside of the grips are marked 11 this is not an import. I mainly wanted a shooter, any thoughts? I beleive it to be very late war.
Thanks

[sellers34]

another view

another view this P-38 has an odd serrated hammer

[sellers34]

Sorry another view

The odd hammer

[FW 200]

Late war mismatch. Should be a good shooter. Charlie

[sellers34]

Thanks, it has a pristine bore. Any thoughts as to when this was manufactured? Is it reasonable to assume that late in the war firearms were mismatched just to "get them out the door"?

[Undertaker]

Spreewerke never dated their P38's.
It looks like a CVQ version which is Spreewerke parts but not a their assembly. I'd guess around JAN-MAr 1945

make an awesome shooter but not very collectable

Regards

[FW 200]

Late war Walther mismatches are common, too. Is there a letter prefix before the sn. on the slide, like an 'A' or a 'B'? These are legitmate variations in there own right, and as far as I'm concerned, under-rated. Sort of like Volksturm weapons in a way, only far more affordable. Charlie

[ChrisCook]

P38

Nice pistol, even w/ the mismatch....don't worry about the hammer, I have a CYQ with the same exact hammer, I'm not a P38 expert, but I can tell you that this style of hammer is unique to CYQ's, don't know if they had it for their entire production however....Chris....

[P08]

It does look like a late war P38. The frame has the hump over the trigger. There's a late style slidestop lever. And the rare late type hammer. If it was mismatched from the factory or if it happened elsewhere can be hard to say.

[leondes]

The late "cog" style hammer was also used by Walther. Here is a link to one of mine. It is a "c" block matched example with a FN frame.

http://lmd-militaria.com/page347.html

There is a lot of controversy over the "c" block mismatched ac45s (Walthers). They are considered a variation by some and, I think, were likely put together by workers in the plant after the plant was captured. Some don't agree with this.

I am not aware that Spreewerk mismatches are accepted as "correct" by collectors. I would say that it is a post war assembly. Does your barrel have the same serial number as the slide? On the right side of the slide, is the marking on the right an asterisk? Are both grips marked "11" on the inside?

Here is a production date chart by serial number that was provided by Jan Balcar, a Czech collector and researcher.

http://lmd-militaria.com/page720.html

From this chart, you can see that your "a" prefix slide and "y" suffix frame were made about 2 months apart.

Regards, Leon

[Jan Balcar]

Leon is absolutely correct. Prefix series pistols (as far as I know) are not mismatched from factory. Some mismatched SN pistols you can find in late zero series (about 05XXX).

Sellers, let us know about barrel assembly markings (asterisks, B code, Waffenamt, cyq...) and about under theleft grip internal number (in safety lever area). Detailed photo of grips will be appreciated. The grip looks to me they are not not grooved but the checkering protruded up from ground.

[Greg Sebring]

I posted it a while back and thought I'd offer it up again as an explanation for some of the mismatched serial numbers....

My dad told me that late in the war the entire 21st German army (I believe that was their designation) surrenderd to the 82nd Airborne Division. There were over 120,000 German soldiers that were looking for an American unit to surrender to fearing what the Russians would do to them. It was an orderly process and dad said he watched the Germans stack their shoulder weapons in piles the size of small houses.

Dad went on to say he and his buddies were watching for pistols and never saw any being turned in. Knowing there had to be some somewhere, dad and a couple of his buddies took their barracks bags and walked back along the surrender route the Germans took. Not far back they came across piles of pistol frames, slides, barrels, etc. Dad added that they each loaded up there barracks bags with as many assorted parts as they could carry and went back to their camp to reassemble the pieces. Obviously, the s/n#'s were all mismatched. Their motive in producing a working pistol was the Air Corp guys would pay $100.00 per pistol for a working souvenier.

I'm sure there were many other "teams" that pieced together pistols for their own personal gain.

....just another explanation.

Greg

[FW 200]

I would think that lots of pistols would have parts of Walther, Mauser, CYQ as well as early high-polish HP guns if they were randomly re-assembled in this fashion. Has anyone seen "parts guns" like this? I have never really looked for any. Charlie

[sellers34]

Here are some of the markings on the barrel:the left side has a proof mark and "cyq" the right side has a letter B, the locking block is marked 052y, the front has the serial number 8052y, the slide is marked a6534 and cvq, or a cyq die flaw. Pics to follow....

[sellers34]

another pic