Ws wondering what you guys thought about this. I think P 38's for the most part have held up better finish wise compared to other Third Reich era pistols as far as the finish on them. Do you guys agree and if so why? Was the blueing process different than Lugers, PPk's ect.....
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P.38s were made by three manufactures during WWII. Mauser, Walther and Spreewerk. The early Walthers had the best of the finishes and Spreewerk the worst. Of course the finishes became worse for all three manufacturers as the end of the war was near.
To answer your question. IMO No, the P.38 did not hold up better than other firearms being manufactured by the Germans during WWII. You just have more examples of P.38s than other pistols to compare. I'm sure any Pistol coming out of Walther or Mauser used the same bluing process.
According to Jan Still "axis Pistols" There were 1,224,600 Military and 6,800 Police P.38s produced during the war. And that dose not include the HP commercial models.
BobLast edited by nomadr; 02-26-2012, 05:08 PM. -
Also bear in mind that P.38 production didn't really get rolling until almost 1943, while the Nazi era P.08 had been in production since 1934.
About the time P.38 production was getting started, virtually all P.08 production ended. This put the P.08 in use for a longer time than the P.38.Comment
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I too would have to kindly disagree with your original statement.
The very early P38s such as the zero series up to the early AC41, had very nice commercial quality finish on them. But after that, it all went down from there on.
The best finish on any German WWII era pistol? My personal vote; you just can't beat the finish on a pre war Sauer, such as a Sauer 1930, or Behorden. For a military pistol, the obvious choice would be the early Lugers; K-date, S-date, and G-dates.
But for P38s, very early models, excellent finish; progressively gets worse as the war continues.
Matt
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