One of the Rarest WW2 P.38's...

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  • Jul 1, 2012
    5,711
    A lucky recent acquisition from a long-time collector that's selling off his P.38's...

    At first glance this looks like just another scruffy P.38 and could even be confused for a post-war pistol.
    Closer examination shows the war-time commercial slide logo, complete with "Mod HP" designation for "Model Heeres Pistole" (army pistol), similar to Colt's commercial designation of "Government Model" for the 1911.
    Still not incredibly exciting, although the commercial Mod HP was a pretty low-production pistol with only about 23000 made**
    (compared to the hundreds of thousands of military P.38's made in WW2).

    The early high-polish finish makes it more interesting... but...
    Taking a peek inside, the frame is actually made from an aluminum alloy (Dural) ...

    Whoa, that can't be right, war-time P.38's were all-steel, right ?!!

    Speculation is that Walther experimented with an estimated 100 Mod HP's with Dural frame but no evidence exists as to the actual numbers.
    So far only 18 of these have been reported, and are evenly distributed in a block from S/N 6870 to 6932 (early war).
    Chances are that due to the lesser strength, many of the original batch were damaged and disposed of while testing.

    The Dural frame has the section of frame at the front left mostly intact for strength, while the corresponding standard steel frame is milled out to reduce weight.
    Otherwise the machining is identical to the steel-frame counterpart.
    The Dural frame reduced the overall weight by about 6 oz - which happens to be about the weight of a loaded P.38 magazine.

    Walther also made PP's and PPK's during the war with Dural frames, which are much more plentiful (but still relatively scarce in the grand scheme of things).

    ** As an aside, it was extremely difficult for a citizen to acquire a 9mm "military-only" caliber handgun in Germany in the years leading up to, and including the war (sound familiar?). Commercial sales were slow; mostly to foreign governments and private purchase by "special" officers and party officials. Ironically a good number of the commercial production Mod HP's wound up being procured by the army anyway (denoted by an acceptance E/359 Waffenamt on the slide).
     

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    Jul 1, 2012
    5,711
    Also for comparison is a post-war aluminum frame with the reinforcing hex pin...
    note where the pin is placed, this only reduces the wear from the lock block contact, it doesn't "strengthen" the frame in any way contrary to popular misconception.

    Note that the placement of the serial number (and the S/N itself), proofs etc is significantly different than a post-war pistol.
     

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    Czechnologist

    Concerned Citizen
    Mar 9, 2016
    6,522
    Congratulations on such a historic pick-up. I'm sure its one that you never thought you'd have in your P-38 collection! :thumbsup:
     

    Bob A

    όυ φροντισ
    MDS Supporter
    Patriot Picket
    Nov 11, 2009
    30,690
    Very nice catch.

    The Walthers I have with dural frames are easy to spot because of the difference in finish appearance from the steel. I can't tell from the photos whether the difference is as obvious on your pistol. What say you?
     
    Jul 1, 2012
    5,711
    There is enough wear that it's a tough call but it does have a more black / grey look than the steel-frame Mod HP with high-polish I have close in S/N, which has a more blue look. There's enough variation in color even with the blued guns that it's not definitive though. They don't seem to age as well as the PP / PPK.

    Definitely not enough that I could see it on a table at a show and say "hey, that's a Dural frame".
    It is noticeably lighter in weight though... and the S/N is a tell-tale.
     

    mawkie

    C&R Whisperer
    Sep 28, 2007
    4,338
    Catonsville
    I know how excited you must be to snag this one! As close to one-of-a-kind in the P38 world as you can get. One heck of a P38 collection you've assembled. PM me, curious to know who's collection this came from.
     

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