Furthermore, the gun already shows the reinforcement around the hammer pin hole. The gun shows the black bluing on all main and small parts, which is typical for the large-scale production at Walther. The year of manufacture is 1943 and it's a pistol of the second version, produced between July and October 1943 in about 50,000 pieces.
#Walther p1 kal 9mm code#
The P.38 shown here bears the manufacturer code ac 43, which identifies it as a product of the Carl Walther arms factory in Zella-Mehlis. We now compare two typical representatives of the Wehrmacht P.38 and Bundeswehr P1. Since P 38 and P1 pistols were repeatedly repaired by the German Army, mixed versions of old and new parts were built over the decades.Ī comparison of the two service pistols P.38 and P1 Early magazines are blued, later ones are phosphated. The slide release lever and the firing pin were changed too. If early P1s still have a U-notched rear sight and an inverted-V front sight, the pistol later gets a rectangular notch rear sight and a post front sight, now also with white dots. Initially a casting, later blocks were milled. At the very end of the P1 service life in the German Army, Walther returned to a one-piece barrel. While the early barrel linings were still shrink-fitted and secured by means of a transversal pin, two variants followed featuring a collar at the end, first a narrow one and finally a wider one. The barrel lining was also changed several times. In the course of this overhaul, slide serrations were also extended – they now began in front of the safety lever. Not only did it receive more material on the sides, but also a raised edge around the ejection port. The way the grips are attached also changed over the years. Thus the light metal grips got a reinforcement in the form of a steel insert. Generations of conscripts in the Bundeswehr put more strain on the guns than a short hard frontal engagement in World War II. Over decades of use of the pistol by the German Armed Forces, parts had to be modified again and again to meet the increased demands of service life. Over the years, the Pistol P1 has been upgraded again and again to meet the requirements of the German Army. Walther changed the markings on the slide in 1963. The former P 38 now became the P1, 9x19 mm caliber.
Caliber groups were created and guns were numbered in sequence. In 1959, the Bundeswehr changed the names of the firearms it used. The gun was designated as “Pistole P 38”, written without a dot. The markings on the slide again named the manufacturer, now the Carl Walther arms factory in Ulm. Rather, it consisted of an interior barrel tube (lining) that included rifling, and an exterior barrel jacket, that is the outer contours of this gun part with guide rails, accommodation for the locking block and front sight. The barrel was no longer made from one piece when production was restarted.
The slide – as well as the pistol's barrel – was now parkerized. The grip plates were now made of a modern plastic, black and checkered. Its surface was black anodized, which gave it a silk-matte finish. When production was restarted after the war in May 1957 at Walther in Ulm, the pistol had undergone various modifications. Version of the pistol began, this time at Walther in Ulm. Walther first used the numerical code "480", then the letter code "ac", and finally a combination of letter code and year, such as "ac 41". Furthermore, the manufacturer's markings had to be applied in code for the weapons delivered to the Wehrmacht from 1940 onwards. Mauser also phosphated gun parts and produced stamped sheet-metal grips. A small change in the frame shape brought more material around the hammer pin hole, the slide stop lever was also produced in a variant from stamped sheet metal, and towards the end of the war Spreewerk installed a hammer featuring coarser serrations. Walther did not actually start mass production until 1940, the year when the pistol was officially approved for production.Īfter the start of mass production in 1940, modifications to the gun remained minor. In total, some 1.3 million guns of this type were produced between 1938 – the year the P.38 was accepted as a new service pistol – and the end of the war. Parts were also supplied by FN in Belgium. The P.38 was not only to replace the already legendary Pistol 08 in the Wehrmacht stocks, it also remained Wehrmacht's standard pistol until the end of the war and was manufactured – besides Walther's plants in Zella-Mehlis – also at Mauser's in Oberndorf and at Spreewerk's in Zittau-Grottau. With the P.38, the former Carl Walther gun factory in Zella-Mehlis saw the high point in its company history.
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