Walther P-38 Basics Field Strip Clan Lube & Reassemble
When you think German Army pistol, the Luger comes to mind. The thing is, the Germans themselves wanted something better and came up with one of the great-unsung handguns of all time. You may call it the Walther P38 and its influence has been felt far and wide. In the 1930s, the German military was quietly rebuilding. Even before Hitler came to power, the tiny Reichswehr had done extensive research into rearming their nation with the most modern of equipment. After Hitler came to power, this process got louder. One of the things the army wanted was a new handgun to replace the 1900-vintage Luger. While the Luger was a beautiful weapon, its toggle-action was prone to clogging, especially when dirty. It was also expensive, and every army in history had a budget. Carl Walther, an up and coming firearms manufacturer who had just won a contract to supply his innovative PP and PPK pistols to the German police, threw a design from his workshop into the ring. Pal Kiraly, a Hungarian firearms wonk living at the time in exile in Switzerland came up with a novel handgun he referred to as KD Danuvia. a short recoil auto-loader with a swinging lock under the barrel. Kiraly introduced the design in 1929 at the beginning of the Depression with money drying up everywhere, it was never put into production. Walther borrowed from Kiraly’s unproduced design, changed the delayed blowback bolt and controls, added the same type of trigger used on their PP series pistols, and came up with an entirely new gun. The Walther fired from a locked-breech with a double-action trigger, and was the first to use this arrangement, which is now almost standard on modern hammer-fired combat handguns. Twin recoil springs were located on either side of the frame top to keep the breech locked until the moment of firing. It debuted features taken for granted today such as a decocker safety lever, loaded chamber indicator, a slide release, a rebounding hammer, a floating 4.9-inch barrel and a static takedown lever that did not leave the frame. Each of these are important, but the decocker placed it in a category above the popular military semi-autos of its day such as the Colt 1911, the Browning Hi-Power, and the Tokarev TT-33, all of which often had to be carried on an empty chamber by soldiers for safety’s sake. Made from inexpensive sheet steel stampings, four of the new Walthers could be made for the cost of three milled steel Lugers. Further, with the solid action, innovative features, and huge ejection port, the Walther was many times as reliable. It was also slightly lighter, at 28-ounces, and shorter, at 8.5-inces over the 31-ounce, 8.74-inch Luger.
Chambered in German military standard 9x19mm Parabellum ammunition, it had a single stack 8-shot magazine held in by a heel release. Even though this type of release seems foreign to us today, it has long been the standard in Europe and can be worked rapidly with a little practice. Further, it’s easier to manipulate while wearing heavy gloves, which is a good idea when you consider just how fierce winters can get in the Old World. Even before the German army could adopt it, Walther was already making sales to Sweden and entertaining interested parties from other countries. Walther submitted their pistol to the German army for tests and it was adopted in 1938 as Pistole 38. As it would happen, this was but a year before World War 2.
