And yet, because of the name "P.38" and general lack of knowledge on the part of many people, you may pay upward of $150-$200 more just for the name "P.38" when in fact it still has the aluminum frame WITHOUT the steel reinforcing lug in the frame, better slide and all the other improvements made to later-model P.1's.īottom line: If you're going to buy one from AIM, cough-up the extra $10.00 for hand-select and specify you want a later model with the steel reinforcment lug in the frame. It may be safe to assume that these later-production pistols, with all the design improvements, may provide increased functional reliability than the earlier models, including, ironically the post-war P.38's which never had these design modifications incorporated as did the P.1. (See the photo somebody posted elsewhere on this page to see what I'm talking about.) They also incorporated a slightly thicker sidewall on a section of the slide (commonly referred to as a "fat-slide" though it's not really distinguishable at a glance) and several other changes as well. In later years (sometime in the 1970's), Walther incorporated several important design improvements into the P.1 including the infamous steel hex-pin through the frame to lessen the impact of the locking-block on the return of the slide into battery. Apart from that one notable exception, ALL post-war Walther P.38 pistols have the same aluminum frame as the P.1. Well, only those made through 1945 under the Third Reich and the relative handful assembled by the French immediately after the war using captured German parts.
You'll hear all over the place how P.38's supposedly all have steel frames. All post-war P.38's are more or less identical as far as I know to the P.1, including an alloy ("Duraluminum") frame. The post-war P.38 and P.1 designations were largely superficial and used to designate pistols for the police forces and Bundeswehr (the armed forces), respectively.
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