Nazi Mauser P-38 ?

mustang12

Ive never posted here, but my Grandfather recently passed away and left me a WW2 Mauser P-38,im just curious what it is worth,, its in good condition and someone told me it has officers numbers on it, there engraved on either side of the little eagle holding the swastica.Ide also like to know a little bit about the gun and the engravings on it, If someone could write me back, Ide appreciate it. Thanks

JustC

I am sorry to not be of much help here. I have a figure of anywhere from $500-$1200 for that pistol. HOWEVER, these war era weapons must be appraised by an expert to determine real value. It may have a value of 2-3x what the books say for a standard model depnding on the markings. I had a 98K mauser with the nazi markings that turned out to be well worth more than one with standard birds. My resources stop there,..sorry.

why chase the game when the bullet can get em from here?....
Got Balistics?

captkirk3@dslextreme.com

Good Evening and Welcome to the Forums..The Walther P-38 was a Walther design Pistol..and was made in the Greatest quantity by Walther. During the Early Part of the Second World War when Walther could'nt keep up with War Time Production MAUSER picked up some of the slack as did SPREEWERKE of Berlin and several other German Arms makers..
Yours Being MAUSER will be Marked 'byf'.....You mentioned ENGRAVING...Could You elaborate Please..! Also NO production made P-38 was issued solely to Officers or have Initials of the Officer Stamped on the Pistol.. The Acceptance NAZI Stamp is the EAGLE over the Inspectors Initials....such as 359...A Photo would be of immence help in further identifying your P.38....is that possible..? There's a lot of Top Notch Authority's out there willing and able to help you with your questions.....Best....Captain Kirk

Captain Kirk, Tech Staff

rufe-snow

Post your questions to the P 38 forum ( see hyper-link ).

http://www.p38forum.com/

These guys are pros as far as the P 38 is concerned, you WILL have to provide pictures of your pistol, as the description you gave of your Grandfather's pistol is incomprehensible.

Python

Mustang12;
The P.38 is of Walther origin. Muaser, Spreework
among others were contracted to assaist war time production.
If it a mauser it will stamped "byf". The slide front left slide
should be stamped with a production code,i.e.,AC42. The eagle over swastica are Nazi acceptance marks, you should also find inspector marks on the gun. They will be an Eagle over a number,i.e.,359.173 etc. As far as "officer numbers?",no such thing as far as I know.
There were P.38's with longer than standard barrels, commonly known as "officers models" but these were prewar production,commerical models pressed into war service. P.38's were, like most military service arms,are heavily serialized. the primary serial number is located left side of the frame above the trigger guard ,i.e., 1936 then a,b,c,etc. All serial numbers are suffixed with a letter. The last three digits will appear on the slide,barrel and lock block as well as the magizines if original all will match. Photos and complete marks and their locations will date the pistol. Value depends on many things, first and foremost, condition and realitive scarity. Post war these pistols were reworked by many,many firms and governments, the zero and double zero series and vopo's are the most common.