Military Surplus Handguns

[SHOOTER13]

Just wondering if anyone else on this forum collects military sidearms from WWI, WWII, the Korean conflict, or Vietnam War. Either Allied or Axis...Friend or Foe...or from any other combatant nation. I would like to see some pics and hear the story behind the weapon.

Pictured below is my P38 built by Spreewerke GmbH, Metallwarenfabrik, in Berlin/Spandau Germany in 1942 during the second World War. The Spreewerk inspection stamp consisted of an eagle above the number 88 (E/88), but the first 500 weapons made at the Spreewerke factory had Walther inspection stamps which consisted of an eagle over 359 (E/359) . (My specimen has a serial number of 246 and the Walther acceptance stamp E/359). The letters CYQ are the code used to designate construction at the Spreewerke plant, which produced around 285,000 units by the wars end. This specimen is also Wehrmacht stamped with an Nazi eagle over swaztika. The P38 is chambered for 9mm Parabellum and holds 8 rounds in the magazine. She also came with a black semi-hard leather holster that holds an extra magazine.

The P38 was the first DA/SA pistol adopted by a major power. When the hammer is forward, squeezing the trigger will cock the hammer--by means of a draw bar on the right side of the frame--and fire the first round much like a DA revolver. After that the hammer remains cocked, and subsequent shots are fired in SA mode.If the hammer is cocked, rotating the safety lever on the left rear of the slide downwards will lock the firing pin in place. As the lever reaches the bottom, it trips the sear, allowing the hammer to travel forward. The safety can be left down, which blocks movement of both the trigger and hammer, or moved up, allowing the first shot to be fired in DA mode. A pin located above the hammer acts as a loaded chamber indicator.

 

[sumoj275]

Very nice P38. At one time I had a P38, a 1942 BYF Luger with black bakelite grips, a Colt 1911A1, a Nagant revolver, and a WWII Tokarev. Sure wish I still had them, but a bad accident my wife had with an 18 wheeler took care of most of my stuff that I had collected. Such is life. I am on the hunt for an Enfield or Webley revolver with a South African acceptance stamping to put with my N0.4 Enfield rifle that has the South African marking. For those that don't know, the South African Acceptance is a arrow inside a U or a M inside a U.

 

[blue]

So a Sig is just a P-38 Hilarious. Brilliant design, don't get me wrong. It's just funny that the average sig owner will laugh at the antiquated 1911 design, but their own pistol functions just like that Walther. Man. Nothing new under the sun!

 

[SHOOTER13]

Anybody else here own a military sidearm they would like to share with us ?!

 

[John A.]

I personally like a Tokarev TT30 in 7.62x25.

Without the thumb safety crap to be eligible for import.

I like mine all original.

 

[LAZY EYED SNIPER]

I stumbled upon a Beretta m1934 9x18 that came in on trade at my LGS yesterday. The stamp was from '43. It's a beautiful piece with original leather holster and three mags. The shop owner was still working out the pricing on it, but figure he would list it between $600-$700.

You know I've got a soft spot for Berettas, but I'm seriously trying to resist the urge.

 

[SHOOTER13]

I really like the Pre-WWII Berettas...they got style !!

Beretta has become one of the world's largest pistol makers and the model 1934 (M1934) was their most numerous product in the pre-World War II era. It is chambered for the 9mm Corto, more commonly known as the .380 ACP.

In the early 1930s, the Italian army was impressed by the Walther PP pistol. Beretta did not want to lose a big military contract to their German competitor and designed the M1934 for the Italian Army which accepted it in 1937. This model was followed by the M1935, which was similar to the M1934 in most respects, except that it fired a .32 ACP (7.65 mm Browning) cartridge.

Pistols made during the Fascist Era are marked with their year of manufacture in two forms: the conventional Julian date in Arabic numerals and the date in the Fascist Era in Roman numerals. The Fascist calendar commenced on 28 October 1922, so a pistol from 1937 may carry either "XV" or "XVI" as its Fascist year.

As a footnote in the weapon's long history, an M1934 was used in the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi in New Delhi on 30 January 1948. The pistol, serial number 606824, was wielded by Nathuram Godse in the assassination.

 

[SHOOTER13]

This is an East German Makarov 9x18 built in 1961 by Ernst Thaelmann/Simson in Suhl Germany. I paid $200 for her back in the early 90's. The Pistolet Makarova (PM) is a medium-size, straight blowback action, frame-fixed barrel handgun. In blowback designs, the only force holding the slide closed is that of the recoil spring; upon firing, the barrel and slide do not have to unlock, as do locked-breech design pistols. Blowback designs tend to be more accurate than designs using a recoiling, tilting, or articulated barrel. The 9x18mm cartridge is a practical cartridge in blowback-operated pistols; producing a respectable level of energy from a gun of moderate weight and size.

East German Makarov

The Makarov pistol resulted from a design competition for replacing the Tokarev TT-33 semi-automatic pistol. Rather than building a pistol to an existing cartridge in the Soviet inventory, Nikolai Makarov utilized essentially the "9mm Ultra" cartridge which had been designed by Carl Walther G.m.b.H. for the German Luftwaffe during the Second World War. Walther's cartridge became the 9x18mm Makarov.
For simplicity and economy, the Makarov pistol, which was principally a scaled-up Walther PP, was of straight blowback operation, with the 9x18mm cartridge being the most powerful cartridge it could safely fire. Although the nominal calibre was 9.0mm, the actual bullet was 9.22mm in diameter, being shorter and wider and thus incompatible with pistols chambered for 9x19mm Parabellum cartridges. Consequently, Soviet ammunition was unusable in NATO firearms, and in the event of war NATO forces would be unable to use ammunition from Soviet sources.