[IrishCop]

I picked this surplus up a couple of weeks ago at my favorite LGS. I had been wanting one of these for some time. You would see them pretty frequently on gun shop shelves and some surplus sites, so I always put it off.

Then all of sudden like, seemed they were scarcer then hen's teeth. At least I didn't see them around locally, and places like AIM (where I picked up a Browning Hi Power a while back) weren't listing them either.

I am very happy with this old gun. No, it ain't a P-38, but it's damned close, aluminum frame notwithstanding. All the numbers match (last three of the serial number stamped on the slide and barrel), it has that hex-screw that's supposedly was added to strengthen the frame. It has very nice sights for a service pistol, and is more than adequate in the accuracy department with cheap 115 grain ball ammo. No problems with functioning.

 

[bearcat6]

They are very nice guns. I have a weakness for Walthers.

 

[bearcat6]

This is a cut down P-1 but I do have an original P-38K .

 

[SpecialEd]

Also a fan of the Walthers. I used to have a P-38 but foolishly traded it away with a PPK/s. The P-38 line were very simple mechanically, or at least I thought so.

 

[IrishCop]

I'm really impressed with how much of that circa 1938 design influenced modern guns. Seems like Beretta incorporated a lot of the P-38 design features in their line of pistol(s) like the Model 92. Falling block, slide mounted safety decocker, the open slide design. It's pretty cool, really.

And with the new "Man from U.N.C.L.E." movie coming out soon, I'm flashing back to those sawed of P-38's that so cooly turned into scoped carbines with extended magazines...:grin:

 

[SpecialEd]

Talk to Snake, he's got the Walther and Man From U.N.C.L.E. bug too.

 

[TommyGunn]

I always liked those old "Man from U.N.C.L.E." WALTHER P-38s.
There's a new movie version of that show out now..... I wonder what the new Napoleon Solo's sidearm will be?

 

[Skeptic49]

It would be easy, and highly illegal in the US of A to put a 16 inch barrel, with a small handguard and flash suppressor on a surplus P-1.

A simple sliding tube stock would be easy too.

The select fire option, not easy.

Geoff
Who saw some kit bashed models back in the 60s.




















'

 

[SpecialEd]

I always liked those old "Man from U.N.C.L.E." WALTHER P-38s.
There's a new movie version of that show out now..... I wonder what the new Napoleon Solo's sidearm will be?

I believe they are doing the new movie in the same era so they may have the same or similar weapons.

 

[IrishCop]

Bearcat, put a birdcage type flash suppressor on the end of that shorty and it would be an U.N.C.L.E. Duty pistol.

Ed, I did kinda the opposite from you. Traded my PPKs in for the P-1. Although the PPKs was fun to carry, it wasn't a whole lot of fun to shoot. And being a .380 ammo was hard to find for a while.

Tommy, I remember my dad taking my brother and I to a department store in Montgomery one evening in 1964 or 65. Didn't tell us why. Took us straight to the toy department and got us each a U.N.C.L.E. Toy gun set....a pistol that had a detachable stock, barrel extension and scope. He must have spotted them sometime earlier. Toys like that were usually reserved for Christmas or a birthday, so it was a wonderful surprise. And we sure had a blast with them.

It's really funny, comparing then with now. All the really neat, realistic toy guns that used to be around (especially those from Mattel). Nobody ever gave it second thought. Now? Heck, you'd be lucky not to get locked up buying your kid one of those.

Geoff, I could see where it might not be too difficult. But like you mentioned, the federal penitentiary system just don't seem too appealing to me either.

 

[TommyGunn]

Tommy, I remember my dad taking my brother and I to a department store in Montgomery one evening in 1964 or 65. Didn't tell us why. Took us straight to the toy department and got us each a U.N.C.L.E. Toy gun set....a pistol that had a detachable stock, barrel extension and scope. He must have spotted them sometime earlier. Toys like that were usually reserved for Christmas or a birthday, so it was a wonderful surprise. And we sure had a blast with them.

It's really funny, comparing then with now. All the really neat, realistic toy guns that used to be around (especially those from Mattel). Nobody ever gave it second thought. Now? Heck, you'd be lucky not to get locked up buying your kid one of those.

I think I must have had the same UNCLE gun toy when I was a kid!
True that about the toy guns we had back then ... I had a Mattel 1911 that fired plastic bullets....you had to manually cycle the slide, but it was a pretty accurate repro of the 1911 and I even remember my father (a Navy vet who'd handled the real thing) commenting on how accurate it looked.
Yea, a kid could get into deep kimshe if they were caught playing with a gun like those old Mattel six-shooters and all now-days.

 

[Snake45]

Talk to Snake, he's got the Walther and Man From U.N.C.L.E. bug too.

Yeah I do.

I've loved the P.38 in all its wonderful forms since I was a kid. I own two real ones (one currently living life as a tranny .22LR conversion), and collect P.38 toys and replicas of all kinds whenever I find them.

 

[Snake45]

It would be easy, and highly illegal in the US of A to put a 16 inch barrel, with a small handguard and flash suppressor on a surplus P-1.

Geoff
Who saw some kit bashed models back in the 60s.'

It would be completely legal at 16.1".

Good to see you back, Geoff. Hope you're feeling better. :thumbsup:

 

[Snake45]

I had a Mattel 1911 that fired plastic bullets....you had to manually cycle the slide, but it was a pretty accurate repro of the 1911 and I even remember my father (a Navy vet who'd handled the real thing) commenting on how accurate it looked.

Mattel never made such a thing. Marx had a slightly scaled-down accurate 1911 that would shoot one plastic bullet at a time, propelled by a cap. Topper made a VERY accurate full-size toy 1911 that shot plastic bullets from a hand-cycled magazine. I suspect that's what you had. These sell for big bucks on eBay these days. I chased them for years before scoring a slightly damaged one that I could afford. It's a lovely thing.

There was another one made by MACO or PLACO that was full-size and fired small plastic or wood pellets from a magazine. This was double-action and it would cycle the whole slide backward before letting it fly forward to fling the little bullets out. I've managed to collect a couple of these off eBay, too--one black, one white for some unknown reason. The one I had as a kid was a lovely shade of jungle green--how I would love to find another one like that.

 

[bearcat6]

This outfit makes highly realistic air gun copies of real firearms. I have one of their P0 8 luger version it 's toggle cycles like the real thing, but it's only good for about 30 shots before all the gas is gone. It is pretty accurate.
http://www.amazon.com/Umarex-225273...TF8&qid=1439604579&sr=8-1&keywords=umarex+p38

 

[dfariswheel]

The >Post-War< aluminum framed P-38 and P1 are the same gun.
The P-38 was for foreign military and police sales and for commercial sales.
The P1 was just the P-38 with German military markings.
They called the post-war German military issue P-38 the "Pistole One" or P1.

Walther made the aluminum P-38 marked guns as commercial sales guns up until production stopped around 1995.
People get this confused and think all post-war Walther's were P1's.

The "bolt" in the frame was not to reinforce the frame to stop cracking, it was to provide a wear surface for the locking block.
In high round count pistols the aluminum frame area that the locking block operated on would wear and the gun would start having problems with locking.
The steel bolt gave the frame a steel surface for the locking block to operate on.

 

[dfariswheel]

There was another one made by MACO or PLACO that was full-size and fired small plastic or wood pellets from a magazine. This was double-action and it would cycle the whole slide backward before letting it fly forward to fling the little bullets out. I've managed to collect a couple of these off eBay, too--one black, one white for some unknown reason. The one I had as a kid was a lovely shade of jungle green--how I would love to find another one like that.

I bought one of the Maco?? OD Green 1911's out of a magazine way back in the mid-1950's.
It was advertised as a "pellet gun". I was really disappointed that it only fired small plastic bullets for less then 10 feet. As I recall it was something like $3.95 or something, and in the 50's that was hard money for a kid to come up with.

I bought another one in the 1960's that was black plastic.

 

[TommyGunn]

Mattel never made such a thing. Marx had a slightly scaled-down accurate 1911 that would shoot one plastic bullet at a time, propelled by a cap. Topper made a VERY accurate full-size toy 1911 that shot plastic bullets from a hand-cycled magazine. I suspect that's what you had. These sell for big bucks on eBay these days. I chased them for years before scoring a slightly damaged one that I could afford. It's a lovely thing.

There was another one made by MACO or PLACO that was full-size and fired small plastic or wood pellets from a magazine. This was double-action and it would cycle the whole slide backward before letting it fly forward to fling the little bullets out. I've managed to collect a couple of these off eBay, too--one black, one white for some unknown reason. The one I had as a kid was a lovely shade of jungle green--how I would love to find another one like that.

Perhaps mine was the Topper model...it's been fifty years you know and my memory, while almost magnificently perfect, occasionally does betray me.
I do recall it hand cycled the rounds and since, so far as I can recall, performed much like the old Mattel "Fanner 45s" (?? repro of the Colt Peacemaker that also fired spring-powered plastic bulklets and used "stick'um" caps on the rear) I had ....maybe that's why I thought the Topper 1911 was a Mattel product.
I'm not into a lot of old toy's "brand names"..... I can remember a LOT of toys I had as a kid, but only a very few could I tell you the name of the company that made them. "Mattel" is one of those very few names that my mind does recollect; the name "Topper" I did not, until I read your post.

 

[stand watie]

To ALL,

When I was in the ARNG, I had a VERY realistic looking m1911 "toy" pistol that I used as a "demonstration piece" in classes.
(It fired 8MM blanks BUT I cannot remember WHO/WHAT company made it.)

I paid 10 bucks for it, used, from a pawn shop in Bossier City, LA in 1969 or 70.
(Bossier City was popularly called "BOOZER CITY" then, as it could be ROUGH after nightfall.)

Addenda: When I was with the CID-RA there, there was a sign at the Bossier City limits that some "wiseacre" had put up (looked quite authentic, too) that said:

WELCOME to BOOZER CITY, LA
Population DRUNK

yours, sw

 

[WaltGraham]

Marx had a slightly scaled-down accurate 1911 that would shoot one plastic bullet at a time, propelled by a cap.

Had one of those along with the U.N.C.L.E. gun complete with briefcase, a Johnny Seven for those big jobs and a "bazooka" that shot an air ball.

Boy, I wish I still had all of those.