Informal range report

[44 AMP]

Took my WWII P-38 shooting today, briefly. Plinking session called on account of sleet. Brrrr. Fired only one box of ammo, what was in the range box, 125gr LRN reloads. Feeding was flawless, accuracy was fine, enough to hit my steel plate target every time, but there was one weird thing. Every time I loaded the gun then put the safety on, took it off and fired double action, it didn't fire. A second DA pull fired the round. This happened all three times I tried it. Every round fired SA worked normally, no flaws or failures.

The gun is in excellent shape (appearance wise) and is coded ac 42.

I will be shooting it some more, when the weather improves, and will see if this pattern continues.

Anybody else ever have this happen? I have not yet detail stripped and cleaned the piece, just oiled it a bit on the rails before trying it. Over all, it worked well, except for the DA problem.

 

[Hook686]

My dad brought one back from WWII ... it is marked AC44 h4800. AC is Walther 44 is the year. The machining is pretty rough, as the Germans must have been in a hurry to get weapons to the troops very fast in 1944. I would guess a 1942 Walther P-38 would be a pretty nice piece of firearm history.

My gunsmith told me to limit the ammunition to standard 9mm. I've shot 115, 124, 125 and 147 grain rounds. Reloads are kept to the low side of mid range, no hollow point.

Good luck shooting it, I find it a fine pistol for shooting. I have not experienced the problem you describe. When I take the safety off safe, the pistol fires DA on the 1st trigger pull.