Walther/Manurhin P1

[JohnR]

Someone offered to trade one of these for my Citadel 1911 compact. I know about the Walther P38, but didn't know they were made in France on Walther equipment with alloy frames after the war.

I'm intrigued from a historical perspective - anyone have experience with these?

[JohnR]

Anyone?

[CJB]

Manurhin is literally across the Rhine river directly opposite Walther. German small arms agreements due to their loss in the war, made French production a neccessity.

They're good, not terribly collectable.

FWIW, the P1/P38 was the parent of the Beretta locking. They're not terribly accurate, but are good shooters.

[scotty_MK9]

Keep the 1911 and buy it! Nice walther though...

[yqtszhj]

My son has a WWII P38 and he really likes it from a shooting and noveltyperspective. He's a collector of all the "history" firearms. Trigger is HEAVY on his but he likes it. To me it was amazing the features/safeties they put in back in those days given they didn't do all the computer machining back then. I think they were ahead of there time and cutting edge.

I have heard that as they wear they do have some problems with the sear holding the hammer after firing (hammer follows the slide forward) and that a good test for the safety is to make sure it's unloaded, put a pencil in the barrel, point it upward, pull back the hammer, use the safety/dec0cker to drop the hammer, and see if the pencil fly's across the room. If it does it needs some work.

Don't know what you paid for your Citadel compact, I think I paid $499 or $449 for mine, but if you like it get it.

[100percent]

We paid 500 for two of them from Southern Ohio Gun.

[TheTman]

Classicfirearms.co has the Walther P38 Wartime production, with Na zi markings for $600. C&R eligible.