Walther P38 Type Semi-automatic pistol Place of origin Nazi Germany Service history In service 1938–present Used by See Users Wars World War II I have a Walther p38 (serial number #3980 d) with matching holster. It has the same stamped emblems (eagles and swastikas mentioned by others). I have a Walther P38 with a serial number of 7314n. My question is when and where was this made? I've seen lists of suffix codes but none are the 'n' code. Any info on when and where this was produced would be helpfull.

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Information, photos, references, and trivia on the WW2 Walther P.38 and post-war P38 pistol. If you wish to link to this page, please link only to the main page, not sub-pages or documents. Please do not rip off my PDF files or pictures for your own site. Thanks.

Updated 20 Feb 2014 17:33 -0800

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Two more 'BTH12' pistols have been reported. See 'BTH12' under 'Pistols'

Added 'When was my post-war pistol made?' to 'Information'

Added another late date AC frame pistol to 'Pistols'

Added some late war pistols to 'Pistols'

Pistol Information

Walther P38 Serial Number Search

An excellent article by Peter Kokalis on thewartime P.38 pistolcan be found here, and another article on thepost-war P38here.

My post-war pistol has no date or date code - about when was it manufactured? You can get a rough estimate based upon these observed pistols.

Need to replace a broken WW2 slide part with a post-war part, and don't know if the new part will fit? Read the slide part compatibility guide. Note: this information is intended as a guide only. I am not a gunsmith. If you do not have working knowledge of the P.38 pistol, consult a competent gunsmith before attempting to effect repairs to your P.38.

Over the long term, will oil cause bakelite grips to deteriorate? An attempt to find out startshere.And continuesafter one year... and finally ends at three plus years.

Atarian's quick reference magazine guide.Helps to identify which magazine is correct for your pistol.

Atarian's post-war reproduction and aftermarket grip guide.Some of the currently available non-World War II grips for the P.38.

Can a 'dipped' pistol be 'un-dipped?' The answer is yes, and quite successfully. Take a look atzero series cyq serial number 030.

Drawings and Manuals

P38 Owner's Manual (multilingual - 4.8 MB). P38 Owner's Manual v2 (multilingual - 6.2 MB). P38 Operating Instructions (multilingual - 1.2 MB, source: Walther Germany). P38 Owner's Manual (1 MB, source: Interarms(?)). P38 Owner's Manual (edited for clarity - Thanks to Quentin for providing this).

German military drawings of the 9mm Patrone: page 1, page 2, page 3, and page 4.

P.38 manual from 1940 (German) - Thanks to Johan and Ron Clarin for providing this.

P.38 illustrated parts breakdown (German - 95KB, source: Walther Germany).

Explanation of the markings on a post-war P38/P1 (source: Federal Foreign Office – Division 241, Germany).

Time Wasters

Test your P.38 knowledge with the P.38 quiz!

Auction Antics - Fantastic stories and overpriced pistols:

Articles and Advertisements

Information on the P.38from the 2008 Walther catalog.

The Defense Intelligence Agency's Small Caliber Ammunition Identification Guide. German ammunition section (213kb) or the entire document (10.1Mb).

Small arms section of the Handbook on German Military Forces.

Pricing ofStoeger's Mod HPs and Lugers(1948).

Stoeger's guide to World War II pistols circa 1948 (page 1, page 2).

Miscellaneous

A baker's dozen of Walther post-war slide legend variations(this is far from all-inclusive).

Here's what a P.38 frame looks like before the machining process begins.

Information Exchange Pursuant to the OSCE Document on Small Arms and Light Weapons 2003, 2008, 2010. Note in 2002 the United States was by far the largest importer of German 'Revolvers and Self-Loading Pistols' with 1,040,985 imported (of 1,082,797 - the balance of 41,812 or about 4% going to 20 other countries), while the Germans destroyed only 5,666 'surplus' pistols. In 2009 the US imported none and 17,520 surplus pistols were destroyed (none were exported to any country). See Annexes 2 and 3.

Patent Information

Fritz Walther's 'automatic pistol,' patent number 2135992 dated November 8, 1938 (English).

Fritz Walther's 'automatic firearm,' patent number 2145328 dated January 31, 1939 (English).

Walther pistol patents 1926 to 1942 (German).

Walther P38 Serial Numbers

Walther P38 Serial Number Guide

Interarms was a long-time importer of products from Walther and many other manufacturers. Browse some of their catalogs here.

Walther P38 Serial Numbers