Month: August 2022

The Walther P1: From War Baby to NATO Surplus Sweetheart by MARK MILLER

Post author By Grumpy
Post date August 28, 2022
No Comments on The Walther P1: From War Baby to NATO Surplus Sweetheart by MARK MILLER

If you want to experience a WW2 handgun without paying antique prices, the Walther P1 is a direct descendant of the iconic Nazi P38 and a lot cheaper to own. The Walther P1 is the aluminum-framed copy of the WWII Walther P38 pistol and has its own history. For 25 years these pistols served with the Bundeswehr and West German police. During the 1990s the Germans began phasing out the P1, fielding the P8 (a military version of the H&K USP), finally retiring the weapon altogether in 2004. The P1 is now readily available on the civilian market.

Everyone who has seen a WW2 movie thinks the Nazis all carried a Luger P08. While some of them did, their main sidearm was the P38. Lugers fought in the Great War and were the standard-issue sidearm for the German military from their adoption in 1909 until 1938. They were an innovative design in their day and brought us the standard 9×19 round (also called 9mm Luger).

The P38 is a full-size service pistol, it chambered the standard 9x19mm Parabellum cartridge and fed from an 8-round magazine.

Handguns are support weapons and in a wartime economy, cheap and effective beats pretty every time. Experience in the Great War had shown the Lugar to be complicated and expensive to manufacture. The toggle operating system did not tolerate hostile conditions well so Walther developed a more reliable and less expensive option, the Pistole 38 or P38.

CRsenal animation of Walther P38 firing. The P38 included many innovative features which would be copied by other designers for the next 50 years. If you have ever seen the locking block on a Beretta 92, this 1938 design will look very familiar.

The P38 is a full-size service pistol chambered with the standard 9x19mm Parabellum cartridge firing from an 8-round magazine. One of the first double-action handguns, it allowed Soldiers to safely carry the P38 with a round chambered and the hammer down, needing only to draw and squeeze the long double-action trigger pull to fire (without manipulating a manual safety).

Military production began in 1939 with Walther. The demand for the P38 was so high, that Mauser and Spreewerk also received contracts producing over one million P38s during the war. P38s went on to see combat in every theater of war and field use in harsh conditions proved it to be a magnificent design. The only reason the Germans issued so many other handguns was that there were never enough P38s available.

This German surplus holster is basically a copy of the WW2 leather P38 holster in nylon. The plastic hardware and velcro make it more user-friendly. There is a pocket to hold you one spare magazine.

As WW2 ended, the Cold War began and the P38 received a new lease on life. The new German army (Bundeswehr) wanted the gun they knew, Walther updated the design, replacing the steel frame with a lightweight aluminum alloy unit (during the war, aluminum was prioritized to the Luftwaffe for aircraft). In 1955, the initial production run of new pistols was marked “P38”, The design was de-Nazified and adopted in 1957 as the Pistole 1. This model served not only the various branches of the Bundeswehr but also the Austrian Army, for decades.

Under the flap, there is an extra snap. It is not designed for a quick draw. If you think you are going to need your pistol, better get it out and have it in your hand. The spare magazine is in a tight pocket closed with velcro.

Pistole 9mmx19 P1 Gesamtansicht: Walther P1. — Pistole Walther P1.

The original Walther factory was in the Soviet occupation zone. What was not stolen was destroyed by the Russians. The Manurhin company in France made the P1 gun for several years under contract until Walther built a new factory in Ulm/Donau. Walther built the P1 for the West German military and police for more than 25 years. They are marked ‘P-1’ and have a four-digit production date on their frame. The date is simple to figure out, my gun is marked 04/79, it was made in April of 1979.

P1 and the P38

The P1 is different than the P38. The design is almost exactly the same, but it isn’t the same gun. The P1 frame is aluminum, the P38 is steel-framed. For all intents and purposes, both guns feel and shoot the same. In 1975, the aluminum frame was reinforced with a hex bolt above the trigger guard, and a thicker, stronger slide was added.

I was cruising my local gun store and saw a camo holster, a German flecktarn holster. Then I saw the gun. A very good condition P1 with all the family charm of its WW2 relatives. For less than a used Glock, I got to find out why the Germans kept this gun for so many years. I was not disappointed and I learned a great deal about where modern handgun features originated. (Spoiler Alert: Everybody but Browning stole something from this gun. Looking at you Beretta, SIG and Glock.)

The front sight post with a white dot and the rear white stripe makes a very clear sight picture. You can see the loaded chamber indicator under the rear sight.

The P1 and the P38 are true double-action / single-action guns. It was designed to be carried with the chamber loaded and the hammer de-cocked using the lever. With the safety off, a double-action pull of the trigger will cock and then fire the gun.

Rotate the take-down lever forward and the slide and barrel come right off. Very simple and toolless disassembly.

Walther P1 Specifications

Method of Operation: Short recoil
Caliber: 9x19mm Parabellum
Action: Double Action / Single Action
Safety: Decocker, Manual Safety, Firing Pin Block Drop Safety
Trigger Pull: Single Action 5.5 lbs / Double Action 9.5 lbs
Sights: Fixed Front Post with White Dot and U-Notch Rear
Overall Length: 8.5″
Overall Width: 1.5″
Weight: 27 ounces
Barrel: 4.9 inches, 6 groove 1-10 Right Hand twist
Feed: 8-round single-stack detachable magazine

In the center of this shot is the hex-nut added to strengthen the frame. The frame mounted takedown rotates downward to release the slide and barrel. if you let your support thumb hang down, this lever pokes you. Keep it high and there is no problem. It is clear that Pietro Beretta was taking notes on this part.

The P1 has a manual safety / de-cocking lever, a last round slide lock mechanism, and a take-down lever, all on the left side of the pistol. The slide locks back after the last round was fired, a tab in the magazine pushes up on the slide lock. The only feature not familiar to modern shooters is the magazine release on the bottom rear of the magazine well.

This release is a common feature on older European handguns. In Europe, magazines are scarce and human life is cheap. Nobody cared about rapid reloads. You got two magazines with your handgun and they were serialized. You were forced to retain the magazine by design.

The extractor is easily replaceable, There is a spring and a follower inside a channel in the slide, much like the Glock.

There’s a prominent loaded-chamber indicator just above the hammer which protrudes to indicate the pistol’s condition. A glance or touch will reveal the weapon’s status. This little part could easily get hung up on something and is a bit of complication which could have been avoided.

Walther used a locking wedge under the barrel to hold the slide and barrel together as they recoil. After a short move together, the wedge is driven down by striking against the frame. The barrel stops and the slide continued backward to complete the reloading cycle. If you ever took apart a Beretta 92 or an M-9 you will recognize that locking block.

The innovative slide-mounted safety/de-cocking lever is shown here in the “safe” position. When it is on is “fire” it sits high and out of the way. The Beretta slide-mounted safety is easy to unintentionally activate during manipulations, not so the P1.

Though based on a WW2 design, the P1 is a contemporary of the SIG P226 and the Beretta 92 (M-9). While the single stack 8-round magazine can’t compete with the double stack super nines, I find the ergonomics superior to the M-9 I was issued. The P1 sights and trigger are better and I can shoot it faster and better than the M-9.

The Beretta grip is fat and the trigger pull is long and heavy. The ambidextrous safety/de-cocker on the M-9 is very easy to activate when manipulating the slide. This provides a surprise dead gun after a re-load or malfunction. It is always a bad surprise. The P1 weighs in at 27 ounces, (unloaded) versus 33.9 for the M-9. The only advantages of the M-9 are the magazine release and a 15 round magazine.

Shooting

The P1 feels good. The thumb rest and lanyard ring on the left grip are designed for righties. The slide stop and decocker/safety are positioned for right-handed manipulation. How did the Germans accommodate left-handers? They forbid left-handed shooting. Problem solved.

This is not a show stopper for the lefties. There are no left-handed holsters, but the controls can be manipulated left-handed or with the support hand. The magazine release is ambidextrous.

Up close, the P1 does the work and the DA/SA trigger is comparable to the “Classic” P-Series SIG Sauer handguns it inspired. I prefer the slide-mounted de-cocker.

The P1 is made for a flap holster and has a prominent front sight, sharp edges on the slide, and an awkward loaded chamber indicator. The is not your new EDC or concealed carry gun. In spite of a single stack mag, the slide and grips are 1 1/4″ thick. The de-cocker and slide release also stick out with sharp angles that can snag.

Even with COVID steel cased ammunition, the P1 has plenty of accuracy for a service pistol. I will take responsibility for the low round.

Using my Bundeswehr surplus flectarn camouflage pattern flap holster I took my P1 to the range over a couple of months. The operation is just like the SIG and Beretta except for the magazine release. The de-cocker must be manipulated before holstering. Reloads are just the same as more modern guns.

The 8+1 capacity was a limitation but not that big a deal. Trying to draw from the flap and reload from the holster was slow, but they were designed to protect, not to gunfight. It was expected that your gun would be in your hand if you needed it.

I used several different loads, ranging in bullet weight from 115 to 147 grains, including the dreaded +P loads. I have heard that you shouldn’t use +P in an aluminum frame. The P1 was designed to shoot hot NATO spec submachinegun ammo. It will handle +P, but you should expect accelerated wear. The P1 fed everything I tried with grace and a complete lack of malfunctions. The dual recoil springs are old but they have plenty of flex left in them.

The only thing odd about shooting the P1 is the magazine well magazine release. That said, It was not that hard to hit the release and pull the magazine out. It is a little slower, but works just fine with a little practice. In Europe, life is cheap and magazines are scarce. The magazines were seen as components of the weapon to be kept for life.

The dot front and strip rear sights are as good as any service pistol sights I have ever seen. The double-action pull is as good as a SIG and better than Beretta. The single-action pull and reset are better than a Glock. Felt recoil is very manageable with little flip. The weight is all in the back of the gun. Brass ejects in various directions occasionally hitting you in the head, but it always ejects.

I found the P1 shot very well for speed and accuracy from 7 yards to 50 yards. I am sure it would go farther but my range discourages shooting across the parking lot. I was unexpectedly impressed by the trigger. Light and smooth with a short re-set.

Fun Fact: the Walther P1 (imported by P.W. Arms) is on California’s roster of state-approved handguns.

Pistole 9mmx19 P1 Funktionsdarstellung — How the Walther P1 functions in double and single action.

This Interarms imported Walther P1 9mm pistol was offered for sale on GunsAmerica. The gun was made in 1969 in West Germany. 99% original finish, mint bore with two factory magazines, holster, and lanyard.

After a few hundred rounds, I found that I really liked the P1. In an open carry environment, I would pick it over the Beretta every time. I see the P1 in gun stores all the time and they are readily available online. The price of P38s has risen dramatically as collectors seek them out, with prices running around a thousand dollars. The P1 is a product improved P38 for less than half the price. Since they were manufactured as late as1980s and were not taken as war trophies after years of combat use, most P1s are in great condition.

The P1 is a fun and affordable piece of history. If you have ever thought about owning one, now is the time. In a few years, they will be collectible and un-affordable. Your kids and grandkids will thank you.

Some Sick Puppies!

Brenda Spencer: The Genesis Monster by WILL DABBS

Post author By Grumpy
Post date August 28, 2022
No Comments on Brenda Spencer: The Genesis Monster by WILL DABBS

This feisty-looking young lady pioneered the modern scourge of school shootings.

When I was growing up kids brought guns to school all the time. We typically left them in gun racks in the back windows of our pickup trucks or in car trunks in anticipation of after-school hunting trips. Our driver’s ed teacher was a compulsive hunter. His name was Coach Smith. When out of earshot we called him Poach Smith. He famously kept a shotgun and a garbage bag in the trunk of the driver’s ed car in case he came across something that needed shooting. He once returned after an outing around the county with both his students and a fresh wild turkey.

At least in the Deep South there was a time when guns in school were more background clutter than evidence of the coming apocalypse.

I recall one kid bringing a 1911 pistol to show off to his pals. Somebody saw it in his locker and alerted the headmaster, himself a Naval officer who had served in the Pacific during World War 2. The headmaster confiscated the gun and put it in his desk drawer, directing the kid to pick it up after school and not to bring it back again. He didn’t even call the boy’s parents. That’s because at that time in that place it would have been literally unimaginable to shoot up a school. That all changed on January 29, 1979.

Gender Issues

Life just seems more complicated today than was previously the case.

Figuring out whether you were a boy or a girl used to seem a fairly straightforward chore. Nowadays things are a bit more opaque. However, there yet remain some fundamental differences that are empirically demonstrable between men and women. In addition to the capacity to carry a child to term, one of the two genders is just a bit more innately rotten than the other.

The overwhelming majority of the prison inmates in America are male.

Testosterone is the most potent poison known to man. 93.3% of the incarcerated population in America is genotypically male. Were we being completely honest the quickest way to restore peace and harmony to the species would be to just lock up all the guys. Believe it or not, there are some radical feminists who have suggested just that.

School shootings are tragically commonplace today. However, they arose from some surprising places.

Despite this gross gender imbalance among the world’s criminals, when it came time for Satan to kick off the ghastly phenomenon that is the modern school spree shooting it was a woman who first squeezed the trigger. In 16-year-old Brenda Spencer, we find the genesis monster.

Origins

Brenda Spencer grew up in this nondescript home across the street from the local elementary school.

Like most true psychopaths Brenda’s origin story is sordid and broken. Born in 1962 in San Diego, California, and raised across the street from the Grover Cleveland Elementary School, by her sixteenth birthday Brenda stood all of 5’2” and sported bright red hair. Her parents were separated, and she lived in squalor with her alcoholic father, Wallace Spencer. It was so bad that the two of them slept on a common mattress in the living room surrounded by empty beer and liquor bottles.

The combination of a wretched upbringing, some sub-optimal raw material, and a childhood injury transformed this cute little kid into a certifiable monster.

As a child Brenda took a tumble on her bicycle and suffered a head injury. Though she recovered physically she was never quite right after that. Head scans later revealed permanent damage to one of her temporal lobes that likely contributed to the aberrant behavior that was to follow.

Brenda Spencer’s life just seemed cursed.

Spencer was a predictably poor student with truancy issues, but she had a talent for photography. She took first prize in a local Humane Society photography contest. However, her teachers reported that she fell asleep regularly in class.

With the crystal clarity of hindsight Brenda Spencer was obviously broken from a very young age.

While growing up Brenda demonstrated an inexplicable hatred of policemen. She also wandered the neighborhood killing birds with a BB gun. At age fifteen she was arrested for shooting out the windows in the school with her air rifle as well as burglary.

In the hands of a psychopath even a plinking rifle like this Ruger .22 can be fearsome deadly.

Her probation officer recommended that she be hospitalized for depression, but her rocket scientist dad refused to give permission. At Christmas of that year, he gave Brenda a Ruger 10/22 semiautomatic .22 rifle, a riflescope, and a 500-round brick of ammunition. Brenda later said of the gift, “I asked for a radio and he bought me a gun…I felt like he wanted me to kill myself.”

The Shooting

This is the view of the Grover Cleveland Elementary School from Brenda’s house across the street.

On Monday morning, January 29, 1979, a herd of children had gathered outside the gates of the elementary school. As 53-year-old Principal Burton Wragg walked out to open up the facility Brenda opened fire with her 10/22. As one might expect, unfettered chaos ensued.

Principal Burton Wragg gave his life saving the kids in his charge.

Mike Suchar, the school custodian, was a former Seabee and a WW2 veteran. He also died saving children during Brenda Spencer’s murderous rampage.

Spencer shot and wounded eight elementary school kids. Principal Wragg rushed into the line of fire to drag children to safety and was shot down as well. The school custodian, a 56-year-old Navy veteran named Mike Suchar, also ran to the sounds of battle. He was gunned down, too. Though all eight of the children ultimately recovered, Wragg and Suchar were killed.

A quick-thinking police officer commandeered a garbage truck and used it as cover to evacuate wounded children.

Brenda shot the first police officer to respond in the neck with her rifle. By this point, she had fired a sum total of thirty rounds. The police parked a garbage truck in the road to shield the school and evacuated the injured children to safety. Spencer spent the next several hours barricaded in her house talking to police negotiators.

People kill for myriad reasons. Brenda Spencer just wasn’t wired correctly.

A reporter from the San Diego Union-Tribune dialed random numbers in the neighborhood until he got Spencer on the phone. When queried concerning her motivations she said, “I don’t like Mondays. This livens up the day.” She informed him that she had chosen the kids across the street because they made easy targets. She actually said, “It was a lot of fun seeing children shot.” She also explained that it was her intent to leave the house guns a’blazing.

Despite professional negotiators, police vehicles, and SWAT teams, it was a little BK that finally lured Spencer out of her home.

Eventually, Brenda grew peckish. She ultimately left the house peacefully in exchange for a meal from Burger King. Police subsequently described the home as littered with beer and whiskey bottles. However, Spencer’s drug and alcohol tests were all negative.

The Gun

The Ruger 10/22 is a ubiquitous American hunting and recreational rifle.

First introduced in 1964, the Ruger 10/22 is likely the most successful .22 rifle ever devised. As of 2015, there had been more than seven million copies sold. Aftermarket parts and accessories are so prolific that you can actually build a Ruger 10/22 nowadays that doesn’t include a single Ruger part. The number of young shooters whose first taste of a trigger was that of a 10/22 defies counting.

Nowadays the Ruger 10/22 comes with a wide variety of options.

The standard Ruger 10/22 features a blued finish and walnut stock, though there are plenty of factory options available. The 10/22 has been offered in .22LR, .17HMR, and .22 Win Mag variants. However, the .17HMR and .22 Win Mag versions were only available for a couple of years. The standard .22LR rifle feeds from a flush-mounted 10-round helical-feed magazine, though aftermarket magazines and drums carry fifty rounds or more.

The 10/22 comes from the factory with a proper scope mount.

The standard 10/22 rifle comes with quality iron sights. The rear sight folds flat when not needed. Every 10/22 rifle is tapped for a scope mount that comes with the gun.

The Ruger 10/22 can be transformed into a decent facsimile of the wartime German MG42 machine-gun.

At their hearts these are both just standard 10/22 rifles.

The Archangel Nomad kit turns the humble Ruger 10/22 into something much snazzier.

Aftermarket dress-up kits span the spectrum. The modular nature of the design lends itself to creativity. The basic chassis has been adapted to emulate a crank-powered, tripod-mounted Gatling gun, a miniaturized MG42 machinegun, and even an M1 Garand. The Archangel Nomad kit is a drop-in polymer chassis that makes the 10/22 into a proper facsimile of an HK G36 assault rifle.

In addition to being much more versatile, today’s Ruger 10/22 is actually cheaper than it was when introduced.

When introduced in 1964 the 10/22 sold for $54.50. That’s about $465 in today’s money. The MSRP for the base model 10/22 today is $309. In addition to being reliable, accurate, and customizable, the 10/22 was also designed from the outset for ease of manufacture. The receiver is an investment casting, while many of the components are polymer. This helps keep the gun affordable.

The Rest of the Story

Brenda Spencer pled guilty to the charges against her.

Spencer pled guilty to two counts of 1st-degree murder and assault with a deadly weapon. She was sentenced to 25 years to life on the day after her 18^th birthday. She has thus far been before a parole board four times and has been denied each time.

Brenda alleged extreme abuse at the hands of her alcoholic father, though he vehemently denied this.

Brenda alleged that her father Wallace both beat and sexually abused her. He bizarrely married Brenda’s 17-year-old prison cellmate after her release, and they had a daughter together. The young woman eventually left him, but he lived in the same house across the street from the school until his death in 2016. The Grover Cleveland Elementary School was demolished in 2018.

Apparently inmates at the California Institute for Women eat fairly well.

In 2005 Brenda’s prison girlfriend was released and she was reported for an incident of self-harm. The report stated that she had clawed the words “Pride” and “Courage” into her flesh. When challenged she claimed the words were actually “Unforgiven” and “Alone.” She is currently 59 years old and resides at the California Institution for Women in Chino. She has been formally inducted into the “Golden Girls Club,” an organization of female inmates aged older than 55.

Bob Geldolf of the Boomtown Rats immortalized Brenda Spencer’s crime in a song just months after the shooting.

Bob Geldof, lead singer for the rock group the Boomtown Rats, read about the incident and wrote a song titled I Don’t Like Mondays that was released in July of 1979. The song was number 1 for four weeks in the UK, though it did not break the top 40 in the US. The Spencer family made a concerted effort to keep the song off the air on this side of the pond, but it received fairly extensive airplay regardless.