The badge is for the Royal Norfolk Regiment & they look like women to me with their Webley revolvers pointed at us. Grumpy
Category: Uncategorized
For someone that grew up on the whole James Bond series, just the name Walther conjures up scenes of adventure with spies, bad guys and beautiful women (though Bond’s Pistol was a PPK and later, a P99 being carried in the Brosnan and early Craig films).
Walther, founded by Carl Walther, is one of the oldest firearms manufacturers in the world with a history of producing quality firearms pieces, starting with a little gun shop in the town of Zella, Germany. At first they just produced shotguns and rifles, but Carl’s son brought his engineering acumen to the family business, expanding their production to pistols.
The predecessor of the P1 is one that more of you will be familiar with, the famous P38 Model HP (Heerespistole – army pistol) in the late 30’s. It’s roots were in pre-war Nazi Germany, when the German Army High Command wanted German arms manufactures to develop something of the large-caliber variety to replace the P.08 Luger. The Luger was a fine piece but it was also costly and difficult to manufacture. The goal was a pistol less labor intensive, one easy to assemble and reassemble, preferably one that could be produced by multiple manufacturers if needed, with interchangeable parts among them all. Frankly, pistols don’t have the biggest role to play in winning a war, but equipping your armed forces with a hand fitted, expensive pistol didn’t make a lot of sense. Therefore, the High Command wanted something revolutionary in design and concept that was easier and cheaper to produce.
About this time. Walther had completed its Model HP for worldwide distribution, giving them a big of a leg up on the competitors in Germany, winning the High Commands approval in 1938, with small numbers of the original HP bought by Sweden before the Wehrmacht adopted it as the Pistole 38 and took over all production guns. The term 38 wasn’t used as the designator on the commercial firearms, but was known as MOD HP until later in the war, when a few came up marked as MOD P.38, taking advantage of the identity of the military pistol.
Like the Luger, it had an eight round magazine and fired the 9 mm Parabellum cartridge. Unlike the Luger it was one of the first double action semi-auto pistols fielded to a military force. It seems commonplace to you and I but it was a unique concept back them, wherein a soldier could carry with a round in the chamber, hammer down, and all he had to do to use his weapon was pull the trigger. Certainly it was a longer, heavier pull, than a single action, but when your life is on the line, either offensive or defensive, simple is good. (of course, after the first double action pull, the pistol cocks itself automatically and subsequent rounds are single action).
In late 1941, Mauser and Spreewerke began production of the P.38 and its place in firearm history was a matter of record, with over a million produced from 1939 to 1945 by three companies, each having their own distinct markings and variations.
We all know how the War turned out for Germany. My Dad was over in England with the 8th Air Force while they bombed the heck out of them in Liberators. After the bombing campaigns and the end of the war, manufacturing capabilities of the country were about obliterated, with the Walther factory destroyed, even as the patents, know-how and a lot of the people involved, survived. After the war, most of the ex-Walther machinery ended up in France as war reparations, and you will find that many post-war P38 pistols were actually built in France by the Manurhin factory. But Germany was not down and out in the P38 market.
As the Federal Republic of Germany rose out of the ashes (with a lot of Allied help), Walther retooled and modified this old warhorse, replacing the all steel frame of the P.38 with a lighter aluminum alloy frame. It defied the traditional German tradition of re-inventing adesign but rather, built on a proven formula. This “new” pistol was produced, though I don’t believe it was named P1 until much later, with not only a aluminum alloy frame, but improved sites and a few other minor modifications.
The post-war P1 versions were less than popular in the Armed Forces ( Bundesweh), given the unofficial description of “eight warning shots plus one aimed throw”. Although revolutionary, the design was also over thought, with the P38 pistol having eleven springs (most of a size that if you drop one you will never find it) which is about double what the older Luger had that it replaced. Small parts and pins that are easy to lose during full disassembly doesn’t make for a popular piece. Add in an intricately shaped firing pin that easily broke, well, it was only a matter of time before other firearms replaced it.
My Dad survived the war, came back, got married, and late into the Cold War, was taken off guard when my Mom said “let’s adopt some kids“. The Cold War didn’t seem so bad after taking on two redheaded little ones in middle age, but I don’t think his generation ever let their guard down. The Cold War certainly changed some things, where the Soviets, formally allies (of convenience perhaps, sort of like your cat) were now a threat. West Germany was a new country needing many things, but not needing a million communists strolling through the Fulda Gap without as much as a RSVP, and a well equipped military force was suddenly on the agenda again.
Somewhere in there, it came time for a new sidearm and the P1 was surplussed. Many were rebuilt, given a slide and hex pin upgrade and found their way to the United States as “obsolete” firearms, where a firearm buyer can get one for a surprisingly low price, many not seeing a lot of action, not even that well aimed throw, and being in decent shape.
Buying One – P38 versus P1.
There are a lot of P38’s out there, several governments gaining possession of large quantities of them for their own military and police agencies post WWII. Many of these have been reworked with both original and new component parts, with the former USSR being the primary source of reworked P.38’s. Many of them have similarly been refinished and re-proofed by a number of other countries. If you’re looking at a collectors piece, you need to examine the firearm very carefully to determine if it’s original German military issue before you pay the price for one. (Hey, here’s an “original” German P.38 painted in the colors of Paraquay for only $159.99!)
Post War, the P.38 and P.1 both designated pistols for the police forces and armed forces and post war, they were pretty much identical, including the frame. It’s a common misconception that the .38’s all have steel frames, as far as I know, only those manufactured under the Third Reich and a small handful assembled by the French immediately after the war using “boosted” German parts did so. With just one exception, I’ve heard, the post war Walther P.38’s have the same basic frame as the P1. If you’re not careful you can spend $200 more just for the name P.38 when it still has the aluminum frame without the steel reinforcing lug in the frame, better slide, and other improvements made in later model P1’s.
The Range Report:
This little model is NOT one of the bashed together Soviet remakes. It was born sometime in the 70’s.
Frankly it is more accurate than expected. With an aluminum frame, five inch barrel and a slide that’s not all that long, there’s a bit more “snap” to it than the old all-steel .38. Still, with a feel that’s a bit “bottom heavy”, the muzzle flip will be less than you expect. This one does have the reinforcing steel ‘hex pin” in the frame to provide additional strength (it was found that the aluminum frame developed cracks in the most highly stressed area, where the locking piece and barrel were slamming against it on recoil, so the frames of late production pistols were reinforced with the addition of this hexagonal cross-pin) but that is more for overall strength than stability.
If you have small hands, you might find the grip a bit wide, but that being said, it does spread the recoil out nicely.
Would it win a target contest with a Makarov PM? Maybe not, but you won’t embarrass yourself wondering how your target jumped out of the way of your bullet. I wouldn’t recommend +P high pressure self defense ammo through this firearm; if you want something in 9 mm you can boss around, belittle and make it get you a beer, get a Glock. If you want something inexpensive with a taste of history that’s all warm and fuzzy with a box of white box ammo, you’ll like it.
This is indeed your grandfather’s double action: The trigger has an exposed hammer and trigger bar (the link between the trigger and sear) unusually located outside of the frame at the right side. It’s not a modern design, so while it’s pretty smooth, there is a bit of stacking and I’d guess the trigger pull of double action is near 10 pounds. The single action is nice and crisp and about half that by way of trigger pull, making it a decent “service pistol” though. Feeding between the magazine and chamber is fairly shallow, but it ate a white box of .115 without burping.
Sight Picture – if I didn’t get a great grouping it wasn’t due to the sight picture.
Safeties: The standard safety also functions as a decocker and is located at the left side of the slide. It’s easy to manipulate and reach with your thumb. That being said, if you are used to a 1911, you may well find yourself flipping it to safe and then pulling the trigger as the positions are backwards.(or so I’ve heard 🙂
I’d give my left arm to be ambidextrous: The mag release, one of those European anomalies we Yankees just don’t get used to (sort of the bidet of releases) is the long standing heal clip type. Maybe one eventually gets used to it, but it certainly didn’t do wonders for reloads (but then again compared to a Czech CZ52 it’s positively Speedy Gonzales).
You might want to stand over there -You will find extractor is on the left side of the gun, so the brass gets flung in the opposite direction of most autos. “Fore!”
Magazines were single-stack, with the magazine release located at the heel of the grip. This came with one, I’m not sure how hard it will be to find additional ones.
The pistols were also fitted with a loaded chamber indicator in the form of a small pin that projected from the rear of the slide, above the hammer, when a cartridge was loaded in the chamber. It wasn’t distracting, and it seemed to work.
Clean up: it appears to be fairly easy to clean and maintain, but keep tabs of the parts of you’re doing a full disassemble. .But don’t let it mate with your Mark III, the resulting offspring, might be a handful to field strip..
Does This Make my Slide Look Fat? In the 70’s, when this particular firearm originated, Walther incorporated several important design improvements into the P.1 in addition to the hex pin. This included a somewhat thicker sidewall on a section of the slide (commonly referred to as a “fat slide” though frankly, at a glance, I couldn’t tell the difference). If you have bigger hands (mine are quite large for a female, with long slender fingers) with a high thumb grip – watch the bottom edge of the slide. It won’t bite you but it will try and give you a hickey.
The fit and finish of the pistol is as what one expects from Walther, with a level of care in the machining, and a nice even finish, though it’s more of a utilitarian parkerized finish than the high polished blued finish of the PP and PPK’s that was second to none. It’s also not particularly concealable, but it’s not going to be a piece for that. It’s not likely to be my favorite firearm either. But for a little spot of history to practice pistol basics such as trigger squeeze and sight alignment in the $300 range, it’s worth a spot in the safe.
If you’re interested I’d be on the lookout for one now. The firearm is said to be eligible as a Curio and Relics by the BATF, though they have said they have not updated the list to include it. That would be worth checking out if you have a FFL03 license, especially given current rumor has it that Germany is destroying the remaining stocks of P1’s as part of the UN arms agreement.. I have no source to verify the rumor but if it’s true, these inexpensive little curios might sell like an AR15 after a filibuster. If your only plans for it are a little piece of history to remind us of what fighting is all about, it might well be a nice little addition to your collection while they are still available at a more than reasonable price.
An actual CIA photograph purporting to be a flying
saucer taken in new Jersey in 1952.
Are we alone in the universe? It’s a question as old as humanity. Since the dawn of time, man has stretched out on cloudless nights and gazed up at the stars. It is in our nature to wonder. We were designed to do so.
Personally, I have my own opinions. If the sun was the size of a basketball and it sat on the goal line of a football field, then the earth would be the size of a BB, and it would sit on the far goal line. There are more stars in the known universe than there are grains of sand in the Sahara Desert. We are truly unimaginably small. If some extraterrestrial intelligence was searching for us, they’d have to be really lucky to tease us out of all the background nothing. However, there nonetheless remain some compelling anecdotes.
When I was a kid, there were apparently not so many lawyers. Whenever my dad would buy a car, the first thing he’d do was cut the seatbelts out with a razor blade. Who wants to keep sitting on those stupid things anyway? As a wee lad, my standard duty posting was standing on the seat next to my dad or stretched out in a position of repose on that shelf underneath the back window. In the event of an accident, I obviously would have made the most horrible squishy little projectile. Alas, dad is a great driver, and God smiled upon us.
Late one evening, we were out driving someplace, and I was stretched out on that shelf staring up into the dark night sky. The family car was one of those ginormous land yacht Oldsmobuicks. The thing was big enough for its own zip code and likely got about the same gas mileage as might your typical aircraft carrier. However, it was the early 1970s, gas was cheap and plentiful, and folks weren’t screaming about climate change all the time. Ignorance is bliss, I suppose.
I remember this like it was yesterday. I saw a flying disc swoop down over a nearby cotton field in the darkness. It was round and spinning with multi-colored lights distributed around its circumference. The thing dove low and then banked up and over the road before jetting off into the distance and out of sight. I was perhaps 4- or 5-years-old and didn’t think it remarkable enough to mention to my parents. Maybe I hallucinated the whole thing, but it sure seemed real at the time.
The 1950s were the golden years of UFO sightings. The country really was abuzz over it.
Meddling With Madness
My dad and a college chum were heading out to the deer camp in his old surplus Army jeep sometime around 1958. The moonless night was clear, crisp and cold. The camp house was a big tent built atop a wooden platform, all situated at the apex of the old levee in the Mississippi Delta. As there were no other sources of illumination, my dad pulled the jeep up so that the headlights washed across the structure to ensure nothing was in the way before killing both the jeep and the lights. Everything was instantly engulfed in inky darkness.
Dad got out of the driver’s side while his buddy exited shotgun. As they each reached the approximate respective front fenders, the night was instantly split by a series of piercing white flashes of light. Dad said the light was unimaginably bright and adequate to utterly displace the darkness. He likened it to a strobe on a camera. He said for the moments when it flashed, he could see deep into the woods as though it were mid-day.
The light flashed in a rhythmic series over perhaps three to five seconds. There was no sound at all. As you might imagine, this was a fairly traumatic event for these two unsuspecting young men.
Dad said he fell face down into the leaves involuntarily. He said the shock of the moment was such that his arms and legs simply failed him. His buddy was similarly afflicted, but he fell onto his back. Dad’s pal later described the flashes as a series of bright white balls tracking across the sky. And then, all was black once again.
Dad and his buddy regained their wits in short order and scrambled up the levee into the tent. They got the Coleman lantern ignited with no small difficulty and then sat across from each other at the camp table, trying to make sense of what they had just experienced. Dad confided that had he been alone, he likely would have simply lost his mind and gone screaming off into the woods.
As you might imagine, the etiology of this extraordinary event has been the topic of many a fireside family discussion. Dad always suspected some kind of 1950s-era spy plane. My working theory is a ferrous meteor flashing as its iron core vaporized in the atmosphere. Or perhaps it was indeed an alien spacecraft crewed by some interstellar pranksters, the extraterrestrial versions of teenage boys. If that is the case, my dad tells me they likely got an eyeful. He said that, as he cowered helplessly and prostrate in the wet leaves, he did not feel that he was a terribly impressive representative of the human species.
Categories
Oh why the Hell not? NSFW
Springfield Armory has just introduced a faithful re-creation of the P-35, a pistol better known to many American shooters as the Hi Power. The new SA-35 is a single-action, high-capacity semiautomatic 9mm with the Hi Power’s classic lines and a number of improvements over the original.
The all-steel gun features a forged-steel slide and frame with matte blue finish, and the strength of these forged components tells you this is going to be one durable pistol. The 4.7-inch barrel is cold-hammer-forged.
Improvements to the original design include a Tactical Rack U-notch rear sight, which not only provides a great sight picture but also enables you to rack the slide on a belt or hard surface in an emergency. The thumb safety has been extended for easier, surer operation, and the hammer sports a new contour that prevents the hammer bite so common to the original Hi Power. There’s also no magazine disconnect safety on the SA-35, which permits a better trigger pull.
Grips are checkered walnut, completing the gun’s classic looks. Our reviewer indicated that the new SA-35’s frame will accept aftermarket grips meant to fit the P-25/Hi Power. He also found the gun to be nicely accurate and well-balanced—a gun that could be used for concealed carry (it’s only 31.5 ounces), home defense or just one of those pistols you have to have because you appreciate firearms history.
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Key point: The Army is not doing so well with fitness standards these days. Is there any way a new test or revisions could help improve military readiness?
When Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower issued a letter to his troops just before the D-Day landings in Normandy in 1944, he told them, “I have full confidence in your courage, devotion to duty and skill in battle.” He was writing to American troops who had to meet these minimum physical requirements: seven pull-ups, 31 jump squats, 27 push-ups, 52 sit-ups, and a 300-yard sprint in 52.5 seconds. Soldiers — all of them — had to be fit in 1944.
Compare those to contemporary requirements in the U.S. Army, where young male recruits now face a test requiring a minimum of 35 push-ups, 47 sit-ups, and a two-mile run time of 16:36.
In some ways, a shift has already begun, and there has been a reduction in overall fitness requirements. The U.S. military has modernized and transitioned to more mechanization and automation. While the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have exhibited a continued need for intensive counterinsurgent ground combat, only about 20% of American military personnel have jobs that require a combat role — and thus, “combat fitness.” Such battlefields require “less sweat, more sit.”
Senior leadership is beginning to recognize this.
Then-Secretary of Defense Ash Carter lead the charge to adapt the U.S. military to this new, less industrial warfare. In a 2015 speech, he addressed the heart of the problem: “Fewer young Americans are capable of serving in the military. Of the 21 million Americans aged 17–21, we estimate that only about half are able to meet our high-quality standards on our entry exam.”
Factor in physical fitness and character standards, Carter continued, and “only about a third are actually eligible to join the military.” It is promising that Carter is considering the easing of standards (including fitness) for certain high-tech military positions to contend with newly evolving forms of warfare.
This is hardly just an American problem. The Israeli military has begun adapting its force structure to accommodate and integrate some of its citizens with mental and physical disabilities into specialized military jobs. If Israel, a country on permanent alert, has made these changes, they are worth seriously considering here.
Still, many argue that standardized military physical fitness requirements in each service are a prerequisite tradition, and that all should be fit enough for ground combat. Some even contend that physical fitness standards are necessary to control ballooning healthcare costs over the long term, to which a recent report says $50 billion of the annual DoD budget goes.
The problem with such arguments is that they ignore the transition away from industrial-age forms of warfare. Today, most enemies avoid direct combat and are not intimidated by how “professional” a soldier looks in uniform.
Similarly, an emphasis on standardized military fitness standards to save on healthcare costs undermines long-term national security by limiting the talent pool of military personnel recruited and retained — a pool that usually excels in highly technical jobs that merely require the physical capability of sitting in an office chair for extended periods. Indeed, there is something perversely wrong with the fitness regimen when an Air Force colonel (and KC-135 pilot) is relieved of his wing commander job just because his waist is greater than 39 inches.
American adversaries are increasingly engaging in hybrid forms of warfare that blend unconventional, irregular, and information/cyber warfare. Provocative military operations by the Chinese in the South China Sea and Russia in Ukraine illuminate this new era of perplexing low-intensity conflict. This shift means the U.S. military needs the right mix of brawn and brains, while also highlighting that raw military power no longer wins (or deters) by itself in the 21st century.
A troubling 2016 report from the Government Accountability Office identified the serious threat cyber-attacks posed to the U.S. government, including the DoD. The GAO report noted that in 2006, there were 5,503 attacks, but by 2015 there had been 77,183 attacks. This is nearly a 1,300% increase in just a decade. Continued adherence to present fitness standards in all military branches is not going to prevent future attacks.
A burly Marine may repel the Taliban in Afghanistan or an elite Special Forces unit may engage Islamic State fighters in urban warfare, but these are just peripheral threats. The real existential threat to the United States comes not from terrorists, but instead from an “Army of Cyber Proxies” that steal trade secrets and classified documents, and can cause severe infrastructural, industrial, and economic damage. The Office of Personnel Management breach of over 20 million government personnel records by suspected Chinese hackers illustrates the true danger and consequences of not recruiting and developing the right cadre of mentally rather than physically fit cyber warriors to maintain American dominance. Even recent Russian meddling in the American election process underscores the danger of this subversive warfare to democratic political institutions.
It may sound sacrilegious to suggest that the military should drop another tradition and lower fitness standards. But not doing so puts the United States at greater risk. Fitness standards for ground combat intensive jobs should remain high, but throughout the services, physical standards should be revised to match the fitness requirements of each job specialty.
If even Israel can ignore fitness requirements in lieu of finding the right people to fill non-combat jobs, then the U.S. military can easily do the same. The military should adopt appropriate weight and fitness standards for citizens that want to serve in positions that enable American superiority in air, sea, space and cyber domains, as well as on the ground.
—————————————————————————————-So everyone a Rifleman is out the door huh? So what happens when the Shit hits the fan and you need to plug a hole in the line? Hmmm! Grumpy, Who by the way is now a REALLY out of shape 64 year old Vet.