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Swedish AK GRAM February by Ian McCollum

Editor’s note: Edvin Lofthammer is a student as the Swedish Defense University writing a thesis on the adoption of the AK4 by the Swedish military. The following article is an interesting side note of Swedish development that did not fit into the scope of his thesis, but ought to be published nonetheless.

by Edvin Lofthammar

During the early Cold War, Sweden had a rapidly expanding military as a result of it’s neutral stance in the balance between the west and the east. In WW2, Sweden had been able to stay out of the conflict, but due to this there were some moments were they had to compromise on their hard-line neutrality in order to appease the major actors of the war. Infamously, Sweden allowed German soldiers to pass through the country via train, a number totaling around 2,140,000 soldiers between 1940 and 1943. After WW2, Sweden decided to invest large amounts of resources and money in both civilian and military defence, which formed what in Sweden is referred to as the Total Defence (Totalförsvaret). During WW2 Sweden had produced a lot of it’s own military hardware, and continued to do so into the Cold War. This included the Kulsprutepistol M/45 (known as “The Swedish K” abroad) and the Automatgevär M/42 (mostly know as the Ljungman abroad, pronounced Yung-Mann). When Sweden realized it had to update its standard issue infantry rifle in the early 60s, it was therefore only natural that a domestic design be submitted as well. This would be the AK GRAM.

Automatkarbin fm/1963. Source: https://digitaltmuseum.se/011024260710/automatkarbin-fm-1963 (CC BY 4.0)

The AK GRAM was an experimental gun designated as an Automatkarbin in Swedish nomenclature. This translates to Automatic Carbine, and is not synonymous with either the term Assault Rifle or Battle Rifle which are prominent in the English-speaking world. The “Automatic” in Automatic Carbine refers to it being a self-loading gun. A mainly fully automatic weapon would have the prefix “Kulsprute” (Bullet-Spewing). The Carbine part was simply because it was considered shorter than what would typically be considered a rifle. There is however some instances of Automatic Carbines being longer than Automatic Rifles. For example, the M-14 (which was also trialed by Sweden during the same time) was at this time designated an Automatic Carbine despite its total length being 1,126mm, which is longer than the German G-43 at 1115mm, which was considered an Automatic Rifle. The most accurate description of the AK GRAM in English-speaking circles would be Battle Rifle, as the gun was chambered in both 6.5 Swedish and 7.62 NATO.

Automatkarbin fm/1963. Source: https://digitaltmuseum.se/011024260710/automatkarbin-fm-1963 (CC BY 4.0)

The gun can trace its heritage back to the AG 42, as the AG 42 was modified to become another prototype Automatic Carbine intended for use with Swedish paratroopers. This gun first became known as the AK FM/57, and featured, among other things, a folding stock, pistol grip and removable 20 round box magazines. From this project (which never saw mass adoption) sprung the AK GRAM. It was originally designated AK m/W, named after its creator E.W. Wallberg who was an engineer at Sweden’s main firearms developer and manufacturer, Carl Gustaf Gevärsfaktori. It is however worth noting that Nils Lundin who was also an engineer at Carl Gustaf Gevärsfaktori is also credited with constructing the gun, and he has been credited with the construction of the mechanism as well. The gun would soon after the first rounds be renamed the AK GRAM. “GRAM” probably refers to the sword “Gram” which in nordic mythology was passed from Oden to Sigismund, and is most likely not an acronym.

The AK GRAM took a lot of details that were changed from the AG 42 when it was modified to become the AK FM/57, including integrating a piston in the previously direct gas impingement system for increased reliability, and it otherwise was very similar to the tilting bolt design on the AG 42. The gun was select fire, and weighed 4.35 kg (9.6lb) unloaded. The length without a flash hider (which was being designed when measurements were taken) was 1060mm, and with the folding stucked folded it was 800mm (31.5in). The barrel length was 520mm (20.5in). Rate of fire was around 650 RPM. The gun was constructed in both 6.5 Swedish and 7.62 NATO, and for the 6.5 Swedish version a curved magazine was designed.

It is more accurate to describe the AK GRAM as a distant derivative of the AG 42 more than anything else, since the gun was changed so much that it became doubtful whether or not they would be able to reuse any tooling from the AG 42. This was something that had previously been heralded as a benefit compared to the foreign designs competing with it, the main competitors being the HK G3 (which after quite a substantial amount of modification was accepted into service as the AK 4) and the FN FAL. The AK GRAM was continuously updated, but always lagged behind its competitors. In 1963 the final model was designated the AK FM/63 GRAM. This design also lagged behind the competition, and this was the point at which KATF (the Swedish ordinance department at the time) pulled the plug on the project and decided to concentrate on the G3 and FAL instead. The main issues that went unsolved throughout its lifetime was feeding and ejecting issues, something even the final version couldn’t alleviate in any acceptable amount. The gun never left the technical testing stages, and tactical testing wasn’t formally commenced.

In 1965 Sweden accepted and started to field the AK 4, and would continue to do so until it was replaced with a modified FN FNC designated the AK 5 in 1985. Sweden had a quite short timeframe of only 5 years to select and adopt its first Automatic Carbine, and this was even in the very first documents regarding the matter one of the key identifiable factors why a domestic option was dubious. KATF estimated a timeframe of 10-15 years to design an Automatic Carbine ready for mass production, which they compared to the 5-10 years required for a machinegun (kulspruta, referring to light, medium and heavy machineguns). Sweden had however managed to produce domestic designs for self-loading and fully automatic weapons before which had been quite succesful, mainly the Kulsprutepistol M/45 and the AG 42. Sweden also had a very succesful aircraft industry, which was producing cutting edge fighter jets like the J-35 Draken in a country of only 7.5 million people. Economically, Sweden was also in the middle of what is sometimes referred to as Rekordåren (the Record Years) which saw a rapid development in Swedish living standards and industry up until the oil crisis in 1973. These factors combined conceivably resulted in the will to atleast make an attempt at creating a domestic Automatic Carbine, despite the even then unsure possibilities of actually producing something usable. The projects justification in the tail end of its lifecycle was to provide Swedish engineers with valuable knowledge and experience in the construction and maintenance of Automatic Carbines. A completely Swedish Automatic Carbine, Assault Rifle or Battle Rifle design has since then not seen the light of day.

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GUN VIOLENCE CUT IN HALF DESPITE TWICE AS MANY PEOPLE OWNING GUNS

Relampago Furioso

Relampago Furioso is the creator of The New Modern Man. He is a former member of the mainstream media turned dissident, with professional experience in both science and journalism. He enjoys striking at the Establishment using politically incorrect truths and electrifying SJWs with logic. He is now living part time in the Caribbean while traveling the world. New for 2017, Rel has published a Quick and Dirty Guide to Women and a Quick and Dirty Guide to Money and Minimalism. Rel is also a Red Pill Life Coach, helping other men realize the dream of getting laid on the regular, getting out of debt, and traveling the world. Facebook|Twitter

If you listen to the hysterical mainstream media, you’ll walk away with the impression that something just has to be doneabout gun violence, rights of the peons be damned. Those rebel flag waving hicks and people who “cling to their guns and religion”—to quote Barack Hussein Obama—are going to have to bend the knee to the stripping of one of their most fundamental freedoms, the Second Amendment, so we can all live in a hypothetical, perfectly safe socialistic bubble, and more importantly, so people won’t have any defense against encroaching tyranny.
Sure, the American military has weapons beyond the wildest dreams of the simple gun owner, but the gun owners have strength in numbers. It’s hard to send people to government work camps when there are 357 million firearms in the nation—more guns than there are people. At the very least, all hell will break loose when government agents come around to round people up, if indeed that ever happened. It won’t be a neat and tidy transition to authoritarianism with a populace armed to the teeth.
Never is the fact mentioned by elites in the propagandist media that authoritarian governments from that of Mao Zedong to Hitler stripped their citizens of guns before instituting totalitarian governments that murdered millions, nor is the fact you have a near zero chance of dying in a mass shooting ever given the emphasis it deserves. Hitler knew the importance of disarming the citizenry before subjecting them.

The most foolish mistake we could possibly make would be to allow the subjugated races to possess arms. History shows that all conquerors who have allowed their subjugated races to carry arms have prepared their own downfall by so doing. Indeed, I would go so far as to say that the supply of arms to the underdogs is a sine qua non for the overthrow of any sovereignty. So let’s not have any native militia or native police.

Crimson-Trace-Midnight-3-Gun-806

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

Beyond the fact citizens are disarmed before they are subjected to centralized power, despite the genuflecting of countless empty headed talking heads, the fact is life is much more mundane than they would like it to be. You are far more likely to die when you go hop into your box on wheels sedan (that you are probably in debt bondage paying for) and make your way down to your corporate job. In fact, twice the number of people die every single day in automobile accidents than died in the “biggest mass shooting in history” in Orlando. Yet, we haven’t heard from the left about banning automobiles. (Yet, anyway. The global warming religion will push that agenda item at a later date.)
Here are things that really kill people in great numbers, but they don’t make for compelling video to suit a news director’s need to create drama so he, she or zhe (heh) can put asses in seats in front of the idiot box. Asses that your local propaganda outlet needs so desperately. You are more likely to die from falling out of a tree than you are at the hands of a mass murderer. Let’s look at things that kill more people than mass shooters:

  • Falling out of a tree: 100 deaths annually
  • Falling inside your home: 13,000 deaths annually
  • Suicide: 42,000 deaths annually
  • Kidney infections: 48,000 deaths annually
  • Stroke: 133,000 deaths annually
  • Cancer: 592,000 deaths annually
  • Heart disease: 614,000 deaths annually

The mass media also never bring up the fact that an increasing chorus of people, from Judge Napolitano to Steven Seagal are questioning the truthfulness of sensational news headlines the echo chamber foams at the mouth selling to a public that is, by and large, malleable and suggestive to thought control. Here are some bombshells that the media selectively avoided when they were trotting out their gun control narratives:

  • Judge Napolitano revealed that nobody died until 5:13 AM in the Orlando mass shooting—that is until the FBI and SWAT teams entered the Orlando gay club hours after the standoff began. This raises a number of questions that were never even brought up, let alone answered. Napolitano is apparently the only mainstream media personality who bothered to read the FBI’s report. He said: Here’s whats news in the summary, nobody died until 5:13 in the morning, when the SWAT team entered, prior to that no one had been killed. The 53 that were injured, and the 49 that were murdered all met their fates at the time of, and during, the police entry into the building.This is a bombshell revelation, readily available in the official FBI report.
  • Steven Seagal dropped this bomb on Russian television last fall: I believe that, and I hate to say this, a lot of these mass murders and all this funny stuff that’s going on, I believe a lot of this is engineered.

Beyond questioning the official narrative and conspiracy theories, even if you think people who question authority are nuts, the representation of of gun violence as increasing—as half the public thinks it is—reveals the power of the corporate press to distort facts and create false realities as Congress’ own statistics reveal. Gun crimes and gun violence have plummeted over the past 20 years, yet the public believes otherwise. As Einstein said: Blind belief in authority is the greatest enemy of truth.

Gun violence has tumbled over the past 20 years, despite what the media tell you

Gun violence has tumbled over the past 20 years, despite what the media tell you

Gun Violence At Record Lows

Let’s look at some statistics. The number of guns per person has increased from 0.93 to 1.45 over the last 20 years. There are more guns than people in the United States. That is a whopping 56% increase in the number of guns over a generation. However, the gun homicide rate has tumbled 49% in that same time. The gun homicide rate has fallen from 7.0 to 3.6 deaths per 100,000 people. Gun homicides have been cut in half while the number of guns has more than doubled! This is exceptional news, but chances are you have never heard of it unless you read alternative media. This fact gun crime is down is coming straight from the horse’s mouth, the U.S. Government itself.
Despite the fact you are more likely to die of just about anything but guns in your lifetime, the fact gun violence is plummeting to record lows, and the fact people own more guns than ever proving there is no link between gun ownership and violence, politicians feel the need to take away the average citizen’s capability to defend against criminals and tyranny. This reveals the gun violence narrative is pushed by politicians and the media for a reasons other than those stated by our “social betters.”

  • Politicians and social engineers need to create a gun violence issue to continue the Hegelian dialectic: spin up a “gun control” problem, have a preplanned solution (i.e. gun confiscation) in place, and direct all “solutions” towards that goal.
  • The media makes their living and maintains their ivory tower by creating problems to create profit. There is nothing scarier to average people than the prospect of being mowed down by a nut with a gun, so the rational and responsible view that yes, mass shootings are an issue but do not deserve 24/7 attention is immediately discarded in favor of sensationalism. This also speaks to the lack of journalistic integrity to report on mass shootings but also to calm the public down with the fact that these are very isolated events and that gun violence overall is tumbling. They often excuse their hysteria with “human interest” in these bloody stories, pointing to the victims. This is nothing but exploitation of tragedy for profit and to push an agenda, as far more people die from other causes of death each and every day.
  • Creating “sitting ducks” by pushing gun-free zones all over the nation is another way guns and gun owners are marginalized. The government doesn’t need to ban the Second Amendment if they make the entire country a gun-free zone. Gun-free zones invite violence, as attackers know they’re more likely to inflict harm on defenseless sheep than armed wolves.

Beyond gun violence and gun homicides being at historical lows, there are other facts the puppet masters don’t want you to know.

A teacher and student guarding the entrance to their Delaware school in 1973 after a shooter called in a threat. No gunman ever arrived

A teacher and student guarding the entrance to their Delaware school in 1973 after a shooter called in a threat. No gunman ever arrived

More Hidden Information

Let’s bust a couple more gun myths promulgated by the irresponsible and shameless mass media and look at a couple of important facts they ignore.
Myth: Children are at significant risk at school of being killed by a mass shooter.
After Sandy Hook, an impressionable and irrational public immediately pushed for schools to be gun-free zones, and to turn schools into the equivalent of prisons for children. However, only a couple of generations ago the above scene at a Delaware high school played out after a threat was called into the high school. Students and teachers went to their cars to pull out their guns at the school, and no gunman ever showed up. My, how times have changed.
Additionally, more children die each year on bicycles, from space heater fires, and in drownings than from guns. But, we don’t hear calls for banning bicycles, heaters, and swimming pools because that doesn’t make for good TV or good politics. Also, liberal mothers kill more unborn children than guns each and every year through abortion, yet women go into a hissy fit if anyone talks about taking away their right to murder a defenseless, voiceless human being.
Myth: Crime is lower in countries that have banned guns. 
One need look no further than our neighbor Mexico, where guns are forbidden for the average citizen but every cartel and criminal has them. Many Mexican cities look like war zones and I personally witnessed two shootouts between the Mexican military and cartel members when I lived there. One has to think the gangs would not be as brazen if the average citizen had the capability to defend themselves. So, Mexico is an example of gun control nightmare. The CATO institute also dropped this truth bomb on gun grabbers.

In Israel and Switzerland, for example, a license to possess guns is available on demand to every law-abiding adult, and guns are easily obtainable in both nations. Both countries also allow widespread carrying of concealed firearms, and yet, admits Dr. Arthur Kellerman, one of the foremost medical advocates of gun control, Switzerland and Israel “have rates of homicide that are low despite rates of home firearm ownership that are at least as high as those in the United States.” A comparison of crime rates within Europe reveals no correlation between access to guns and crime.

Gun control disarms good people, as criminals will always find a way around laws.
Fact: SSRIs are strongly correlated with mass shootings.
Eric Harris at Columbine, Seung Hui-Cho at Virginia Tech, James Holmes at Aurora, Christopher Harper Mercer in South Carolina, Andreas Lubitz, the Germanwings pilot who killed 149 people, and Adam Lanza of Sandy Hook all were on high doses of SSRI anti-depressants. As Dr. Peter Breggin has warned, going to a psychiatrist has become one of the most dangerous things a person can do. Breggin also wrote this in his book Your Drug May Be Your Problem:

Advocates of psychiatric drugs often claim that the medications improve learning and the ability to benefit from psychotherapy, but the contrary is true.  There are no drugs that improve mental function, self-understanding, or human relations.  Any drug that affects mental processes does so by impairing them.

And more tellingly:

Despite a hugely successful promotional campaign by drug companies and biological psychiatry, the effectiveness of most or all psychiatric drugs remains difficult to demonstrate.  The drugs often prove no more effective than sugar pills, or placebos – and to accomplish even these limited positive results, the clinical trials and data that they generate typically have to be statistically manipulated.

The effects of these drugs are chilling, and a large number of people become agitated and manic when they take them.

The newer antidepressants including Prozac, Zoloft, Paxil, Luvox, Celexa, and Lexapro commonly cause some degree of over-stimulation. The effects are not unlike those of cocaine and amphetamine, and both the Prozac-like drugs and the stimulants impair function of the neurotransmitters serotonin and dopamine. Some of the other newer antidepressants, including Effexor, Serzone, Cymbalta and Wellbutrin can have similar effects. No one knows the frequency of very severe reactions to the antidepressants. Some studies indicate that some degree of clinically significant over-stimulation and mania is caused in a startling 5%-10% of all patients taking these drugs. A number of clinical reports have also described a syndrome of obsessive SSRI-induced suicidality and violence that seems particular to these drugs.

Rather than calling for an investigation into pill-pushing prostitutes with medical degrees, as some doctors are, the media pushes a gun control agenda as the “magic bullet” that will fix everything. The correlation between SSRIs and mass shootings is never given proper attention because pharmaceutical advertising is a $5.17 billion dollar industry, and the media needs this revenue to prop up their sagging bottom lines.
Fact: Cops kill more people than mass shooters. 
The very people who are supposed to protect the public kill far more people than mass shooters. Statistically, you are 9 times more likely to be killed by a police officer than a mass shooter. Are the cops acting in self defense most of the time? Probably. But there are also videos coming out by the truckload that show police are often acting inappropriately and an in abusive manner to the public they are supposed to protect and serve.
Last year alone cops killed 1,205 people. Were all those deaths justified? Most of them probably were. But how many people were killed that should not have been? Nobody is watching the watchers except for the web site Killed By Police, so nobody knows. Yet, the media never focus on this as they always push the public towards complete and total trust in authority, whether it be government bureaucrats or militarized police.
So, each of the gun grabbers’ arguments can be destroyed through some basic research and logic. The argument that people don’t need guns because there are police is the equivalent of saying people don’t need fire extinguishers because there are fire departments. By the time the police arrive in their average 10 minute response time, the criminal is already going to be gone. And your house is already likely to be burned down from a small kitchen fire that could have easily been extinguished.
Once again we defenders of freedom are making the colossal mistake of letting the Marxist left and media control the narrative, then playing defense against their narrative. Gentlemen, the time has come to push back against the left. We have to find some way to put them on the defense about their insane policies and beliefs. Every time they bring out a new agenda item, they push and push until we fall back. Sooner or later the line must the drawn, and the authoritarians shown we will not be pushed any farther. Making them defend their insane positions instead of libertarians and traditionalists defending their positions, as we are doing now, is the most important move we can make.

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The British service M16A2 assault rifle with firearms and weapons expert Jonathan Ferguson

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A Parker VH Grade with 30 Barrels, Choked M/F. in12GA.

Parker VH Grade, 12GA. 30 Barrels Choked M/F. 12 GA - Picture 2
Parker VH Grade, 12GA. 30 Barrels Choked M/F. 12 GA - Picture 3
Parker VH Grade, 12GA. 30 Barrels Choked M/F. 12 GA - Picture 4
Parker VH Grade, 12GA. 30 Barrels Choked M/F. 12 GA - Picture 5
Parker VH Grade, 12GA. 30 Barrels Choked M/F. 12 GA - Picture 6
Parker VH Grade, 12GA. 30 Barrels Choked M/F. 12 GA - Picture 7
Parker VH Grade, 12GA. 30 Barrels Choked M/F. 12 GA - Picture 8
Parker VH Grade, 12GA. 30 Barrels Choked M/F. 12 GA - Picture 9
Parker VH Grade, 12GA. 30 Barrels Choked M/F. 12 GA - Picture 10

 

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A Browning BL-22 GRADE II FIELD in caliber .22-S-L-LR

Browning BL-22 GRADE II FIELD .22-S-L-LR... SILVER ENGRAVED RECEIVER, 24

Browning BL-22 GRADE II FIELD .22-S-L-LR... SILVER ENGRAVED RECEIVER, 24
Browning BL-22 GRADE II FIELD .22-S-L-LR... SILVER ENGRAVED RECEIVER, 24
Browning BL-22 GRADE II FIELD .22-S-L-LR... SILVER ENGRAVED RECEIVER, 24
Browning BL-22 GRADE II FIELD .22-S-L-LR... SILVER ENGRAVED RECEIVER, 24
Browning BL-22 GRADE II FIELD .22-S-L-LR... SILVER ENGRAVED RECEIVER, 24
Browning BL-22 GRADE II FIELD .22-S-L-LR... SILVER ENGRAVED RECEIVER, 24
Browning BL-22 GRADE II FIELD .22-S-L-LR... SILVER ENGRAVED RECEIVER, 24

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Battle of Nagashino 1575

“A weapon that kills without honor, without skill, but even so, it gives power and victory and Victory wipes away dishonor.

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Walther – A Piece of History by mausersandmuffins

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.

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