P.38 Animation

[searcher451]

This has been posted before, but it's probable that many new members have never seen it. We'll add it as a Sticky here so that we can admire it from time to time, with compliments to the folks at the P.38 Forum and the artist, Vlad Makarov, for the great animation effort:

http://www.p38forum.com/anime7.swf

[bigfatdave]

I used that animation to teach myself about how a SA pistol worked, and have since used it to show others.

Great thing to sticky!

[Evelly]

Very nice work.

[Ron from Minnesota]

Bill,

It is a pretty cool animation. Thanks for giving credit to the forum and the artist.

Regards,
Ron

[Spadejack]

Very good animation. I still use the p38 in the military

[searcher451]

By all means tell us more, Spadejack. Where, and in what way, do you use the P.38? Welcome to the forum, by the way.

[Spadejack]

Thanks searcher

Im portuguese and im a sargent in the Portuguese Air Force. We still use the Walther P38 since a long time, right after the second world war. It is still in operation today. Its realy good, considering its age. Its very reliable, and in rough terrain its excelent. Altough a bit heavy comparing to the new guns.

I usually participate in the Armed forces shooting tournement. We use 3 main cathegories, 9mm, 7,62mm and .22
For the 9 mm we only use the P38, everyone's use standart military P.38 distributed by the FAP (air force) or any other branch.
For the 7,62mm we use the G3.

I'll try to upload some pictures of our armed forces P38.

By the way, yesterday i bought my new P99 9mm (here .40 or .45 is forbiden) and im loving it.

[searcher451]

Spadejack: Thanks for that terrific, and highly interesting, report. It's hard to believe that the P.38 is still standard fare in some military circles, despite the long credentials of this venerable firearm.

Are you using original P.38s, or are they the updated and/or armory-refurbished models? I'd also be interested to know if your army uses any of the P1 or P4 versions and merely refers to them generically as P.38s. (I'm also tempted to ask about whether the P5 has ever shown up for use but don't want to get too far adrift here.) One other question: Do you have any idea where the army secured the guns that you are using? I'm wondering here whether any of the Russian Capture pieces made their way to Portugal.

We'd love to see photos, of course. We always like photos.

And congratulations on the purchase of the P99. It, too, is a fine firearm, though it doesn't yet have the legs of the P.38.

Thanks again for sharing.

[Spadejack]

Hello again searcher

Im afraid i cant answer wether if the guns are updated or not. I only know that they were distributed in Portugal in 1961. Before that we used the Luger P08 9 mm.

We dont use any other versions, only the P38 (altough im not sure if its the P1) but i suspect that there were some P4 used during the colony wars, but i will need to confirm that.

Never seen a P5 nor i have heard of one ever being used in the service.

Im sorry, but i didnt understand your question about securing the weapons and russian capture pieces... what do you mean? Every branch here has their own wepons secure room (we call it armeiros) and its there where the wepons are stored. for example, everytime that i go on duty, i get my P38 that is designated for me, the officer too. Its a standart issue.

Well, excuse me for my errors, but i think my english is not that bad.

Cheers

[searcher451]

Spadejhack: You are doing great, and your English is fine -- far better than my Portuguese, to be sure. Thanks for helping to satisfy my curiosity.

My question was where your Army found, or bought, the P38s back in 1961. As we know, the Russians captured a great volume of German arms as the war was ending, and they took those weapons back to the Soviet Union and dipped them in some sort of preservative solution, then stored them for years -- no doubt waiting for the next world war. But somewhere along the line, they began selling those stores of weapons, including the many thousands and thousands of P.38s that they had on hand. So my question was whether the Russians sold your army the P.38s, or whether they were purchased from some other source.

Thanks again for sharing this fascinating bit of information. I'm sure that many of us here are amazed that the P.38 is still in use in the armies of the world.

One other thing: Do you know of any other nations that are still using this gun? Thanks again.

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