[Montana Slim]

Well, I finally paid off the layaway on my P1. What a cool pistol, I've wanted a P38/p1 for the longest time.
The finish looks great for a police trade in. Some slight holster wear on the slide flats and a couple dings on the frame. Sight paint still bright as well as the selector markings. The only real wear is on the plastic grips, the internals look excellent, much less wear than my P5 (which I have shot a bit).
Price was $299.99, but I traded my Steyr M9-A1 in today and paid off the last $70 and also took home a Marlin Model 60 SS and have a $40 credit as well.
What do you think?

PS: The trigger is pretty nice as well. I always thought the P1s had crappy triggers, but I guess that was the P38s.

 

[searcher451]

Congrats on the P1, Slim. They are nifty shooters and, for the most part, surprisingly accurate. It ought to give you some good times on the range for many years to come. The price you paid seems to be in the ball park for many of the P1s that are currently available and offered in good condition. Dan's Ammo is selling ones that are dubbed as "minty" for the same price, so you can judge your deal by that standard.

 

[crazy charlie]

Can you post some photos?
I just picked one up at Gander Mt. with two mags and a B. Meyer Gronau, blk leather holster.
Picture available in the photo section of my web site at www.freewebs.com/maxwellslaughter.

 

[SEN-5241]

Hey slim, I love my P-1 to death. the more guns i shoot, the more i appreciate what a great piece the P-1/P-38 is.

just FYI, i know you were probably told your P-1 was a police trade-in, but that's not really true. P-1 is the west german army's designation for the P-38 and it never saw action in any german police organizations. it was classified as a "police pistol" because importing it as a "combat pistol" would have been more difficult if not impossible. in short, if you have a pistol marked P-1, it saw action (however limited) with the Bundeswehr (which is what the BW stamped on the frame stands for).

so in reference to your comment about the trigger, what is the difference between a P-1 and a P-38? usually 2 numbers, 1 and 38. mechanically the postwar P-1 and P-38 are identical. and the only real difference between the wartime P-38 and the postwar models is the wartime pistols had a heavier steel frame and the postwar versions have the lighter aluminum frame. the newer models also have s few small improvements like a beefed-up firing pin to better handle the strain of the drop-hammer safety... but thats about it.

the bad things you may have heard about the P-38 trigger probably refer to the double action pull, which is long and hard. despite that, the pull is still smooth and even.

i'm drooling for a P-5 now...

 

[MGMike]

... but I traded my Steyr M9-A1 in today .

Just curious: How long did you have the Steyr and how much shooting did you do with it? Would be interested in your impressions. Thanks.

M

 

[Montana Slim]

MGMike, I owned the Steyr for about 9 months and shot between 500 and 600 rnds through it. The pistol was excellent I just really don't like the Glock style grip angle, I had to consciously rotate my wrists to bring the sights on target. It just didn't point well for me at all. Also, I prefer DA/SA so the trigger didn't do much for me.
If you like the grip angle and safe action style trigger it would be a great pistol, especially at the prices they are going for. I paid $399 for mine.

 

[MGMike]

Thank you. I was just wondering what people did not like about them.

M

 

[uncut]

Mike
I will let you know what I do and do not like once I have mine out from lay-away....
I don't think there is anything not to like about the M40
For anybody looking for a .40SW this would be the ticket.... perfect medium from the heavy XD40 and the Glock
one can see in it also how the P99 came to be such a good pistol I think (might be wrong here) but on of the guys who was on the P99 design team worked for Glock and Steyr if I remember correctly