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Walther P38

• easy
• Shop tier 2
• medium confidence
• Pistol
• da sa
• decocker
• surplus
• historic
• locking block

field strip ~2 min · reassembly ~3 min · detail strip ~30 min

Specifications

Model-specific safety

• The P38 was the first mass-produced service pistol with a double-action trigger and a decocking safety. Rotating the safety lever down decocks the hammer — on a chambered round. Never treat that as a clearing procedure.
• Early wartime P38s have a known firing pin breakage issue, and the firing pin is not a part to improvise. Inspect it during cleaning.
• The locking block sits under the barrel and drops down to unlock. It is a wear part — inspect it for cracks.
• Surplus ammunition of this era is frequently corrosively primed. Clean with a water-based solvent the same day you shoot.
• Newly imported pistols are often packed in cosmoline throughout, including the firing pin channel. Clean it out and reinstall the firing pin dry — a pin held forward by congealed grease causes slam fires.
• Post-war P1 pistols have an alloy frame rather than the wartime steel frame, and later ones added a hex bolt reinforcement through the frame. Do not assume a wartime and a post-war pistol are the same.

Under spring tension

• Two recoil springs, one either side of the frame
• Hammer spring
• Magazine spring

Easily lost parts

Takedown lever · Locking block · Firing pin and its retainer

Tools

No tools required for the field strip.

Shop difficulty

Shop tier 2 Tier 2 — moderate among pistols, for the full job: strip to the parts that get coated and put it back together working. 55 parts with a lot of small springs (about 14) and plungers in an open-topped frame and a slide holding firing pin, safety, signal pin and firing pin lock; Walther says detail work is for skilled craftsmen and reassembly only works hammer down. Evidence for Tier 3 (miserable-to-rebuild reports) was not found in reachable sources.

Parts: 55 numbered parts ('The Components of the Walther Pistol P 38' (p. 18) keyed to the exploded view (p. 17), items 1-55 in four units incl. magazine.), from Walther Pistol P 38 instruction manual (English; Carl Walther, Ulm/Donau) — Carl Walther (re-hosted on indaginibalistiche.it and pdf.textfiles.com), p. 17–18 indaginibalistiche.it [3].

Bench time: about 30 min to strip, 50 min to rebuild (estimate). Slide (safety, firing pin and lock, signal pin, extractor, sights) and frame (hammer, cocking piece, trigger bar, sear/hammer trap, ejector, release levers, grips); rebuild longer for the slide safety and the frame's small springs.

Small parts: 16 pins, 10 springs, 0 detents or plungers (counted from the manufacturer's parts list (one per key number unless a quantity is given))

What comes off for coating

• Slide: safety lever unit, firing pin, spring and firing pin lock, signal pin and spring, extractor, pin and spring, rear sight — pin punches
• Frame: grips, hammer and pin, cocking piece and pin, trigger, trigger bar and springs, hammer trap and spring, ejector, release lever, trip lever, rest pins and springs, slide stop and spring, magazine catch, barrel locking block (barrel unit) — pin punches

Special tools

• dovetail sight pusher (or brass drift and padded vise) — Removing and refitting dovetailed sights for coating

Known pain points

• Walther says further dismantling should be entrusted to skilled craftsmen. (both)
  Source: Walther Pistol P 38 instruction manual (English; Carl Walther, Ulm/Donau) — Carl Walther (re-hosted on indaginibalistiche.it and pdf.textfiles.com) indaginibalistiche.it [3] — “Any further dismantling should be carried out only if there is an uncommonly great amount of dirt present in these parts. Any such work, however, should be entrusted to skilled craftsmen.”
• Reassembly can only be done with the hammer down; the ejector, release lever and trip lever must be pressed down for the slide to pass. (reassembly)
  Source: Walther Pistol P 38 instruction manual (English; Carl Walther, Ulm/Donau) — Carl Walther (re-hosted on indaginibalistiche.it and pdf.textfiles.com) indaginibalistiche.it [3] — “It is particularly important to realize that re-assembling can be carried out only while the pistol is in a ‘safe’ state, i. e., the hammer must be ‘down’.”
• Frame pins can stand proud and catch the slide unless pushed flush. (reassembly)
  Source: P 38 Field Strip and Disassembly — Legacy Collectibles (dealer guide) legacy-collectibles.com [4] — “You want to make sure it's flush. Push those down inside the frame.”

Fit or check on rebuild

• Parts generation (P38 vs P1) and headspace on mixed guns — P1 and wartime parts differ; mixed guns need fitting and a headspace check
  Source: A look inside the Walther P38 (reader comment) — The Firearm Blog thefirearmblog.com [5] — “you need to be careful about fitting parts and check they function and head space is within tolerance”
• Function check: trigger reset, sear/striker engagement, safeties — Standard post-reassembly check on any pistol whose fire-control parts were removed; a mis-seated spring shows up here, not on the bench

This is Pew-Takedown's rating, not the manufacturer's. How tiers are rated. Forum reports are owners' experience, not specifications.

Procedures

Torque specifications

No sourced torque values from the manufacturer are recorded for this firearm. Where a fastener has a specified torque — action screws, scope bases, muzzle devices, barrel nuts — get it from the manufacturer or a gunsmith rather than estimating it.

What the manufacturer does say: The manufacturer's documents give no torque value. They say: "Insert the conversion barrel (liner) into the barrel of the P 38, apply the spring washer and the lock nut, and tighten up with the aid of the ejector tool by applying the latter to the groove." (Walther Pistol P 38 instruction manual (English; Carl Walther, Ulm/Donau), PDF p. 21 (4 mm conversion unit))

Parts list

Transcribed from the manufacturer's parts list (Walther Pistol P 38 instruction manual (English; Carl Walther, Ulm/Donau) — Carl Walther (re-hosted on indaginibalistiche.it and pdf.textfiles.com), p. 17–18 indaginibalistiche.it [3]) — 'The Components of the Walther Pistol P 38' (p.18) keyed to the exploded view on p.17; four units (Barrel, Slide, Grip, Magazine), items 1-55. Commercial post-war P 38 manual by Carl Walther. Names follow the scanned copy's text; a few may carry scanning errors.. Key numbers refer to the exploded view in that document.

Function check

• Verify the pistol is unloaded with no magazine inserted before each check.
• With the hammer down, press the trigger for a double-action hammer fall.
• Cock the hammer, operate the safety or decocker as fitted, and confirm the expected behaviour.
• Rack the slide and press the trigger for a single-action break.
• Hold the trigger back, rack the slide, release slowly and confirm the reset.
• Confirm the slide locks open on an empty magazine and the magazine drops free.
• With the hammer cocked, rotate the safety lever down. The hammer should fall safely with the firing pin blocked.
• Inspect the firing pin for cracks or chipping during every cleaning, particularly on wartime pistols.

Maintenance

Lubrication points

• Frame rails and slide grooves
• Locking block lugs and recesses
• Barrel exterior
• Hammer and sear pivots

Cleaning notes

Pay attention to the locking block and its recesses — that is where the locking work happens and where wear shows. Surplus ammunition of this era is frequently corrosively primed. After shooting it, flush the bore, bolt face, and gas system with hot soapy water or a water-based solvent the same day, dry completely, then oil. Keep the firing pin channel clean and dry — a pin held forward by congealed cosmoline causes slam fires.

Suggested inspection interval: roughly every 1000 rounds. This is a general guideline, not a manufacturer specification.

Wear parts to inspect

Firing pin (a known breakage point) · Locking block (inspect for cracks) · Recoil springs · Extractor · Hex bolt on later P1 frames

Common issues

Also covers

The procedures above are reported to apply to: Walther P1 · Walther P4 · Wartime P38 production by Walther, Mauser, and Spreewerk. Verify against the manual for your specific model.

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Sourcing