Mauser P38, RARE Late War svw Marked, All Matching P38, Phosphate Finished 5” WWII Semi-Automatic Pistol & Holster, MFD 1945 C&R

SOLD FOR: $4,555
LSB#: 160133WM62

Make: This pistol was made by Mauser at their Oberndorf factory.

Model: P38

Serial Number: 2113f

Year of Manufacture: 1945

Caliber: 9mm Parabellum

Action Type: Single or Double Action Semi-Auto with Removable Magazine. This pistol has a de-cocker lever.

Markings: The left side of the slide is marked “P.38”, “svw / 45” and “2113 f” (“svw” was the last code by Mauser Werke at the end of the war). The left side of frame is marked “2113 f” and with an “Eagle / WaA135” Waffenamt (as used at Mauser’s Oberndorf plant from 1941-1945). The right side of the slide is marked with two “Eagle / WaA135” Waffenamts with an Eagle holding a globe with Swastika in the center. The left barrel flat is marked with an “Eagle / WaA135” and the front face with “2113 / f”. The bottom of the barrel stop is marked “113 / f”. The right underside of the barrel above the barrel stop is marked “H”. The left rear of the barrel and the left side of the barrel stop are marked with an Eagle holding a globe with Swastika.

Barrel Length: 5”

Sights / Optics: The pistol is mounted with a flat topped “U” notched rear sight dovetailed into the slide and a Patridge style blade front sight dovetailed into banded base on the barrel.

Stock Configuration & Condition: The grips are serrated black plastic that enclose the backstrap. The left grip has a lanyard ring protruding through it from the grip frame. The grips show several light handling marks with scratches from sanding on the top rear of the left grip. There are also several light scratches in the serrations around the lanyard ring at the bottom of the left grip. The grips are in about Fine condition.

Type of Finish: The pistol has a greyish phosphate finish.

Finish Originality: The finish is original.

Bore Condition: The bore is bright and the rifling is sharp. There is no erosion in the bore.

Overall Condition: This pistol retains about 50% of its current metal finish. There is even thinning of the finish on all surfaces, a few tiny dings in the top of the slide, a shallow ding in the right side of the slide and a small ding in the right side of the frame above the trigger. There is a spot of very light pinprick surface erosion on the front left edge of the slide and a light mark on the left side of the slide. The serrations on the slide, safety and takedown lever are all sharp. The grip screw is sharp with light marks of a screwdriver. The markings are clear. Overall, this pistol rates in about Very Good Plus condition.

Mechanics: The action functions correctly. The single action pull has a small amount of creep. The slide is tight to the frame. This pistol was not manufactured with a magazine disconnect. We did not fire this pistol.

Box, Paperwork & Accessories: This pistol comes with a total of two single stack 8 round magazines with a phosphate finish and a black leather top flap holster. The left side of the magazine in the pistol is marked “P.38v” and the rear surface is marked with an “Eagle / WaA135” Waffenamt, showing it was made by Mauser. The magazine shows thinning, light handling marks and a single scratch through the finish on both sides. The floorplate is blued and unmarked except for spots of surface loss from the magazine catch. The magazine is in about Very Good condition. The spare magazine is marked on its left side with an “Eagle / WaA706” Waffenamt and “jvd” (made by Erste Nordbohmische Metallwarrenfabrik in Czechoslovakia) while the right side is marked “P38 / U”. The magazine shows thinning and light handling marks with marks through the finish on the floorplate from the magazine catch. The magazine is in about Very Good condition. A single piece of leather is folded over at the front and sewn across the muzzle and along the rear edge to form the holster. A second piece of leather is sewn to the top back of the holster to form the top flap and a third piece is sewn to the back at the rear edge and folded over to form a flap which protects the trigger guard. There is a steel stud on the trigger guard flap for use in securing the top flap via a short leather strap sewn to the top flap. There is also a magazine pouch sewn to the outside of the holster. The back side of the holster is marked “gxy 1945” identifying the holster as being made by Gebr. Klinge of Dresden in 1945, and “P38” in large letters. The holster shows thinning of its finish at the muzzle, at the corners of the magazine pouch, on the strap securing the top flap and on the back side of the holster at the bottom of the magazine. There is slight surface cracking in the top flap and the trigger guard flap. There are also a few handling marks in the top flap. The stitching is all intact. Overall, the holster is in about Fine condition.

Our Assessment: The P38 occupies a significant place in history. It was the first locked breech pistol to have a single action/double action trigger. After the start of WWII, Walther could not keep up with the production required, and production was ordered to commence at both Mauser and Spreewerke in 1940. By the end of the war, Walther had only produced about 580,000 of the 1.2 million produced. Up until the beginning of 1945, Mauser Werke had used the code “byf” for identification, but in early 1945, they switched to “svw”. On April 20, 1945, French troops occupied Oberndorf and in June, the Mauser plant began making weapons under French control. Needless to say, the “svw” marked P38’s are among the rarest of the P38’s produced during the war by the Nazis. This pistol has matching serial numbers on the barrel, slide, frame and barrel stop, and is correctly marked for a Mauser produced pistol in 1945, including the magazine in the pistol. The pistol is in about Very Good Plus condition with 60% of its finish remaining. It has a spot of pinprick surface erosion at the left front of the slide and a few light handling marks in the slide. There is even thinning of the finish in all surfaces. The grips show only a few light marks and two spots where the left grip was sanded. The bore is bright and the rifling is sharp. This package includes the pistol, a Mauser marked magazine and a spare from Erste Nordbohmishce, and a black leather top flap holster made in 1945 by Gebr. Klinge, and is a great find for the P38 collector. The bore is pristine and the outside of the gun looks like the only time it was handled was to take it out of the safe and polish it, which resulted in the thinning of its finish. Late war pistols with matching serial numbers are hard to find, as the plants were all trying to assemble as many guns as they could as fast as they could, even though the war had been lost since the invasion of Normandy in 1944.