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P 38 Full Auto?

Prebanparts
Has anyone ever heard of a P 38 in Full auto?
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4 comments

Date Votes
  • mrmike08075
    i checked about 10 rather esoteric referance works, including a 328 page treastie on WALTHER handguns and i could discover no mention of a full auto P-38 variant. i dont believe the AP, MP (3), MP (4), HP, P-1, or other similar design varients were offered with a full auto capability either. i cannot locate mention of even prototypes or working models built in this fashion...

    i have to agree with MARK CHRISTIAN on this one.
    best regards, mike.

    What other dungeon is so dark as ones own heart, what jailer so inexorable as ones own mind.
    contact me at the shop at waltsgun@aol.com best regards, mike.
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  • haroldchrismeyer
    There is a part in the safety that can break on some of the p38s that causes it to fire full auto until the mag is empty. It occurs when chambering a round with the safety on. Instead of blocking the firing pin, it locks it in the forward position. I have never seen it done, but on the P38 forum it is claimed to have been witnessed.
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  • Der Gebirgsjager
    As Harold mentioned, they can go full auto when the decocking safety's metal crystallizes and the part breaks, but this was only on some "slave labor" W.W.II guns with bad heat treatment, and it was never intentionally manufactured as a machine pistol. Mechanically, it is because the safety blocks the forward travel of the firing pin, and when it sheers off, the firing pin travels forward under the hammer blow and fires the cartridge. The slide recoils, extracts and ejects, feeds in a new round, and the hammer falls again. However, were you to release the trigger, the cycle would stop with the sear catching the hammer. But, surprise will empty the entire magazine. A 1911 Colt can also go full auto from disconnector wear, but other than proto-types, I don't think anyone but Star produced it intentionally as a full auto. You know, this is one of those "grey areas" of gun legislation, regulation, and gunsmithing. Something intended as a semi-auto can become a full auto through happenstance; and a lawful gunowner today can become a potential felon tomorrow until the gun is repaired. We need some legislation in this area to protect the owner and gunsmith.
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  • v35
    In the Army overseas, I fixed a PPK, for a CIC officer, that had apparently gone off while dropping the decocking lever. The safety disappeared.
    As I had never handled one before, I made up a safety that locked the hammer in the cocked position. The CIC man was unhappy and I didn't even get a thank you. However, it probably saved him from getting a piece of disintegrating safety in the eye.
    My diagnosis at the time was that the the decocking lever barrel was loose from dry firing, allowing firing pin movement.
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