P,P,P-38's
 

This is how it always happens. About a year after I bought my first luger I traded a mismatched shooter for a 2 line ac42 P.38 with holster from a Vet who stated he was a ground crewman for a B-26 Marauder crew. He'd not been able to get his hands on a luger before he shipped home (his last European station was at a base near Paris and they hustled him back to the states immediately after VE day to ship him to the Pacific), but he got a P.38 and holster. The bore of that P.38 was badly pitted, so I didn't keep it long. But I kept the holster.

I've always been intregued by the design change in 1943 at Mauser on the P.38. I've owned both pre-and post change examples, but never 2 at the same time. Today I walked into one of the shops I frequent and here were "the 2" byf43 P.38s I've always thought would be an interesting niche to my collection. One from the e block, another from the k block. The most obvious change that year was the hump added to reinforce the trigger pin.

The 3rd gun is an ac44 with soft black plastic grips of mauser mfg. I've seen a lot of ac44's with these grips since I picked this one up and am almost to the point of concluding they are original to the gun.

The holster I threw up there for Jerry B. It's the one my first P.38 came in. The bunny was painted on by the prior owner, who claimed to have done the majority of the nose art for his squadron. I'm assuming, due to it's stitching and configuration that it is either french occupation mfg, or post liberation mfg, but pre-May 1945 either way.

http://img146.exs.cx/img146/3107/dsc000757ho.jpg

Out of curiousity, what is the shop asking for these? That k block is screaming my name, that e block is a bit more than a whisper as well.

Very nice indeed.

The shop "was" asking under $900 for the pair.

Congrats on the acquisition. Nice price.

Trigger, I like your "Bugs Bunny" holster. Unusual in that it's left handed and probably commerical issue. That's not to say that some WW2 officer or official didn't buy it for his personal use. TH