Walther P-38 vs. South Carolina Handgun Course

[Hrfunk]

Here's this week's installment in this series. I hope you all like it!

Howard


https://youtu.be/AQS_5xu-yTA

[rintinglen]

Pretty darned good shooting there, Howard, with a unfamiliar pistol, no less..
Some years back I was shooting an IDPA match where one of the stages involved shooting your gun empty (6 shots) then running up to a dummy who represented a fallen combatant and picking up his pistol, and firing two more rounds. The pistol? An eastern European 32, Walther PP copy, complete with heel release and a slide mounted safety that you pushed up to take it off safe. Some of the Browning single action shooters (1911 and HP's) were pretty befuddled. I would have loved to have seen them struggling to reload. :wink:

[Hrfunk]

Pretty darned good shooting there, Howard, with a unfamiliar pistol, no less..
Some years back I was shooting an IDPA match where one of the stages involved shooting your gun empty (6 shots) then running up to a dummy who represented a fallen combatant and picking up his pistol, and firing two more rounds. The pistol? An eastern European 32, Walther PP copy, complete with heel release and a slide mounted safety that you pushed up to take it off safe. Some of the Browning single action shooters (1911 and HP's) were pretty befuddled. I would have loved to have seen them struggling to reload. :wink:

Ha, ha! Now that would have been a fun one to pick up and try to fire!

Howard

[Petrol & Powder]

Good Shooting HR !

You were completely unfazed by that first round misfire and your recovery was the sign of a skilled shooter. Well Done.

The P-38 [and later P-1] is an excellent historical artifact that is also a fine pistol in the current day. That's a testament to the innovation and engineering that went into that pistol's design. The history of the P-38 and later P-1 is well known and I will not go over it here.

I will touch on the heel magazine release.
The button style magazine release is almost universal in American designs but the European's were not as wedded to that type. While some European pistols use the button style release, such as the P-08 Luger, the heel release was also very popular in Europe well into the 1980's. Reloading with the heel style magazine release may not be quite as slick as the drop-free button style systems but with the proper technique; it's not horrible. In fact HR did an excellent job with his reloading despite his lack of prior training.

There are some advantages to the heel style release. The heel magazine release is more conducive to retaining your empty magazine (military operators rarely discard empty magazines). The Heel release is also a bit more secure when the pistol is exposed to rough handling. The downside is a magazine change requires both hands to remove the magazine from the pistol. (one hand to hold the pistol and the other hand to unlock and withdraw the magazine from the pistol). The spare magazine cannot be accessed until after the support hand has completed the task of removing the magazine from the pistol.
There are some real advantages to the heel style release, namely the security of the magazine in the pistol.

Thanks for another great video and good job on those reloads despite your lack of training.

[Dan Cash]

Howard, hou seem to shoot the P38/P1 better than other crunchentickers. Do you suppose it is the more slender, single stack profile that enables this?

[Hrfunk]

Howard, hou seem to shoot the P38/P1 better than other crunchentickers. Do you suppose it is the more slender, single stack profile that enables this?

Hmm. I hadn’t considered that. The grip could be part of it. The sights are also very fine; and although they take a bit longer to find and align, they also allow very accurate shot placement. The particular P-1 in the video also had a very light single-action trigger pull. I think all of those attributes contributed to the accuracy you saw in the video.

Howard