Yeah, this one is about as rough as I've personally seen.
This is one of the end of the war production guns. No star on the slide that would prove it to be French occupation production. But they probably assembled some out of captured parts that didn't get the star. Those are stamped steel grip panels, rusted and patined over to a smooth, brown look.
So what I was thinking was, to see this much use and handling, maybe this gun was taken to French Indo China after the war. It is known that many of the so-called "Grey Ghost" P.38's like this were taken there. After capture by the Viet Minh, it went from hand to hand in the VC. I had a Smith & Wesson revolver I got in Vietnam that looked about like this in condition; it had been confiscated by MP's.
Interesting Late WWII Mauser SVW 45 Steel Grip P.38 Pistol, NO French Proof - Curios & Relics at GunBroker.com : 1032708992
Buy Interesting Late WWII Mauser SVW 45 Steel Grip P.38 Pistol, NO French Proof: GunBroker is the largest seller of Curios & Relics Collectible Firearms All: 1032708992
www.gunbroker.com
This is one of the end of the war production guns. No star on the slide that would prove it to be French occupation production. But they probably assembled some out of captured parts that didn't get the star. Those are stamped steel grip panels, rusted and patined over to a smooth, brown look.
So what I was thinking was, to see this much use and handling, maybe this gun was taken to French Indo China after the war. It is known that many of the so-called "Grey Ghost" P.38's like this were taken there. After capture by the Viet Minh, it went from hand to hand in the VC. I had a Smith & Wesson revolver I got in Vietnam that looked about like this in condition; it had been confiscated by MP's.
