Beretta M38/42 Demilled

Got this on Friday from Apex. Pretty rough as you can see. Planning to get it looking as close as possible to correct. Rear sight is in the wrong place, not sure if I'm going to try moving that. I cleaned the stock up and repaired the splits on both sides. The crack lines are still visible but it's tight and secure. Going to fix up the joint with JB weld. I'd like to create the ridge down the top, going to make the attempt anyway.

Looks to have Arabic or Turkish markings.

They advertise that the barrels are worn out, not that it matters but this one has a nice bore. The triggers still work which is interesting. I was hoping I wouldn't get one that was worse than the advertising photo. I got the one in the advertising photo. Oh well, it isn't worse.

I need a sling swivel and a safety lever.

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I've sure seen worse as dewats go, for sure. With me, I'd have it back to about perfect which would be...a crime here. This should turn out close to perfect.

I think your markings are Arabic.

Looks like it should clean up nicely. Looking forward to progress reports. I couldn't even have the mag shipped here.

Today I did a coat of JB Weld around the weld joint. After that dried I filed it down and then hopefully created the top ridge with JB Weld. Just finished that and it’s a mess. Came up with the idea of putting a strip of weather stripping on each side and then filling it in. What made it a mess is putting the edge angle on each side. There will be a lot of filing and sanding with this tomorrow.

Here are some photos, probably hard to tell what I'm doing. I initially filled the entire area between the three pieces of weather stripping and smoothed it out. But if I left it like that I would have a nightmare of sanding on the two sides so I went back in with the trowel and put an angle on the JB Weld using the weather stripping as a guide. This makes it high on the top which will be much easier to reduce.

It is so thick, it isn't curing super fast and while no longer sticky, it still has a bit of flow if you push on it so I have to leave the weatherstripping on for the night. The first coat I did was cured enough to file after six hours. I'm not even at hour four yet so not a big deal. 15 hours for full cure which this may well need.

I did not move the rear sight. They have it cut in a wedge and pinned it in place. It looks good there even if it is in the wrong place. It is buried in the JB Weld. Like I said, I'm pretty high with it. Rather that than too low.

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I took the weather stripping off and sanded it down this morning. I am very please with how it came out. The only part that needs a second build up is the small area behind the rear sight. Kind of hard to see whats going on with all the greys and silvers but once sanded, it's smooth and pretty uniform. I will sand it some more once the rear is finished. I put a second thin coat on that this morning also.

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Looking good so far...

I'm finished for now and fairly satisfied with the project. I can see every imperfection and they bother me but it's not bad and a lot better than when I got it. Most of the things are minor. A few voids in the JB Weld. Not super happy with the paint and I need to do something different with where I stop it. I did grind out the little oval so the ugly weld doesn't show. I know it isn't supposed to be a oval and it's a slide groove but I can't easily duplicate that and the oval looks OK. First coat of paint I reworked the JB Weld a bit. 2nd coat looked a lot better. Not on my usual green background, it's dark outside.

Now the waiting game as I search for a safety leaver and a sling swivel. When I find those I'll probably do a little more fine tuning. I think I need a little more JB Weld on the main cylinder on the left side.

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Looks good...

Started out looking like an old toy gun found in a barn. Wouldn't mind hanging it on the wall in the den now.

Apex has nine left if anyone is interested. Don't buy the magazines from them, Atlantic Firearms is selling two for less than Apex wants for one.