I was sitting around this morning and decided to check on gun shows. Haven't heard from Mike for a while so figured no big ones around.
A little one not too far away that I've found things at before popped up and I loaded up some cash and headed out with permission from the wife to buy but not spend too much.
This is a really small show, maybe 50 vendors at most and halfway though I spotted a guy with military pistols and he had this little beat up one in his case for $350. I was looking for anything sub $600 so this fit the bill.
It's rough but has a very good bore. I assumed it had been refinished due the the plum color of the slide but as another fellow noted the same thing with his and the serial numbers are close, this may be original. I really don't know. Should be parked from what I gathered in research. Serial number check would seem to indicate that this is very late war 1945 but they aren't perfectly clear A second site shows this to be the 44th to last one built under German occupation 476000 is supposed to be the last. Another 9000 were made from parts post war but no waffens. It has two waffens one on the slide, one on the frame, and only two serial numbers, one on the slide and one on the frame. No other markings I could find. Holster is unmarked and due to pressure/wear spots, not original to this type pistol. It fits perfectly however.
Asked best price, got it down to $325, offered him $300, he said he had to think about it. Discovered the safety didn't work, could not find a reason for it to not work and he finally countered with $300 out the door.
Safety was a bit of a pain. I discovered as soon as I got it out to the truck why it wasn't working. It was installed incorrectly. Brought it home, my disassembly book essentially said "do not do that" but I did it anyway and went further than they were willing to go. Put it in correctly and it still didn't work. Was all bent up. Looked for photos on the net, found three other versions before I found this one and I saw where and how it was supposed to be bent and corrected it. Getting it back together was a little hard due to the springs and a tight fit but it now works as it should.
Assuming the wear and pitting occurred after the war, plum color kind of reminds me of Soviet reworks but there are no Soviet marks or import marks on it. I guess it could have gone to Vietnam and been brought back from there but who knows.
I'm happy, I was going gun stir crazy and this fit the bill very nicely.
The metal finish work in some places is none-existent. Top of slide has hard grind marks. Barrel has rough lathe marks. Internals actually look pretty good. Dirty but no rust or pitting.
The side has a little trap door that slides off and exposes the mechanism. I did not ignore the book and only removed the safety bar to reposition it and the safety button bar.
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