Ebay P-38 Grip Review
Review Date: 1/7/2007
Author: Chris Guska
With the influx of cheap postwar P38’s and P1’s comes the opportunity to get a high quality gun to blank adapt. Although there are some differences between wartime P38’s, early production postwar P38s and finally P1’s, they are a much better option than any of the 8mm blank pistols currently available. The guns will never be perfect and identical to war time, but there are a few options available to get them a step or two closer to looking right. One of those steps is to get replacement grips.
8mm blank pistols have their place, but, generally are junk. They’re made out of poor quality metal. Basically, invest once in a real pistol, blank adapt it, and you’re good for your entire reenacting career, it’ll take a lot more punishment and firing before it breaks, if it ever does.
One of the biggest problems with postwar P38/P1’s is the grips; they come with a checkered grip which isn’t correct. So, replace the grips. There are a few different options on replacing the grips, either buy costly original grips which can be brittle, or get reproduction grips. Reproduction grips are available from a variety of sources on the net, including eBay and Brownell’s.The Grips:
Robinvank (eBay Seller) from Michigan has reproduction P38 grips available with a starting bid of $15.00. He carries several other cast resin grips in addition to P38 grips – P08, PPK, CZ (27?), and G43 fore-ends.
I purchased the grips eBay – auction ending Dec 2, 2007 at a cost of $15.50 – 50 cents more than the opening bid of $15.00
Robinvank’s description was brief – but got the point across.
“These are a set of reproduction p 38 grips. They have been cast from an original set and are made of a hard resin plastic. If you have a p1 and want the ww2 look for your pistol these will go onto your p1.Or if you have a p38 with a bad set of grips these will make a nice upgrade for your pistol. Thanks for looking.....”
Based off the photo – which wasn’t super high quality – but once again, got the point across, I figured I’d take a gamble on the grips since they were cheap. Additionally the shipping costs were reasonable at $4.95 priority mail. .
He accepts Money Orders or Personal Checks
So I sent out a personal check – as it saved me the time and expense of going to the post office and waiting in the egregiously long line.
I received the grips in approximately 2 weeks. The grips were well packed, wrapped in bubble wrap and placed inside a packing envelope.
Here are the photos of what I received:
At a glance, the grips are OK; they appear to have been cast directly off of an original pair of grips. The grips are complete with maker marks on the inside. The grips fit the gun with no fitting, filing, adjustment or sanding required. Sounds familiar, right?
The grips had a bit of casting flash or excess material around the edges and on the inside of the holes – which was easily cleaned up with a razor knife. The detail on the grips is quite nice, with a smooth glossy finish. The grips are a uniform black color – but very nice and smooth unlike the Brownells grips.
Here are the comparison photos with a pair of original grips:
Detail of the left side of the grips. The casting is quite nice – only a couple of minor casting imperfections where there may have been a very slight bubble in the mold on the ribs of the grip. The imperfections are really not noticeable unless really scrutinized.
Detail of the right side of the grips. There are a few more casting imperfections in the ribs of the grips, but they could be cleaned up with a jewelers file if it was a major problem – which to me is not.
Summary:
The grips are great – especially for $15.50+4.95 shipping. The pattern is right on – the details are very good, the color is good, the finish is good, they fit my p38 right out of the box no modification needed. The material used to cast the grips is nice and hard, unlike some of the other reproduction German items out there, these grips are not soft, flexible or spongy.
These grips do not come with grip escutcheons. You will have to remove them from the postwar set of grips you may have left over from your postwar p38/p1 if you’re replacing the grips to make the gun look more wartime. If not – the grip escutcheon screws are available from either Sarco or Numrich for very little. It should be under $5.00 for the grip escutcheons.
I would recommend these grips to my friends – and would buy additional sets if I needed them.
Pros:
Cheap! $15.00+shipping
Pattern is dead on
Right surface finish
A correct colorCons:
No grip escutcheons, (but what do you expect for $15)
A few minor casting flaws
May not be readily available
