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Seeing Highpower's beautiful Norwegian inspired me to post another Norwegian, of a different flavor, and one that's seldom ever seen.
An extremely rare 1975 Norwegian military contract Walther P-38. No import mark. Note the Norwegian crest roll-mark, with E/413 proofs in various places.
It is estimated that only 25 or so Norwegian-marked P-38's made it to the United States, with only 200 or so left in total to still exist (globally).
Less than 500 were made available to Norwegian shooters and collectors upon ceasing the contracts, where it's suspected 200 or so were actually sold to the public that may be left - (or may not be, considering like anything else, stuff gets lost, stolen, ruined, turned in to police, parted out for lack of knowledge - whatever).
Otherwise, most all of the contract guns were either destroyed or parted out.
When looking through many collector guides on P38s, this Norwegian rarity is often overlooked, rarely ever mentioned or cited, nor noted in many "Blue Book" guides. At all. However, it's covered extensively in Per Mathisen's book, under "Walthers P-38 Pistol In Norway". I would like to see more reference books mention the anomaly.
Norway tested it in 1961, purchase orders were set in 1962, with production and deliveries seeming to start either late 1962 or early 1963. Early contract pistols of the 1960s had the serial number also rollmarked on the left side of the slide near and forward of the safety, later contract slides like this 1975 example have no serial number on the slide.
Later examples like this one, were commercial pistols pulled for the Norwegian contract, showing the circle proof without a dot (used for commercial production.) This one was part of that lot delivered approximately 1975.
Just not something you see every day, and stands as a special, but understated, even subdued, highlight of my P38 collection but that upon revelation of it's rarety, deserves attention.
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An extremely rare 1975 Norwegian military contract Walther P-38. No import mark. Note the Norwegian crest roll-mark, with E/413 proofs in various places.
It is estimated that only 25 or so Norwegian-marked P-38's made it to the United States, with only 200 or so left in total to still exist (globally).
Less than 500 were made available to Norwegian shooters and collectors upon ceasing the contracts, where it's suspected 200 or so were actually sold to the public that may be left - (or may not be, considering like anything else, stuff gets lost, stolen, ruined, turned in to police, parted out for lack of knowledge - whatever).
Otherwise, most all of the contract guns were either destroyed or parted out.
When looking through many collector guides on P38s, this Norwegian rarity is often overlooked, rarely ever mentioned or cited, nor noted in many "Blue Book" guides. At all. However, it's covered extensively in Per Mathisen's book, under "Walthers P-38 Pistol In Norway". I would like to see more reference books mention the anomaly.
Norway tested it in 1961, purchase orders were set in 1962, with production and deliveries seeming to start either late 1962 or early 1963. Early contract pistols of the 1960s had the serial number also rollmarked on the left side of the slide near and forward of the safety, later contract slides like this 1975 example have no serial number on the slide.
Later examples like this one, were commercial pistols pulled for the Norwegian contract, showing the circle proof without a dot (used for commercial production.) This one was part of that lot delivered approximately 1975.
Just not something you see every day, and stands as a special, but understated, even subdued, highlight of my P38 collection but that upon revelation of it's rarety, deserves attention.
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