This past weekend I hit the Greenville show, armed with a measly bankroll but some nice trade bait in the form of a T14 in my backpack. In terms of variety, the show was mostly a dud. I did get to handle some really neat Mexican & Peruvian Mausers, priced right. A smattering of totally dogged out & dicked up k98s. No Lugers worth the asking. Tons of Garands, nothing below $900. Tons of m1 carbines, see Garands. Then I met a guy with this p38 under glass, and sure enough he fell in love with the Nambu, so we pulled the old Carolina shuffle swaparoo.
It's a '44 Mauser from the a-block. I still haven't even wiped down and put away the p38 I posted last week, and this pistol is only about 6700 units away from the first one (b-block), so naturally I've had the two of them together and side by side for ogling purposes. The new a-block looks to have a deeper and better applied finish than its later b-block counterpart. I didn't notice this under the dim show lights, but in the natural light you can see some plum color coming through in the barrel and frame.