Unknown Luger
- Thread starter Surp
- Start date
My Luger book has again gone 'on holiday" so I can't look it up right now, sorry. However, despite the photobucket logo it appears to say "Germany" on it.
If I remember correctly, that indicates the gun was made for commercial sale, originally. The last picture shows part of what I assume is a year date on the chamber. That would help a bit in IDing the gun. Is it 1939??
There appears to be a WAa Pruf eagle on the toggle. This would indicate acceptance by the Nazi government.
Pretty certain the grips are not original. Not certain if the gun is actually original matching numbers or a "force match" though with the differences in the finish of the different parts, it seems likely to be a force match gun.
It MAY have been used by the French, post WWII, I can't say, at this point. One thing I can tell you is that it wasn't made by the French, or made FOR the French.
Personally, I think its a parts gun, with no special collector value, but I'm not a Luger expert.
If I remember correctly, that indicates the gun was made for commercial sale, originally. The last picture shows part of what I assume is a year date on the chamber. That would help a bit in IDing the gun. Is it 1939??
There appears to be a WAa Pruf eagle on the toggle. This would indicate acceptance by the Nazi government.
Pretty certain the grips are not original. Not certain if the gun is actually original matching numbers or a "force match" though with the differences in the finish of the different parts, it seems likely to be a force match gun.
It MAY have been used by the French, post WWII, I can't say, at this point. One thing I can tell you is that it wasn't made by the French, or made FOR the French.
Personally, I think its a parts gun, with no special collector value, but I'm not a Luger expert.
I noticed the buffing as well but I also noticed it was mainly in spots where old markings had to be removed for new serial numbers and proof marks to be applied to old parts so that's why It didn't seem that abnormal to me. There's not a whole lot of information about French Lugers so I could be wrong.
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mapsjanhere
New member
The French would have applied multiple marks, if there's only one on the gun my guess would be it's a Frankenluger that was put together including a French marked receiver, but clearly it has a mix of commercial and military parts that were forcematched.
all of the first ones were Frankenlugers put together with leftover parts. It also has a star on the top of the toggle as pictured. it's my understanding that the French weren't big on marking these and a lot of the later ones didn't have any markings from the French at all.
look at this description this this guy gives of his.
https://luger.gunboards.com/showthread.php?41650-A-quot-French-quot-Mauser-Luger
https://pre98.com/shop/gone-but-not...tion-mauser-banner-luger-mint-crisp-stunning/
look at this description this this guy gives of his.
https://luger.gunboards.com/showthread.php?41650-A-quot-French-quot-Mauser-Luger
https://pre98.com/shop/gone-but-not...tion-mauser-banner-luger-mint-crisp-stunning/
I believe you have a parts gun. And while its not impossible the French might have used it, and put the star on it, its a cobbled together gun.
I have found reports that the French did run some German factories until about the end of 46, and built perhaps as many as 50 Panther tanks and a couple hundred FW 190 fighter planes. They did make many thousands of Walthers, especially P.38s.
I can find no reports of them producing Lugers. This doesn't mean that a handful of guns couldn't have been assembled with whatever parts they could find, but I can't find any mention of it being an organized thing like the production of P.38s
The frame of the gun pictured says "Germany" on it. This marking was only applied to pre WWII guns intended for commercial sale. The chamber appears to have the date of 1939. The barrel and the forward part of the toggle assembly have the Nazi Eagle stamp, meaning that those parts (at the least) went through the Nazi system either before or during WWII.
Also, the 3 digit serial number is suspect. The standard practice was 4 digit number that repeated in blocks with a letter added after the first block.
And the normal place for the serial number was on the front frame below the barrel, not on the side of the chamber.
ok, I checked the link, and I stand corrected. Apparently there were a number of Lugers put together under French direction. Wonder why none of my references mention that....
Germany stopped producing Lugers in 1942. The tooling was "repurposed" we would say today. Germany stopped making Lugers so they could use the tools and workers for other, more cost effective projects.
When Mauser wanted to produce Lugers again, for civilian sale, they wound up buying the tooling from the Swiss, (who had stopped making Lugers a long time before, but still had the tooling in storage,) as it was the only existing tooling. This is why Mauser made the "Swiss Pattern" Lugers for a limited run in the 70s. The original German tooling was long gone.
I have found reports that the French did run some German factories until about the end of 46, and built perhaps as many as 50 Panther tanks and a couple hundred FW 190 fighter planes. They did make many thousands of Walthers, especially P.38s.
I can find no reports of them producing Lugers. This doesn't mean that a handful of guns couldn't have been assembled with whatever parts they could find, but I can't find any mention of it being an organized thing like the production of P.38s
The frame of the gun pictured says "Germany" on it. This marking was only applied to pre WWII guns intended for commercial sale. The chamber appears to have the date of 1939. The barrel and the forward part of the toggle assembly have the Nazi Eagle stamp, meaning that those parts (at the least) went through the Nazi system either before or during WWII.
Also, the 3 digit serial number is suspect. The standard practice was 4 digit number that repeated in blocks with a letter added after the first block.
And the normal place for the serial number was on the front frame below the barrel, not on the side of the chamber.
ok, I checked the link, and I stand corrected. Apparently there were a number of Lugers put together under French direction. Wonder why none of my references mention that....
Germany stopped producing Lugers in 1942. The tooling was "repurposed" we would say today. Germany stopped making Lugers so they could use the tools and workers for other, more cost effective projects.
When Mauser wanted to produce Lugers again, for civilian sale, they wound up buying the tooling from the Swiss, (who had stopped making Lugers a long time before, but still had the tooling in storage,) as it was the only existing tooling. This is why Mauser made the "Swiss Pattern" Lugers for a limited run in the 70s. The original German tooling was long gone.
Not too many people do know anything about them as there's not much information but you can do a simple search and look on the Luger Wikipedia to find that they did make up to 4,000 of them with the beginning guns being made from leftover parts AKA Parts guns.
Look under the post-war production section.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luger_pistol
Look under the post-war production section.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luger_pistol
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