History of Police Safety Sear Installation

[jags]

Originally Posted by Edward Tinker

Some were placed into storage, some destroyed, some went to the army, some to the police. Many were issued years after they were put into storage (and had been hidden from the allied forces).

So that answers my question about what could have happened after WWI ended. They where probably stamped and issued to the police after the war and could have been in storage, or not, for some time before being issued.

Originally Posted by Edward Tinker

If your top does not match the bottom, then it is not correct. If for some reason it had been 'swapped' out before the retrofit, then it would have been matched up then. Lugers did not leave the peace time armory without the gun being all matched.

That answers part of question 3. They would not refit the pistol and then send it out with mismatched numbers.

What about the remaining questions. Any insight?

3. Would the gun have the sear safety installed and then have the barrel/extension reblued at the same time? Why was the rebluing neccessary?

4. If these guns where recalled from police forces and already had the police markings, how did they insure they got back to the same police force after the refit?

5. What arms did the police forces use during the time when their weapons had been recalled for the refit?

Plus one new question:

6. If they always made sure that the pistols had correct and matching numbers before they were dispatched, how and why did so many of these Lugers end up in America with mismatching numbers?

Again any help with these basic questions would be appreciated. I have been searching this forum and the rest of the internet but haven't been able to find much "general" information regarding these questions.

Thanks again!!