Looking for more info. BYF 41 SN-3877

[guns3545]

Originally Posted by Yukon Jack

Syd, thanks for the reply. You will never insult me by asking a question. The gun has not been re-blued. This according to the gunsmith that examined it and the small amount of wear. It's funny the more information I get from the forum and in my own research the more questions I come up with. This process is fascinating and addictive at the same time. As best I can tell from my research there were about 3 million lugers made from 1908-1945 give or take a few hundred thousand. Does anybody have an approximation on how many were black widows? Any guess on value? I want to make sure I am properly insured.

Jack,

Mauser made about 1 million Lugers. None were made as Black Widows.

This was/is an unknown term except in the USA; and certainly not one used to describe the Model P.08.

However, there were about 120,000 to 130,000, maybe a little more, late production P.08s made from late 1941 and all through 1942 by Mauser. And there were some "clean out the parts", so called "out of cycle" production in 1943.

This late production variation had black plastic grip panels and Type 6 magazines which had a back plastic bottom.

The reason it is difficult to say exactly how many had Late Production characteristics is that there was no definite cut off between switching from wood to plastic grip panels and aluminum bottom to black plastic bottom magazines.

But it started in the middle of 1941 and by 1942, virtually all production had Late Production characteristics.

But again, this is subject to exception, because gun manufacturers NEVER throw anything away unless the part or component has been "condemned". So if they found a bucket of Type 5 magazines they used them. If they found a case of wood grip panels they used them.

Hope this helps. Again too many words but unfortunately there are few absolutes or one word answers in collecting. But, in any case, the few absolutes that do exist should be respected.

Hope this helps,

John