By the time the "Riff contract" blank toggle Lugers were ready to ship, the Riff tribes had been defeated and their revolution was over. There was no one to accept (or presumably pay for!) the guns.

--Dwight

Uh Oh
 

I just saw something on a pix of my about-to-be-delivered Luger that made my stomach muscles tighten. The photo of the barrel end shows it chipped, or worn asymmetrically:


[IMG]http://i836.photobucket.com/albums/z...psxpkodshk.jpg[/IMG]

And the one thing I neglected to ask the Seller about, of course, was the rifling in the bore. Since I've never owned or examined a gun with this kind of fault in the barrel-end I don't know what it means as to the bores internal condition. On a hunch I'd think they were not necessarily connected.

And If it meant nothing to the internals I wouldn't care. I don't often look at my gun from the barrel end.
WHadya think?

Thanks

It is the lands and grooves of the rifling you see. Nothing wrong.

Thanks so much. I'd like to buy your book. Where can I purchase it?

Thanks again,

Jerry
("gvf")

An Oddity:
 

After you look at some meaningless visual pattern for awhile you can think you're seeing something intentional. Perhaps this is what's going on here but it does look to me when you blow-up the photo of the left side of the gun and photo-edit it there is writing:

http://i836.photobucket.com/albums/z...pszvknmdui.jpg

In the square of color, looks like "NE" with a column of other smaller letters the the left of that:

O
A
O
etc.

On the other hand, it's getting late.

Ed states -

Edward Tinker
************
Veteran Bring Backs Vol III 2012
Co-Author of Police Lugers 2012
Author of Veteran Bring Backs Vol I & Vet Bring Backs Vol II, a collection of stories on guns & equipment brought back by GI's.
Co-Author of the book Simson Lugers
Have all books available for purchase

...And it's Ed Tinker AND Dwight Gruber's book... :)

You could write a review of it...I Searched but couldn't find one... :(

If "you have all books available for purchase" just pm me with details of payment etc.

thanks
jerry "gvf"

The muzzle of rust blued Lugers is generally in the white. As mentioned, you've been looking at the end of the lands and grooves in the barrel. That said, the profile of the barrel crown looks unusual, and it may have been re-crowned at some point.

You should wait until you have the gun in hand and can take some good sharp closeup pictures before you speculate more. Take them using a camera with a closeup / macro setting and take the pictures in shaded natural sunlight without using a flash. Use a tripod and the self timer to keep the camera steady. If you have a SLR, you can take even better pictures.

Marc

That's Ed Tinker's quote, not mine...It's his signature...Included with his every post...You can contact him at ed_tinker@hotmail.com ...Don't bother trying to PM him as the Private Message system here is broken... :rolleyes:

Thanks I will take photos and as per your suggestions. May take a bit of time though. I just bought a new digital camera (I usually use film) and I haven't learned it yet. As you know, digital cameras have manuals the size of the Manhattan Yellow Pages.

Extract from Walters' "The Luger Book"...

That's great info about the Riff Contract. But it isn't known which BKIWs were going to be shipped. That right? And second some here believe the gun I bought is one of them?

You guys know so much about Lugers it's amazing!

My gun is in, was delivered Monday to my FFL. Fast shipping.

I came up with a couple of different "manuals", although the first does not deal in field-stripping. For that I've bookmarked a video on YouTube that's good.

Any other manuals you know of that are particularly good for the P08. That's what I used, a search for type of gun. I imagine there are more available than for one manufacture. Besides, it is not known with absolute certainty who the manufacturer was for mine. Seems either a BKIW or Mauser.

There's considerable evidence that the blank toggle pistols were delivered to the police from BKIW in 1929-30.

And some of then could have before that been earmarked for the Riff
Contract, and when that fell through have gone to the police?

I'm trying to weave the various strands of the likely history of my Luger into one. Might not be possible though - a long time ago.

I saw my gun today but in NY State permits are not a general carte blanche to Carry/Shoot any gun but only those guns one owns which are put on the Permit. So I saw and handled it at my FFL dealer's and tomorrow (Thurs.) will complete the paperwork at the Permit Office and then I take possession of the gun.

I'll post more when I have it and a bit after that post photos. It is darker blue than the Seller's photos, the mag is steel colored and I see no number, the parts shown in the Seller's photos were all stamped "85".

The gun looks very good, high degree of finish left etc and it does cycle properly.

Can you dry fire these?

More later.

Jerry

I usually go to the range at least once or twice a week (not with Lugers though), if we were talking about dry firing a GLOCK I would say don't worry too much, but we are talking about a vintage Luger.
Modern metallurgy has enabled engineers to produce stronger steel, but especially vintage guns like yours were not really designed for dry firing, so why should you take any risk?
Snap caps allow you to fire nearly any weapon without risk of damage to your firing pin, or any other part of the firearm, so get yourself a set of snap caps, they are cheap and will help you to preserve an old gun that surely is not that cheap.
My 2 cents.

Regards


Sergio

Dry firing a Luger once in a while may be okay, but certainly not a steady diet of dry-firing. That is NOT recommended.

Snap Caps as Sergio has recommended is the way to go... if you don't have any, you can use a fired empty case to soften the impact of the firing pin...

If, like me, you don't want to alarm anyone at your local gunshop, just stick & hold a long/new pencil w/eraser into the barrel until the eraser hits the breech, then dry fire it into the eraser. You'll feel it hit. :)

(Sometimes I shoot the pencil into the air...) :D

Doesn't work with 7.65 Lugers. :rolleyes:

Correct. It is generally believed that all or nearly all went to the police.