Have Luger,Need Help
 

I have been reading for days and I am convinced I have found the perfect site where I can share my thoughts and obtain true answers. I traded with a friend to get this pistol. I have been around firearms all my life ( I'm 76 years young ) and have had a number of lugers pass through my hands. Never having a lot of money, I was not a collector so I did not keep any and never really knew the value of them. They were shooters to me and subjects to study as to function and such. I always was in awe of the mechanism and the attention to detail and workmanship. Now I have time and a LUGER to find out about. I posted some pictures on another board and was told my pistol was refinished and it was a poor job. I tend to believe them but I have some questions and I feel confident I am at the right location to get them answered.. I will try to post the pictures here and if you folks require more or different ones I will oblige. Thank you in advance for any help.

Dave Cook

PS It appears I don't know how to put pictures up on this site, research time.

Dave,

Welcome to the forum, as soon you post pictures the friendly and knowledgeable regulars will help you out. This is in deed the right location.

Balder

Thank you for the response.; Do you know how to post here?? Is there a place where there are instructions??

Dave Cook

Here is a step by step instruction on how to insert photos into a single post. Hopefully, it helps.

1) Click on "upload photo" on the top-right corner of the page:

http://forum.lugerforum.com/lfupload/n1_copy1.jpg


2) A new window pops up asking for the picture to upload, click on the "Browse" button:

http://forum.lugerforum.com/lfupload/n2_copy1.jpg

3) Navigate through your computer to find the file to upload, select it, and click on "Open" button. This tiny window disappears after you click the "Open" button.... if you selected the wrong file, click on "Browse" button again and select the right one. Otherwise, continue on next step.

http://forum.lugerforum.com/lfupload/n3_copy1.jpg


4) Now, you may notice the text box on left is not empty anymore, it's the photo that you will upload. Click on "Upload File" button, and wait, it may take a while to upload the picture.... depends on its size and your Internet connection speed.

http://forum.lugerforum.com/lfupload/n4_copy1.jpg

5) You are supposed to see the picture that you loaded in the window, drag the scroll bar down and find the "Please COPY THIS URL" .... and copy and paste the "http://forum.lugerforum.com/lfupload/......" into your posting text.

http://forum.lugerforum.com/lfupload/n5_copy1.jpg


6) It's optional -- put "[img]" and "[/img]" around the "http://...." stuff that you just pasted.

http://forum.lugerforum.com/lfupload/n6_copy1.jpg

Thank you.....Here we go, hope this works.


http://forum.lugerforum.com/lfupload/luger2_copy14.jpg

http://forum.lugerforum.com/lfupload/luger2_copy14.jpg

Ok, now that the link works, how do you get the pictures into the post right away?? Does it have to do with the brackets and IMG???

yes, it does. if you click on the paper and pencil icon it will show that the picutre that is now showing; as I changed the url to img. you will see [img] and [/ img] (with no spaces).

I am in Bensalem, PA

Ed

Forgive me for using up your bandwidth with my nonsense. I'll try one more time

http://forum.lugerforum.com/lfupload/lug6.jpg

doc, you aren't wasting anything, publish as many as you want. The posting above shows how you could post twenty photos in one area; to choose just one, you would do ADD REPLY and you could add only one at a time.


ed

okey dokey, now we are cooking

http://forum.lugerforum.com/lfupload/lug3.jpg

Thank you all for the help, I shall try to do better next time. Please let me know what I need to supply for a evaluation.

Thanks again

Mr Tinker, Hello. Where is Bensalem?? I'm not too bright.

Dr. Fixer -- Welcome to the forum. You mentioned people told you it's refinished..... Did they give any reason? You believe it's original, could you illustrate your reasons?

I am South East of Philledelphia, almost to new Jersey

Hi Dave

What sort of questions do you have?
What are your thoughts?

Vern

I think this finish is original.
Did the person who claimed it was refinished by chance try to buy it from you?
This is a standard tactic used by a minority of unscrupulous dealers at gun shows to low-ball the purchase price.

Dave

The problem is the pictures, if we are to evaluate you gun properly you need to post very clear pictures. ( poor pictures=poor evaluation)I know you did this on the other forum but right now we can not access those pictures while up grades are being performed on that site.

Please be aware that many of the same people on the other forum also hang out on this one.

What concerns me most is that you did not receive satisfaction on the earlier posting. So please ask your questions and express your thoughts.

Your gun has some interesting attributes, because we are collectors those unusual features will jump right out and stay on top of the conversation. If you have other questions or even if you disagree with the experts don't hesitate to comment. By the way--we are not all experts, most are just growing collectors, just like you.

We can be very blunt in our evaluation of your gun, it is not meant to be unfriendly. We are very happy to have you here with us and want to hear what you have to say.

So post them pictures and ask your questions!

Vern

I see blue OVER pits... and rounded edges where they should be sharp on a byf 41. This gun IMHO has been refinished.

Let me add my Welcome to the Lugerforum.

I suspect renumbering of your frame to match the upper, due to the shape of the "2"s and that they don't line up perfectly with the "8"s and one of those has some "thinning". TH PS: many of the "O" block 41s will have a code 42 toggle link reather than a byf.

Dave

I am afraid John, Tac, and Tom are dead on the money . I also see an unserialized extractor and the sear bar looks like a DWM sear bar as it is stamped on the high side.

I believe this is a forced matched gun with parts from different manufactures.

It doesn't mean its not a good shooting luger, it just means as a collector gun it has its limitations.

I know this is not what you wanted to hear and maybe is even somewhat worse than what they said on the other forum. If you feel we are mistaken we are going to need better pictures.

Please ask your questions and voice your concerns


Vern

Please forgive me, I was NOT unhappy with the other folks description and evaluation and I apologize if I gave that impression. I will post more pictures so you can see what they saw and what I would like to discuss. I know it is refinished and I was pretty sure the parts were from different pistols. What I would like to know is how did someone remove the proof marks without removing metal on the top of the chamber area. The 41 appears sharp and clear. I also miked the receiver at the barrel end and back at the rear, they are the same .940.
http://forum.lugerforum.com/lfupload/lug4.jpg
http://forum.lugerforum.com/lfupload/lug5_copy1.jpg

I am trying to read all the replies and I am a terrible typer so please forgive me if I don't answer all the questions right away. The toggle is 42 marked, I didn't get
that picture up yet. Under the barrel is the serial no. 2382 and under that is 8,83. I was surprised to see two different kinds of number 3. The receiver has a flat top 3 and the frame a round one. Does this happen, ever?? also, the trigger is not strawed, it is chrome plated. It does have the correct number,82,though.
http://forum.lugerforum.com/lfupload/lug2_copy1.jpg

Dave

How interesting about the chrome trigger! I also think I see remnants of chrome on the right tip of the take down lever.

It is possible that the entire gun was chromed at one time, pretty common for returning vets to have this done to war trophies. We see them on the forum occasionally. Then someone much later realizing that the gun might have some collector value removed the chrome plating. Chrome or nickel plating is hard on gun surfaces, they need to be polished and even acid dipped to get a mirror like surface and this removes metal and would degrade any marking then the removal process would again degrade the markings. This would explain many things.

I am guessing here, but finding chrome on your gun in more than one place with correct SN's---could be!

The different fonts are pretty common on Mauser's and nothing to worry about.

Question: When you disassembled your gun, do you see any more chrome?


Vern

No Vern, there is no other part chromed except the trigger. What really bothers me is that the proof marks are missing and even under high magnification with a 20 power loop, there is nothing to suggest there ever was any. There is also the double stamp on the front of the receiver. To the naked eye it is perfect but with even the camera in macro it shows. On the plus side, the chamber is really good and the bore shows a slight graying in the grooves with sharp lands. A shooter it is. It came with a real nice black holster 2 mags and a loading tool. I believe the holster is genuine. On the other board a member looked up the markings and this is what he said
Made 1940 Otto Reichel assigned WaA300 1939 to 1941 in Lengefeld.
The tool has no markings at all. Sorry to be so windy.
http://forum.lugerforum.com/lfupload/holster1_copy2.jpg
http://forum.lugerforum.com/lfupload...er2_copy10.jpg
http://forum.lugerforum.com/lfupload/holster4_copy4.jpg
http://forum.lugerforum.com/lfupload/img_0110.jpg
http://forum.lugerforum.com/lfupload/img_0114.jpg

The metal in the area of the chamber has been altered. The chamfers of the upper lines as they head toward the chamber have all but been removed by the polishing process.

It was the lack of sharp definition in this area that resulted in my first comment. apparently the right side was ground/sanded down before refinishing which removed the proof marks. The 41 over the chamber is not sharp, but is still readable. The 41 Lugers I have examined and owned had very distinctive year stamps over the chamber and would have been very hard to remove.

Dave

Are you sure that the end of the take down lever is not chromed? I can see your reflection in it, its all most like a mirror. Doesn't look like the rest of the gun at all.

If you do a search for this thread you will fine a few pictures of a 41-42 luger--you will see what John is talking about as to how sharp these stamps should be "41 - 42 Grip Question"

I know nothing about holsters, so will let others comment on it.


Thanks for posting, did we answer your questions?

Vern

Thank you all for the information. What is , is. As to the take down lever, unless it is black chrome, no chrome there. I see what you mean about shiny, I guess who ever did the original refinish and blue, really polished the lever. Thanks again. Perhaps the holster will turn out better.

Dave

We are glad to help, that holster is a beauty!!!! Not many like that around, take care of it, with lots of pride :)

Several post here about how to take care of them.

If you had thoughts of getting a better luger, you might think of posting here in the WTT/WTB section. You have a lot of bargaining power in that holster.

Vern

Mr Sabato, I meant no disrespect to you or any of the folks on the other forum.
If I gave that impression, I surely apologize. I thought I was banned from the other forum. I now know they were having problems. As to my pistol, I know that it has been altered and that it has no collector value. I am not in despair as I made a good trade and it should be a good shooter. I will redo the metal work to sharpen up the corners as much as possible and then re blue. If it is ok with you folks, I will post as to progress. Thanks again to all.

Not sure why you responded about disrespect... I don't see that in any of your postings....

There is no need to sharpen any corners on your shooter... I just mentioned the details that convinced me that your gun has been refinished. I wouldn't do a thing to it... it has a lot of character, and will make a fine shooter.

That is a VERY fine looking holster. My recommendations for it is to keep it stuffed full of bubble wrap or newspaper, place some folded newspaper (about a belt thickness) in the belt loops to keep them from going flat. Fold some newspaper or create a wooden mock magazine to keep the mag pocket shape and store it in a cool and dry place as possible---maybe even a ziplock bag with a fresh dessicant bag would be best. I thin the holster's value will double in the next ten years and be worth more than your shooter.

DO NOT STORE THE PISTOL IN THE HOLSTER... any moisture wicked by the leather will cause the pistol to rust where it touches the holster.

If you do choose to refinish your Luger, many on the forum, including myself, like to see the "before", During and "after" photo progress reports...