Do you remember your first
 

Everbody started with that one precious luger. Holding it in your hand like a newborn. Probobly hearing your wife say' You spent that much on that piece of crap!!My first and fondest was the '1906 FRENCH MARKED COMMERCIAL' pictured on page 106 in Kenyans 'Luger At Random' Serial #51872 I could have collected other thing but sure I wouldn't still have them. Please What was yours?

1916 dwm
 

My first, and so far only, is a 1916 DWM VOPO that I bought while stationed in Germany. When I bought it my wife forbid me to buy any new guns for two years!!! I was fine with that because I always wanted a Luger since hearing my grandfather talking about his that was stolen back in the late 1950's or early 60's. He got really excited when I told him what I brought home from Germany!!! By the way, the importer forgot to put his import stamp on it!! I wonder how many VOPO's are here in the states that don’t have one?:confused:

Beautiful. You could never forget that beauty!! PS I never saw one!!!

My first Luger was a 1917 Artillery, matching numbers that I purchased at auction in Feb. 1964 for $56.00, that was shortly after my discharge from military service and represented a substantial portion of my pay but just had to have it. There was a second Artillery in that sale and I have been kicking myself ever since for not bidding on that one too.

Mine was a 1937 S/42. Still shoot the pistol once in a while.:)

1st I owned was age 15 in 1962.
A matching wood grip byf 41.
No finish smooth grips and bore
I always wondered how it got so worn.
Later I saw a few in the foreign wpns pool at Ft Bragg that were as bad.
I had paid $25 for pistol and holster.

Eric,

My first Luger was purchased in the Dolomites during Spring 1961 from a former Italian WWII partisan, then farming a meadow in a mountain valley.

We were low on rations, and besides wanted something other than 5 in 1s to eat. So I was foraging for eggs and fresh milk and approached a farmer asking to buy some.

As we were having a cup of coffee waiting for his daughter to fetch the eggs and milk, we talked about things and I discovered he had been a partisan in the War. One thing led to another and he pulled back a stone on his front step and showed me a Luger wrapped in oil skins. I now know it was a 1940 42 Mauser P.08 but then to this Second Lieutenant, it was a LUGER.

Long story short, I bought it for 9000 Lire, a princely sum to said Shave Tail. I brought it back to the Alpini Caserna that we had been operating out of and asked the armorer to "clean it up as a favor". Well, unfortunately, the favor went beyond cleaning it up (it was in bad shape). He basically took it down to bare metal and reblued it. But it was, and is, a great shooter. It was my first Luger and today has a lot of brothers AND it still resides in the collection. The magazine, by the way is a post war magazine made in Denmark that I bought from a local gun shop. Had to order it.

Excuse the poor photograph, I just took it out and shot a snapshot of it.

That's the story of my first! BTW, it was all matching!!! But the magazine was really bad, so stupidly I discarded it and bought the after market replacement!! Dumb, huh??

John

John your history is the iceing on the cake. History will repeat itself.Ten years from now a WW1 all matching unit marked artilley that you pay $2-$5k will be $10k. Ralph sold me his one of many test pieces #6786 and questionable holster for4 monthly payments of $1200. Debbie swore I was nutz. You decide!

Lugers are the one item when there gone you are filled with regrets.I have every luger I've owned sitting on and in my gun cabinet!

You always remember your first...
 

A nice original finish matching "Made in Germany" 1923 Alphabet commercial DWM in .30 Luger got me started...

Still have it. Won't part with it!

Marc

1936 S/42 bought in 1971 for $100.00. 98% condition

Charlie

I had an Interarms Parabellum for range use many years ago. First collector grade Luger was the following pictured one, a super nice 1900 (my Luger collection is small. I had only two, including this one).

Browning was also a top one. I almost sold it back two years ago for a little bit profit but I changed my mind. Later, I bought a newly published FN Browning pistol book, and felt I made the correct decision.

Russian Capture, force matched, 1939, Vopo Grips with sear safety was my first.
Paid $350

My very first was an 1914

Can't go wrong with an early Erfurt!

Just bought my first; 1916 DWM P08. The weird part are the numbers; the slide (and all internal parts), barrel, trigger plate and toggle, grips, and two magazines all match. The frame and safety have different (matching) numbers. Came in a beautiful 1942 P38 holster (with waffenamt & manufacturer) for $595. Did I do O.K.??? Oh, and finish is about 65% with minimal pitting, but some worn areas. Thanks for any help!

For that price you really can't go wrong.BUTTT Please get it checked out. I would hate for you to get hurt first time out!!

Thanks cirelaw! I bought some cheap ball ammo and a new aftermarket magazine to test fire it soon. It's in great mechanical condition; I've disassembled it, cleaned, oiled, and reassembled it properly. The slide components are in great shape with 90% blueing; most of the wear appears to be "holster wear". I cleaned the barrel and it is sharp and clean; no pitting. I think it is a decent shooter. Next question; since the two original mags and grips match, I was thinking of replacing them with new ones and setting the original aside to preserve them when I shoot it. Is that a waste of money, or smart? Won't be firing it for a few days so I'm definately listening!!! Thanks! KF

Probably no reason to spend extra $$ to replace magazines on a mismatched Luger (unless existing magazines do not work). Just use those two already in hand, IMO. I saw people replacing this, replacing that on guns, I've never done that, just shoot a working gun as is. Damaged spring on a FN 1905 and firing pin on a Mauser 1910 so far, nothing else. Interesting enough, both are 6,35mm pistols. Those tiny C&R guns have weaker parts and prone to break.

My first was a 1921 mismatched pistol with Weimar Republic markings and a DWM toggle. Refinished but she still holds a place in my heart for being my first (and only firearm for something like 10 years now). She's recently been joined by a Russian capture 'double-date' WWI era mismatch and an Erma KGP-69.

My first
 

My first was a 1900 American Eagle restored gun, that i decided to get as a carry gun , that was 17 years ago.

That gun is gone, but the love for lugers remain, as well as crazy idea for carrying one for self defense ;0)

My absolute first Luger was an "Original Mauser Parabellum" (a.k.a. Interarms Luger). That's 1996. It was sold to me as a used gun but it apparently had not been fired by the previous owner, coming with box, manual, etc, everything, even had a small round plastic token with Mauser sign. I was charged $750 (?), it's lots of money for me at that time and it's my most valuable pistol.

It shot great in range. There was only one thing I did not feel comfortable. For unknown reason, the trigger and safety level had no blue but there were not silver bright. Not knowing that's a special kind of finish, I decided to sand them bright. Bought fine sand papers from Walmart and I did the job. The trigger was easy, it's sanded mirror bright. But I could not remove the safety level and had to give up on sanding it.

That gun was long gone, but it's a very impressive pistol.

Kinda sorta , it was in the early 70's and i got it in a trade, it was mismatched and no side plate, 9mm, not alot of finish, not sure of the make. About a week later i sold it to a luger collector named herman for 250.00, a ton of money to me back then. Herman would show it to me months later completely redone and it was a beauty, but i was still amased that he would pay me that much for a luger. I would later go on to find others and sell them to him , allways for a profit. at that time , i know he had over twenty various lugers if not more. I can't really remember alot about the ones i would find and sell to him, but they allways seem to make him happy and turned me a profit. perhaps if i had took the time to do some research, i might have kept one or two. oh well.

Back then a hunded dollar bill had a life expendency of a week and my firs 1906 Frenchy is still alive in my safe!

My first Luger came from Dad, back in 1993 or so. At that time he had accumulated some firearms for 25 years, always dealing with a tight bugdet and my mom complains, and he simply gave them to me. But the Luger always held a special place in his heart. and I still remember the day he brought it home when I was 10 - it looked so HUGE in my child hands...

It is a mismatched and reblued gun, with a Navy sight, but I still have it and won't sell it. Few more joined this one, but it is still Dad's Luger for me.

Douglas.

Mo Old German Grandmother Gave These Works Of Advice
 

Born near Dresden. She told me as long as I had gold I'll always have bread! Unfortunatly I had to replace it years later! Her Uncle Al also passed down some currency. My Mom framed it and that why it in such wonderful comdition. We had a duty to pass our valuables including our lugers with the same respect! I just noticed Mom was born in 1920 the date on the eagle. I'm sure Grandman had to notice it!

Ah, my first was a Dutch DWM KNIL variation. And I shot it regularly for 2 years before realizing it was a relatively rare gun. :)

Eric, I must say I admire your vision on this one. When you introduced gold coins on the forum 2-3 years ago, it was "only" $1000/oz. Hindsight says you're right.

I got to thinking on this a bit, i never realy hung on to the others, more or less bought them to turn a profit, may have fired one or two and that was it. So i would say my luger collecting began, with these two. A 1929 dwm police and 1918 1920 dwm. both i am rather fond of. From now on i am looking out for others. thanks again for all the help.

Beautiful pistols, padredan. I keep thinking I should be shadowing you whilst you hunt down Lugers so that I could learn your secrets! You do keep turning up interesting examples.

michael, fact of the matter is over the years i cannot remember the number of lugers i may have bought and sold, for the most part i really had no interest in them except to turn a profit, which they did. I have been a gun collector for forty years. I recently decided to start collecting lugers, one thing being they are still cheaper to collect , at least around here , than colt saa's or my main interest 1911 and 1911a's . this forum has given me such good information on lugers i now feel confident enoughe to seek them out and have a working knowledge to purchase them.

My first was bought in 1962 in a pawn shop for $35.:o I was in college and had to save for a month to get it. :( It was a worn, brown 30L Commercial with a worn out bore, but I was a proud of it as if it was brand new! :) The bore was so bad that it patterned like a shotgun!:crying: I later traded it off for a Colt SAA.:thumbup: