Pimpin out a luger
 

I'm sure some have made some mods to their luger. Some tasteful, some not. I have seen many nickel plated on gunbroker. I would love to see what some have done. Plating, fineshes, grips, etc... Please post some pics.

Many collectors on here will frown at 'modifications' (more so on Jan Stills forum, they are more 'staid' meaning dyed in the wool types, I mod at both).
I have always felt that different is okay :)
I had this done for me by GT Tomack

The top one is the one done by GT

the next are some long barrels (he put the barrels on) and the bottom was a nickle plated 4 inch bull barrel I used to own....

And my first luger, an 8 inch Erfurt Artillery with stag grips. Can only find a picture of the grips right now...

Look great Ed. Its a shame the stag grips arent on a Luger. I would like to see how that looks.
IMO the mods are fine as long as they are not done to a significant gun.

If you are new to the Luger community, and into modifications, then you need to visit the website of forum member Herb Werle (Germany)...

http://www.waffen-werle.de/

http://www.waffen-werle.de/index_htm_files/2982.jpg

His vivid and imaginative exploits into Luger modifications will astound you...

-Enjoy

Full artillery - They are different grips, I have a couple sets and have sold a couple sets ;)

Very tasteful and reversible mod. i would consider that for any shooter luger. I like the contrast that light grips offer on dark guns, also like dark grips on SS guns

These are a few that I found on a quick search of the interweb. The complexity of the Luger body and all the different levels must make the engraving process so much more difficult. The guns are nearly a work of art from the factory. Other handguns like 1911's, revolvers would give a much flatter and easier to work with canvas.
I would likely not own any of these. I love the over the top opulence.

http://www.cowansauctions.com/itemImages/ww9218.jpg
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com...f612185b82.jpg
http://luger.gunboards.com/uploaded/...0_P6120005.JPG

American Eagle
 

Here is my American Eagle with stag grips and a holster.
The grips did come from Ed.

Bill, those are great looking. I forgot that they were 1906 grip safety style.

Personally John (boogie) - I would love to find a Simson (its what I collect) that was horribly mismatched or messed up and have it lightly german style engraved.

Ed

I'm not sure if this qualifies as 'pimpin' a Luger, but it certainly has been messed with.

When I got it: 1938 frame and receiver and attached parts (mostly) matched, replacement toggle marked DWM, firing pin un-numbered, left grip un-numbered (and significantly lighter in color than the original right grip), barrel an unnumbered e/135 Mauser-proofed replacement, marred receiver from the re-barrel, side plate was a non-matching Mauser part with the raised portion buffed to a soft and shiny blob, MecGar mag.

The barrel is near mint, which I like and therefore decided to put a little money into partially restoring (pimpin?) the pistol. Since I've had it I have changed the following:

1. The buffed non-matching Mauser side plate was swapped for an aftermarket side plate, then Charles Danner refinished the aftermarket plate with rust blue;
2. Significant marring on receiver from re-barrel mostly repaired by Charles, and entire receiver/barrel reblued w/rust blue.
3. Hugh Clark re-checkered both grips and repaired $1M chip on left grip.
4. Replica aluminum bottom added to mag by G.T.

The frame remains in its original salt blue finish, which is over 90%.

Here's the result, a partially restored shooter that is a mix of parts and a rust-blued upper, sitting on a salt-blued original finish lower. I wish I had 'before' pictures, because with the marring, filthy and worn grips and buffed side plate it had a sad-Luger look to it. That rust blue and salt blue finishes are mixed is probably the major factor in my claim that the pistol has been subjected to "pimpin" by its owner, although under most conditions it is very hard to tell any color difference.

Excellent!!
 

I really enjoy shooters like this one! Sideplate came out great..... I'll bet it works good to.... Looks nice, best to you Greg, til...lat'r...GT.....:cheers:

Yes it functions perfectly, thanks to you G.T. and is the most accurate pistol I have fired. Not bad for a "pimpin" pistol.

However, if I were to change careers and become a purveyor of the particular ahh... entertainment tangentially associated with the thread title, I would likely trade the '38 shooter for something like this:

Now THAT is pimpin personified!! :o

From my "new grips" thread:

http://forum.lugerforum.com/attachme...1&d=1441314718

Beautiful grips by our own Jim Solomon. I'm in the process of oiling them - pix to be posted once I'm done but they're looking GREAT so far!

My father made these grips back in the late 40's.

Attachment 51509

are those colors symbolic of anything in particular ?

I don't think LGBT was that organized back then! Reminds me of candy canes, or salt water taffy!

I also await Martin's response... Inquiring minds want to know.

Some Tru-Oil and outlining work and these look even better - picture doesn't do them justice!

http://forum.lugerforum.com/attachme...0&d=1441496237

Nothing significant, I'm sure. It's been joked before that it's a gay pride gun, and my father was living in San Francisco when he bought it in '48, but I believe it's just the colors that were available at the time and I'm sure my father just thought they looked good. He also made a small jewelry box for his girlfriend at the time. She became his wife, my mother, and 11 other siblings followed.

I think he just got carried away with the idea of "sweetheart grips". He made a set of sweetheart grips earlier while in France during WWII. They were for a WWI Spanish Izarra he picked up over there.

FYI, he kept and I have the original grips for both guns.

Attachment 51525

The girl under the grip is his kid sister who was likely 15 or 16 in the photo. At the time my father had no sweetheart, girlfriend or wife. Though just before he shipped home, I think he had a French girlfriend or two.

One nice thing about those grips is that you can find the luger in a dark room without turning on the lights. The fact that your dad made them, makes them priceless I would think. They are a good conversation piece.

Yes, finding it in the dark is a vital requirement for a "pimpen" Luger. Owners of such Lugers who are still working "in the business" overwhelmingly prefer light grips for that reason, or so I'm told.

:)

Yea, that Luger and those grips will stay in the family. Same with the Izarra. And he picked up a 1934 Beretta in .380 while in Italy just before he was dumped off at Green Beach in the south of France. I believe he had that pistol on his hip when he went ashore. That one's going nowhere as well. I also have his combat knife.

As for finding it in the dark, while I do keep it with four loaded MecGar mags, it's not my go-to gun for HD. Should I ever have to use it, I'd have to be desperate as often you don't get your HD weapon back after you use it. But it's there should I need it.

I have seen the clear grips for many guns used this same way. The story I always hear was that plexiglass from bombers was used. Do you know anything about that being the material?

That's what I've heard as well, though I don't think the sources were necessarily limited to bombers. Really any piece of plexiglass would work as long as it's thick enough. And I would imagine that the flatter it is, the more desirable it would be as it wouldn't need to be flattened. I have no idea what my father's source was, though.

Unfortunately, I never asked my father anything particular about his guns and he never volunteered. And he died very young at 54. Most I know I've had to piece together from history, his military records (and those of his unit), and others who knew him. I do have the certification from the army that the Izarra and Beretta were war trophies. And I have some of the original telegrams between my father and the seller of the Luger (seller was in Missouri). As I can recall, the only things my father told me about the Izarra was that he was afraid to fire it. This was perhaps a prudent call given that so many Spanish pistols of that era were made by sub and sub, sub contractors and quality control was nearly non-existent. It's not unheard of for some to go completely auto upon firing. What my father didn't know is that the one he acquired was made by one of the very best Spanish manufacturers and is actually a decent handgun. I went through it and repaired and bent the magazine back into place and then went through the gun itself, cleaning up some things and making sure it's safe to fire. At the range, it'll only rarely FTF.

He never told me anything about the Beretta but he did tell me that that he was also afraid to fire the Luger as it had a "weak spring". Turns out this wasn't true as I had a few gunsmiths look at it and even had Mike Krause check it out and they all said it's good to take to the range. They were correct.

Too bad my father didn't enjoy shooting more as I would have liked to go out with him to the range. But I understand fully his reluctance. (War experiences.) We went one time, as I recall, to the local National Guard armory to shoot 22's. 'Part of a Boy Scout outing, as I recall.

Still looking for Bring Back Stories, I am about halfway done with Vol IV

As much provenance as possible (story and proof, pictures from back then, story told directly from Vet, etc)