Another New Owner
 

Hi All, my neighbor needed some cash and wanted to sell his 1938 S/42, I fell in love with it and bought it.
All numbers match except for magazine.
Here's a not too good shot of it. I will eventually take many close ups.
He owned it since the 50's and never fired it.

Hi Vic, congratulations on your new Luger and welcome to the forum.

Marc

Welcome to the Forum and it looks like you got a nice one!

Looks great!
Welcome aboard.
dju

Thanks guys, I wanted to go shoot with it, but a guy at the gun shop when I did the transfer said I shouldn't. Any opinions? I have other guns to shoot with, but only one Luger. (so far)

BTW, I paid $1500, seemed like a fair deal for the condition of the pistol.

Depends on how you view this hobby. First, the risk is you could break it in shooting. That's the reason many collectors don't shoot their items.

Personally, I bought many nice pistols from other collectors in the past. Many sellers told me that's their best one and they did not shoot it in the past 30 or 50 years. When many of those best ones came from different sources, I also put many aside not shooting due to the condition was simply too nice to shoot.. But I did pick up about a dozen of them, and fired some rounds, including some rare items. And, I did break a few of them. That's the sorry part. The risk is very real, but this is a hobby, money is not the only consideration. Shooting C&R also reveals some fact about these guns, helps you understand things on them from a special angle.

Thanks for the input Alvin.

is the side plate a different number than the safety? hard to tell

Hi Vicspa,
Your story is virtually the same as mine. Sounds like you picked up a nice gun for a fair price. If the parts are indeed all matching (except magazine), from the 1 photo here it looks like you have a nice collector's piece. (The seller never fired it!). I've struggled for some time whether I want to take my first Luger to the range (I have only 1 P08... same as you, and I too have other guns to shoot). Mine is also all matching (1917 DWM) and I have decided not to shoot it. I know if I break it I will be quite upset about destroying a piece of history. SO I looked for, and found :) a nice shooter (1918 DWM). I have 3 months still to wait
So.... I would say.... find a shooter and have fun with that! It will cost some extra but you have freedom from fear of breaking your very first, and a nice investment / special piece for your growing collection! Would be nice to see more pics.....
PS A "shooter" is a gun which has either not all matching parts, or has some other flaw which takes it out of the "collector's piece" class, such as refinishing, obvious import mark, visible pitting or the like. I've seen photos of some beautiful shooters!!

You are not likely to break a numbered piece on a 1938 Mauser.
If you do- chalk it up to bad luck , replace the part and you have a shooter.

It doesn't make much sense to buy a $1500 pistol to not shoot, if that is what you want to do with it. A shooter can easily cost $1000, so you could think of it as a $1000 insurance policy on a $1500 pistol- which doesn't sound like sound economics.

Or shoot your $1500 , and in the small chance you break something, consider it a $500 deductable policy!

There are some scarce, rare, or expensive lugers that maybe should not be fired- but this is not one of them.

JMHO.

OP, congrats on your new Luger. She looks Nice! My opinion is to clean and lube it properly. They are plenty of videos to tell you how to do it. Plus be sure to read the FAQ section as there is a wealth of info there. Then go out and shoot at least two mags of ammo. Clean it and lube it up. Then enjoy it for what it is, a collectible Luger. Get a shooter grade Luger if you really want to shoot one regularly. That is what I did. I got a great shooter for $800 a few months ago. Actually I have two shooters now. I have two Lugers that are collectible and I want to keep them that way.

But, then the devil might just make me shoot those eventually. :)

Smell the barrel test!!!

same number.

Thanks for all the input guys, I didn't purchase the pistol because I'm a serious collector, I am willing to take a chance and will do so in the near future and put a box of rounds through it, I have stripped it down, and it looks fine to me, after all it's 1500, not 15000.:cheers:

Well.... please let us know how it goes? I have understood that Mausers have excellent steel quality so you should be fine with FMJRN and no hot loads. How's the condition of the mag? You think it will take the spring pressure? Or do you have a spare?

I buy guns to shoot them. I am not a safe queen collector. My Mauser 42 1939 is in excellent shape and all matching. I also reload for all my guns.

Excellent spring pressure, wish I had the clip to help loading. will get that and extra mag eventually.

Well, I'm very curious!

Well I finally got to shoot it, put only 6 rounds through it and all is fine with it, it shoots well.

Ahhh good to hear !!
Thank you

I hear the firing pins can break sometimes. I would buy another one if i were you and take the matching one out to shoot it. I don't shoot any of my lugers. I'm more into having a piece of history in my hands. Plus I enjoy taking them apart to oil them and put them back together. That's me though, if you want to shoot it you should. Just please don't refinish it lol.

This is an ongoing debate... which won't be solved anytime soon... each has to decide for himself. There are many threads which go into quite some detail on this question.
I made up my mind not to shoot my matching 1917 DWM, and spent an extra $700 on a nice refinished matching shooter (matching that is... until I broke the holdopen)

I am VERY happy I didn't do that with my 1917 DWM!

So... I have a new part (not cheap!) on order from Tom Heller. Took me a while to get over that mishap though. Learned a few things as well in the bargain. Such as- that one can shoot very nicely without a holdopen and that many Lugers were made without them. And.... it's not just holdopens which break.... extractors, firing pins, mag bases, even the breechlocks have snapped when firing recommended quality ammo.

As one forum member said, "You takes your chances..."

Luger collecting is an expensive game. Most of the collectors here have 50+ and
they are still buying. They pickup cheap shooters and have fun. I have 3. One for
A grand one for $850, and the last one was $1750. I shoot them all. I did break
a firing pin on my first one. $40 part. I run boxes through all of them and they
shoot really well. The sights suck but still they are extremely fun to shoot. If you
have lots of expendable money they look like fun to collect too. Doubt that you
will ever loose money on one unless you buy a really rare one that is not really rare.

I don't agree that the sights suck. They were, however, intended for very young eyes, an attribute that most of us no longer possess.
dju

How about the adjustable sight on navy, artillery and carbine?

Sorry don't have a Navy, artillery or a carbine. Those are all out of my cheap range.
Yes I do have old eyes and find the sights barely usable. If yall are thinking a commercial sight is great, then you can see way better than I can. The pistol itself is really accurate, I will give it that, but find the small sights lacking. JMHO. I still love to shoot mine no matter where the bullet goes. :)

The navy sights are not really easier to see, nor the artillery; the carbine maybe. JMHO.

It is an easy enough chore to open up the rear sight on a shooter and to replace the front sight with a larger Patridge type.:thumbup:

Eric, what Don says... If you look at an examples of each, you will see that all have a tiny "V" notch at the rear sight, and a narrow front sight blade. I have to put on reading glasses to see the setup, and if it's getting dark, well, just about forget it!

At the very least, milling out the rear notch to be a wider, square cut helps a lot, although I've never modified any of mine. But lots of other shooters have, and it would definitely make things easier to see, like more modern "combat" sights. Dots, even better.

Dave all four~The adjustable sights are a great feature!

Well, I have the same problem with the sights- very hard to see!

A dot of white Tip-Ex on the sides of the V-notch and the tip of the front sight blade made a difference, especially when shooting at a dark target with a light source behind the shooter.

But then, the Luger semi-auto was not built to be a precision target match gun... even though it is accurate enough.

Yep they are made to jump up out of a foxhole and blast everything in sight.
They do work good for that. Put up a big silhouette target and run a couple
mags through at it and you will find most are in the kill zone. Love me some
Lugers. Hard to find a pistol more fun to shoot.

Good Old "White-Out"

Sights on most all early 20th century handguns are tiny. I have revolvers, Colts and Smiths, as well as others, from the period and even "target" adjustable sights are not nearly up to modern standards. And too, compare the sights on the original 1911 and earlier versions of the 1911A1. Very small. Kinda adds to the fun when I try to shoot 'em. I have only one Luger, a nice 1920 alphabet commercial, and tho' the sights are awfully small, they are right on the money.

Perhaps I was expecting too much from my 1918 shooter P08. At first I was all over the place! I am not an "Olympic match shooter," but I don't miss the black at 10 meters!

Then I realized, my sight picture was awful! A bit of that "white out" was great!
Now a question of technique and patience.

You got it wrong Tex.:D

They were not designed for that. They are very accurate pistols intended for downing an enemy at about 50 yards, way before he is breathing on you.:D

All lugers have adjustable sights, you can drift the front sight for windage (very helpfull if you are playing around with different loads), and elevation can be dealt with changind the front sights.

For close up and personnal. I much prefer the .45 1911. Go figure.:rolleyes:

PS. The remedy for old eyes (and I'm on the same boat now), is called optometrist, make sure you get a good one and preferably one that is also a shooter. Forget progressive lenses. Use correction for shooting only, never go to your optometrist without a pistol, take the one with the worst sights.:D

Its 'not really necessary, not a good ideia either, to open up the rear sights.

By the way, had an artillery in my hands the other day (to rich for me :D), but found it very confourtable in hand, much better then I expected, but, I couldn't see the front sights well, not with my all day round glasses.:p

When sighting my 1918 DWM I find I have to raise the front sight by tipping the gun back slightly, finding it, then lowering the gun to get the front sight inside the "V" notch of the rear sight. Very hard to keep my focus on that tiny front sight blade!

Tip-Ex on the sides of the "V" and the top rear of the front sight blade has helped.....

I've never seen artillery... at least... not yet :)