Help with identification please
 

Hello All, I was wondering if anyone can help with identifying this for a friend. Only one serial number located. Definitely refinished but haven't run across one that has had all the serial's buffed to the point of oblivion. Thanks

That is a 1908 pattern Bulgarian, designated M11 in Bulgaria as 1911 was the date of the purchase contract. The gun has been "sanitized", i.e. all Bulgarian markings have been removed from the toggle and receiver...I can't tell from the photos whether the Cyrillic safety marking has also been removed or not.
Ron

Thank you Ron I’ll pass the info along. Much appreciated

I just looked at the photos again and I had overlooked that the safety marking had indeed been removed. When these Bulgarian Lugers first started to come to the US in the 1960s Bulgaria was still a Communist country. So even though the guns were coming from distributors in Germany and other countries, there was still the fear by the US importers that the guns might be illegal since trade with Communist countries was prohibited. Therefore many of these Bulgarian guns were "sanitized" to remove all Bulgarian markings.
Ron

Very interesting. Thanks Ron.
dju

In which case, what would be the collector value of such a gun? Or would it pretty much be a shooter grade as a result?

While it's origin and history may be fascinating, with all the sanitization and buffing, the gun is simply a shooter grade Luger now... no collector value, sorry.

Although I can imagine it will make one of the better shooters out there since all the parts are original, will it not?

how would you know that? all the numbers have been removed :)

the answer for what you ask is, yes

I have to say that whoever did the "sanitizing" of this Luger, they did a pretty nice job. From what I can see, the metal shows to not be massively over buffed(unlike some that I have seen), and the bluing looks even and nice. Hopefully, it is a good shooter.