Stainless M1900
 

I won a lot at the Pyle Auction, $750 + BP, etc. Looks like it's SN is "AE 040 OF 350"?

An excellent purchase! Aimco made some of these up for the NAPCA show in Kansas City in 2000. I had a table there I shared with Mark Rendina. I designed a special medallion for the show and Mark had them made up. They were pretty well received and I wish I had some more to hand out.

Where did you attend a Joe R. Pyle auction, if I may ask?
Jack

Excellent purchase, but blued stainless?

Very nice!:)
I have never seen one of those before. I like it.
Be interesting to hear your range report,if you decide to shoot it.:burnout:
Bob

To David

Congratulations indeed for your last purchase.


Sergio

What IDs it as stainless?

To the best of my knowledge Aimco only made stainless guns.

I asked Dwight and Vlim about this (assume the same one on Proxibid).

I did not know that Aimco made 1900 type lugers.

Very cool

That is one very fine looking Luger. I really like it a lot. At that price point, I believe that you did really good on it. Do you plan to shoot it, or is it going to be a safe queen?

I have wondered that too, as I want to 'dish' the P08 toggles on my long-barrel. I get 50mm diameter, = ~1.969" diameter... :)

$750+ BP, even with 20% BP,,, only $900. Excellent buy. It's not a cheap gun, it's a good gun cheap.

I'm satisfied, for sure. I often post a "lowball" bid on stuff I'm interested in. Sometimes the practice is a little nerve-wracking, in that if all bids came in, I'd really have to scramble to cover the accumulated total. More often than not, I win nothing. I thought this one would go for more, but figured what the heck. We've all seen or missed relative bargains that, for reasons not comprehensible, go for way less than one would expect. I noticed a chrome Whitney Wolverine at the last RIAC, and if I hadn't sunk my prospects into the M1900 commercial I bid on, would have bid $4-500. That sucker sold for $4,000 + BP, etc.!!!

I'll shoot it a bit, just 'cause... The bulk of my collection is now .30 Luger, all of which are shooter grade--though some are much nicer than others and court the line of being collectible. I call 'em collectible shooters. This one looks to be in great shape, at least finish-wise in the pics, so I probably won't shoot it a lot. Parts for the regular stainless ones are made of (I forget who said this...sounds like a G.T.-ism) pure unobtainium, and although not numbered, man, I'd hate to break something on a blued stainless Luger! The ejector on my stainless P.08 was cracked, and an original actually functions and fits--if you neglect the fact that it is a tad narrower in the slot than the ss part, and is a different color (blued) which can't be corrected by shining it up, which would merely reveal carbon steel color. Hmmm, maybe I should blue all the small parts to match the ejector.

This version , unfortunately, has a P.08 profile sight blade, and they skimped by omitting the toggle lock on the right side. The last observation is that the grip panels are the cheap-o machine-checkered variety. I believe the Stoeger-branded ones had really nice grips, as well as flat surfaces that were actually flat. This one appears, like most, to have been buffed at the factory before finishing.

Jack, I was sittin' right here at my desk! Proxibid, even with the extra cost, is useful--if only to save travel expenses from NY State to WV.

Ed, you need to do a search in our very own galleries! I remember a thread that gave a link--maybe a year ago?-- to a collection of stainless Luger pics there. Aimco apparently assembled a raft of different configurations and calibers. I've seen pics of a stainless Navy, IIRC, somewhere in that collection.

Does anyone have a catalog, flyer, or whatever, that shows the Aimco variations? I think most were branded and sold by others, e.g. Stoeger, so I'll bet each company that is still in business probably put out something about what they were selling at the time.

Since American made, might it just be 2" D?

I don't have gauges that large, so I just compared jam jars, vitamin bottle tops, and a Jack Daniels shot glass, which seemed the best fit... :)

Reminds me of a couple of years ago when I was applying infill under the top tail of the spiral stairs I was completing for a client. In the area described by each rise, run, and bottom rail, building code dictates that a 6" D sphere be unable to pass. Since I was out of 6" balls:roflmao:, I used the lid to a gallon paint can, which was perfect to check among the three lines. I guess nature provides...:cheers:

American Rifleman had an article in March "Three handguns that got away (link)".

The 2nd pistol that the writer missed was a near mint prewar FN 1910 asking only $300. But the guy unbelievably hesitated.

Viewing from another angle, he missed the opportunity because he's not a FN Browning collector. Otherwise, he would not keep thinking what his spouse said :)

Hindsight, as they say, is 20/20! The third gun in the article, although out of my realm of interests, got me thinking about the concept of trade-ins. I've never experienced a situation where I had to consider such a thing... I can barely imagine it. I have a wide variety of toggle pistols, ranging from the M1900 I scored a few months ago, to this stainless version. One represents the beginning of Luger history, the other is what could be called the bitter end. In between, there's a decent Arty (crippled by its missing stock lug), a double-date, former Arty military and a couple of AE's. My 6" Mauser Swiss configuration 9mm, and the stainless P.08 help fill in the post-war category.

When I encounter a juicy deal, and if I don't have the dough to pounce on it, I don't even think of using one of what I already have as an offset! For a "serious" collector who is upgrading a collection, replacing a place-holder gun with a better example, this is likely not such a vexing consideration, I'd imagine. My wacky style leads me to regard its examples kind of like adopted children, each with its own background and temperament. So, which of my kids would I sell or trade, to get a better kid? It is painful to even think of making such a choice!

In 58 years of collecting I have only sold or traded 4 Lugers...it is hard to let go. :)

I differ from the above; as much as I love Lugers guns are only objects without feelings.
As a collector I always try to improve my (small) collection, and if I've got to "sacrifice" a gun to get a much better one I always do it.


Sergio

For me, selling items from my collection is like parting with old friends.