Crates of Lugers!!..(Truth or Rumour)??
 

A Fellow firearms collector told me that he had heard rumours of crates of original unissued Lugers still in grease coming in from the Ukraine....via an Importer in Tennessee.....would be kind of neat to get a couple of brand new sequentially numbered WW2 Lugers......anyone else heard about this ???

No, sounds like one of those bs rumors, but I am like you, my fingers and toes are crossed!

:)

Ed

Reminds me of the tales that were going around after the Korean war about brand new Jeeps, still in the crates, that could be had for $50.00.

That tale was around for years but I never saw one of those Jeeps and don't know anyone else that did.

Joe

That rumor is absolutely true. Except those crates of sequentially numbered Lugers are coming from Waffenfabrik USA, not the Ukraine.

The Ukraine has two "large" weapons depot's which do contain large amounts of German weapons to include lugers.
I have a contact who has access to one of them and I do obtain items from him such as Luger holsters etc.
I have not heard about the Lugers via Tenn., But I do know that large amounts of 98k's have come from this depot to the USA.
All German depot stocks that were captured at the end of the war to include unissued items were sent via rail to these depot's.
They remain there today and are slowly being obtained for export. Most "metal" items I get have been coated with a black coating that comes of with mild solvent showing the original finish.
I just received a shipment this week that included a Mauser stock for a C96.
I hope this add's to the original posing.
Regards,
Hessian

Thanks for the info Hessian!!!.......I would love to visit these depot's......how big are they???....Thanks....Peter.....(anyone want to visit the Ukraine with me!!!??)

Point of fact - "Ukraine" is the correct way to refer to Ukraine, not "The" Ukraine. It it incorrect to use the article "the." Since independence in 1991, it has simply been referred to as "Ukraine." mm

"The Ukraine" means the periphery, the back country, the boonies. Hence the definite article.

Peter,
One Depot ( if I recall correctly ) has 7 tunnels each tunnel with 18 rail cars full of items. But there could be other buildings and areas that I don't know about.
I stand corrected "Ukraine" vise "The Ukraine"... Ok on to other things!
Hessian

Hi Hessian......WOW!!....sounds amazing....a WW2 collectors paradise......I would love to visit....I grew up in England...and in the Early 60s visited the Channel Islands which were occupied by the Germans in WW2.....some friends and Myself discovered a tunnel (sealed since the war)....were able to find a way in...and found it to be full of German Helmets ,Jackboots,Wagons...gas mask containers,saddle drum MG magazines...etc etc....due to the humidity most of the stuff was rusted....nonetheless, for a bunch of 12 year old boys,it was quite a discovery....Peter..

This is great stuff! I hope there is followup on this thread. What a boon to collectors if the lugers were fouond to be sequantial unissued items instead of just surrendered booty.

I was over there several years ago when the pistol bidding was going on, and as I recall Century Arms won the Stars and Radoms, Key II the P38s (most of the best ones then purchased by FGS in Ohio) and the lugers by a German firm and were split by several smaller firms (Sarco, AIM, Interordnance, etc) who put in a combined bid. Almost all of these were the dipped, force matched ones that we've seen over the last few years. I doubt that there are any more pistols still in "the tunnels". TH

LugerDoc,
By chance was it the same Depot that the 80 FG42's are stored?
Regards,
Hessian

Hessian, I didn't see any long guns, as they just brought us samples of the pistols to look at. TH

I contacted my good friend in the "east" and told him that collectors here in the USA perceived that there might not be many pistols remaining to buy from the former USSR.
His response was, " No that is not true there are many " I added that it would be nice to have a picture or two as proof.
No he said, "I will send you the magazines as proof".
Guess what came in the mail today... you got it a box full of magazines, I know that many are PPK mags as I asked for those. It will take a couple of days to sort through all of them as they are each individually wrapped.
Yes, I can tell that their are some luger mag's.
Der Hessian

Please keep us informed on this. I'd like to see the Lugers if some get in the U.S. If the lot of Lugers are like the lot of K98's that came in, I just don't know about. I saw some of the K98's and found them to be "re-conditioned" by the former USSR. Don't know exactly what they "re-conditioned" but some of the nazi eagle stamps were pinged out of the 98's. Hope these new Lugers and "or" P38's are not like that.

So does anyone know about how many Lugers we are talking about that there might be?

Thanks, Kelly

Hessian, ole buddy and same state person...

box of Luger magazines, hmmmmm, I'm over by Spokane :D

Ed

Tinker, I will rent you my GT specialties dent remover for your magazine project :-)

yah, like Der Hessian will send some over fer me, :D