Erfurt 1917/18 marked luger on GB
 

I saw this on Gun Broker and wondered if the 1917/18 marked chamber date was legit. I have not seen that with war years guns, but I am a novice forever learning. If legit, why was it done?
Dave

https://www.gunbroker.com/item/870344410

Hundred percent legit. A friend of mine has a 1917/18 dated artillery model that his great uncle brought back from WWI.

The sear bar is not original to the gun. By 1917 the sear bars were relieved and this one is not. It came from an earlier gun.

Here are two more Erfurt 1917/18, which also have s-suffix serial numbers.

Marc

Military lugers were to be dated with the year they were "made".
Since receivers were dated early in the mfg. process, at the end of the year some , in this case 1917 dated receivers were not assembled to the point of final inspection, thus in January of 1918 the requirement to date it 1918 was tripped.
So the receiver/pistol started in 1917 was finished in 1918, so the
"/18" was added.

I have one of these myself; A 1918 receiver not finished until 1920. I suspect it lay unfinished throughout 1919, and must have been completed early in 1920, before the Versailles Treaty was completely implemented. It also has provisional Weimar Reichswehr markings.

Thank you for the responses. I sure didn't know they did that. Very interesting.