1918 Erfurt
 

Latest 1918 Erfurt that I've bought. My second Luger & first "collector" piece. I understand that unit marked 1918's are somewhat rare. Tell me what you think!http://forum.lugerforum.com/lfupload...arge_copy1.jpg http://forum.lugerforum.com/lfupload...arge_copy1.jpg http://forum.lugerforum.com/lfupload...arge_copy1.jpg http://forum.lugerforum.com/lfupload...arge_copy1.jpg http://forum.lugerforum.com/lfupload...arge_copy1.jpg http://forum.lugerforum.com/lfupload...arge_copy1.jpg http://forum.lugerforum.com/lfupload...arge_copy1.jpg http://forum.lugerforum.com/lfupload...arge_copy1.jpg

2 more
 

http://forum.lugerforum.com/lfupload...arge_copy2.jpg http://forum.lugerforum.com/lfupload...arge_copy1.jpg

Thanks very much to Ed Tinker for his patience in helping me figure out the posting routine and his sage advice................Augsburger

It's a beauty, very well done....sorry I am not good on unit markings, but someone will jump in and help out.

Augsberger,

A really superb example of a 1918 Erfurt. According to Still (Imperial Lugers) less than 0.2% of this year's production was unit marked, so I'd say your gun falls into the pretty rare category. I'm not going to attempt the unit mark--deciphering an R designation requires some specific detail knowledge of the German army structure which I lack--but I'm sure that someone will come along with the answer pretty soon.

Very cool Luger.

--Dwight

Ron Smith told me it was the 93rd Regiment 9th Company gun #9. The unit belonged to the 8th Infantry Division.

Glen, overall it's a very nice example but I have reservations about that trigger side plate. It's condition appears to be much better than the rest of the metal on the pistol plus it's missing the Erfurt Crown/B stamp. The area just above the 'island' should also show machining marks running front to rear contrary to the rest of the plate shich should be running top to bottom. While it does show the correct number, and in the German style, the die used on the side plate was much newer, showing less use, that the other 47 numbers. I'll probably get bashed for this post by the other guys but that is my initial observation. I agree with Ron on his interpretation of the unit mark.

..........

Regarding the sideplate Herb is quite on point, characteristics which I overlooked in my initial enthusiasm. Note also that the 4 lacks the bottom serif which are characteristic of all the other 4s on the pistol.

--Dwight