found a decent 1920 commercial
 

This is my first post. It may also be my first Luger so go easy on me. You guys can be a bit intimidating. :eek:

I found a very nicely polished and reblued 1920 Commercial luger. The bore looks mint, and the numbers seem to all match. The proof marks seem to be intact. The magazine is not original but looks new. The grips look new, dont fit too well, and are not very well made, some kind of cheap replacement. It is a 9mm parabellum, and not a 30 Luger.

I've been watching this pistol for about six months and was hoping someone would buy it and relieve me of the temptation. Finally it was sold. Now it appears the person who bought it couldn't come up with the rest of the money and it's back on the shelf. I can pick it up for $550.00 + tax.

Any info would help. I did check the proofs against a book in the store and they all seem to check out. I can't find any reason not to buy it.

Thanks in advance.

I can't think of any reason not to buy it either. 9mm is unusual for a '20 Commercial, but a lot cheaper to shoot.

$550 sounds like a pretty good deal for a 1920's Luger. Check the prices on Gunbroker. I just bought a 1920's .30 Luger for $700 there.

Sounds like a decent price to me.


Jeff, we are fairly close in location, I am in Castle Rock, CO


Ed

I went ahead and bought it. I'm not sure how to post photos. I can't seem to get into photobucket. I'll post them soon.

We'd rather you Not use photobucket. Most of the time the photos never stay (owner zaps them out etc).

Use the ADD REPLY and post one at a time, or use the upload photo upper right corner. Just ensure the photos are under 200 kilobytes. There are several tutorials under the New Collector area to help you on posting.


Ed

okay, unsure where the commercial designation came from ;).

It is a Reichswehr property marked (hence the 1920) that at one time went into police service (see the sear safety on the left).


Any unit markings on the grip strap?

Ed

I'm not sure how to do multiple postings, so I took your advice and posted one at a time. Took me a while to figure out how to make the picture smaller. Thank God for google.

I took the pistol apart and all the numbers I can find match. The is no # on the take down pin, or on the barrel. Is that because it may have been rebarreled at some point? There is a faint proof mark on the barrel, but it was almost buffed out. There are some markings on the inside, but I'm not sure what they mean. The Magazine is stamped Mauser.

What an impressive piece of machinery. It is incredibly smooth when you take it apart and very little wear. Is there anything else I should tell you? Was this a miliary pistol or only for the commercial market?

Thanks for all your help and feed back!

The Gunshop said it was a commercial Luger. I took his word for it.

It's police, even as a shooter grade gun, as it is not a matching #'s original finish gun, $550 is a very good price

The photos explain the 9mm caliber. It isn't a 1920 Commercial as the dealer thought. Your Luger is a 1908 Military First Issue. As Ed posted, it was subsequently reworked for police issue and given a 1920 property mark. Nice gun...I really like '08s.

Is there a link you could send me that will tell me more about this pistol? Thanks

I'm not aware of a decent link online but there are several exceptional books on the subject. You should probably have those anyway... :)

Are you a book buying type? Check out Amazon and eBay for deals.

There is a 35 on the back of the frame. I didn't notice it before because it is so close to the serial # 3052. I'd be curious to now what that means.

hmmm, There are two luger sites on the net that I would suggest someone go to and this is one of them...

Is 35 the unit marking you were wondering about?

Usually not, although it can be considered a unit marking. More likely to be a weapon number / rack number.