I have some questions...
 

My grandfather just gave me a luger that he got during WWII. Apparently another American soldier had taken the weapon and was planning on taking it home with him but he was killed and never got to return home. My grandfather was cleaning out lockers on the ship and found the luger. He took it home with him and has had it since then. I am not interested in selling the gun, I just want to know more about it. I will try to post pics later, but for now I will give you the info that I have. It is dated 1937, S/42 is stamped on the top behind the barrel, all matching serial numbers, a few eagle stamps on it. I looked at the Luger Handbook by Aarron Davis and I narrowed the search to Mauser-Werke AG being the manufacturer and obviously it is military issue. The gun itself is not in the best of shape. Unfortunately my grandfather shot it quite abit and it is dull looking with a little rust. The grips look black but I then realized that they are some type of wood color, almost mahogony. However, the gun is fully functional; I shot it 3 times to just say I have shot it. Basically, I want to know more about the gun and determine if I should get it refinshed. Thanks in advance for the help :cheers:

Refinishing is a personal decision, but you will ruin any collector value by doing so... but some folks who don't intend to ever dispose of their firearms like them pretty... Restoration by an expert would make it look new, but if you decide to go this route don't trust the work to an ordinary gunshop. One of the best is Ted Green (THOR)... his work is not inexpensive, and he is usually backlogged as much as a year at time, but his work is worth the wait... Search for one of his posts or find his website in the Links & Resources page...

If your S/42 1937 has all blued parts it was manufacture during the second half of 1937 by Mauser... if some of the parts are "strawed" or bright (gold-colored), then the gun was made early in the year... that was the year they cut some of the nice finishing processes due to wartime demands...

We look forward to you posting some good closeups of your Luger... more comments will follow that event... If you have original accessories (holsters and magazines, etc.) they are also very valuable... treat them with real care... and don't store the pistol in a holster.

I definitely do not want to hurt the value of the luger, I just want to make sure that I keep it in the best shape possible. What would be the best way to get the rust off and keep it off? Once I get it cleaned up, should I put it in some type of display case? I do not have any accessories. I only have one mag. I found the Luger ID form so I went home for lunch today and filled it out. I still have not taken any pics; I will try to do that tonight. I filled the form out the best I could; there were a couple questions that I was uncertain about. I could not determine if the grips were wood or a brown plastic and I could not find the numbered markings thread on this forum to let you guys know exactly what markings are on the luger. Here are my answers....
1. s/42
2. 1937
3. circle knobs that are checkered with a hollow center
4. not present
5. present
6. 9mm
7. no isignia, checkered, definetly brown but not sure if it is plastic
8. Gesichert
9. matching serial #s except on the magazine; looks like a cursive L or B under the barrel and in front of the trigger guard when looking directly at the front of the gun; on right side of the reciever there is 3 markings with 2 that I think are variations of an eagle and with what looks like the number 63 or 03 below it, there is also one of the eagle variations on the right side of the barrel.
10. 4
11. ?
12. sights look like normal sights: rear is a rectangle with a v indention and the front sight is a triangle with ridges
13. aluminum with the number 2 on top of the base, 8585 in the middles of the base (does not match SN on weapon), cursive N with the eagle stamp that has 63 or 03 under it.

There is no straw color on it, so I guess it is from the later part of 1937. Does my gun fit into a certain category of Luger? I noticed that there are different threads for different categories of lugers. Is there any information on the manufacturer (mauser) on this site? If anyone has any other info, that would be great! I will try to post pics tonight.

Aaron,

You are on the right track. The info on your 1937 is spread through out the Military forum and New Collectors board. You can do a search (upper right) and unlike some search engines on gunboards, John's is lightning quick. Put in 1937 mauser and see what comes up.

Many times a good cleaning of breakfree or Hoppes #9 gun oil will make your luger look much diffferent. Take the grips off carefully, undo the screws, push from the inside of the magazine well and at the same time pull from the outside, then clean the pistol very well (do not use anything abrasive or "clean" to much. Just use soft cloths, an old toothbrush, oil and she'll be much cleaner.


ed

here are some pics...lets see if they are the right size

more...

more....

:D

:cool:

:p

:rolleyes:

:o

:(

:bigbye:

Thanks for the help guys.....I will continue searching the military threads to see what other info I can get. In the meantime, where is the best place to get the cleaning oils that were sugested...local gunshop?

Another question..... I realized that the mag SN is different than the Luger SN. I talked to my grandfather yesterday and he got the gun while it was in cosmolean and he does not recall changing the mag (he is 80). Why would the mag be a different SN?

Interesting,

This pistol has serial number 4040b, a very late 1937 serial.
I have pistol 150b. On my pistol the S/42 die is slightly different and it shows traces of wear/damage. On your pistol, they used a different die.

This seems to indicate that the S/42 die was replaced somewhere between the 150b and 4040b serial numbers. Nice.

About the magazines: Nobody actually bothered to keep the right magazines with the guns. Having loaded and functional magazines at hand was more important.

I am glad to hear that the mag being different SN is normal. That eliminates further history search:D

I think if we knew the numbers of lugers with original matching mags we would be suprised at the small number. Remember it is fairly easy to force match a mag. Bill