My Fathers Luger
 

I have inherited a old Luger that my father purchased as a kid in Minnesota (USA). I have been told the gun was built in 1900 and may have some collector value. The serial number is 63XX and it has the DWM logo and is stamped German on the top. How can I find out about the history of this gun? Can the serial number be used to identify where it came from? I would like to know how this gun ended up in southern MN in say 1950.

The serial number range you have given would put it close to the 1000 Lugers purchased by the U.S. Army for test purposes in 1901. These Lugers were imported specifically for test purposes, and wouldn't be marked "GERMANY". It would be best if you could provide us with close-up, quality photos of you Luger.

After the end of testing by the U.S. Army. The remaining Lugers were sold as military surplus throughout the U.S.

John,

Welcome to the Forum. As Richard said, good pictures of your Luger would be useful. Even more important would be knowing the full serial number, including any cursive letter which may be stamped below it on the front of the frame. Are the toggle ears flat or dished? Where exactly is GERMANY stamped?

--Dwigh

If in fact this one is in the US Test Range, it could be one of the 50 traded back to DWM for the 50 M1902s that were fitted with the Powell Cartridge Counter grips. Gun may have then been resent to US, "Germany" marked for commerical sale. TH

Tom,

Actually the 50 Test Eagles traded in for Cartridge Counters were shipped by the Army directly to A.H. Funke, a New York dealer, by Hans Tauscher's explicit instruction.

--Dwight

Hi John , Sent you pm . Best Regards , Ken Coyle

I can take some pictures of My Fathers Luger which will show the serial number 6345 and the German stamp. How do I post them?

by using either the Upload Photo upper right corner, or one at a time using the Post Reply

I uploaded three photos. I am not sure were they went and I do not see them. Can someone show me how to find them?

Here are some tips on how to post photos in the new collectors area.

http://forum.lugerforum.com/forumdis...s=&forumid=133


You can also repost the same photo or use the old one, this is the url you would need, and then change the photo name and that would be what was posted. That sounds hard, but the upload url would be http://forum.lugerforum.com/lfupload/yourpicture.jpg then whatever you named your picture, i.e. luger34.jpg would go at the end, instead of "your picture"
if you use this upload part of the link and know your own photo names, they would then post.

Also, there are instructions on the upload photo area that say;

John,
After you upload your photos, you have to copy the photo URL and paste it into a reply on this or another thread. Uploading the photo is just the first step. The tips in the new collectors area that Ed gave the link is a good place to start. Good luck. We would like to see your photos.

I saw the pictures this time. Here are the URLs.

http://forum.lugerforum.com/lfupload/mfl1.jpg
http://forum.lugerforum.com/lfupload/mfl2.jpg
http://forum.lugerforum.com/lfupload/mfl3.jpg

Not so hard once my son (15) helped.

John,

From the views you show us this gun is hard to identify. If you can, please show us sharp, closeup photos of the right receiver marks, the marks on both sides of the breechblock and center toggle, and any and all marks which appear on the barrel.

--Dwight

So far I would say it is a WW1 era DWM (has a stock lug) that had the date ground off (see top of receiver), the "germany" stamp applied (first time I have seen one stamped there), and sold to the outside market, most likely in the USA in the 1920's or 1930's.


There may be a vestiage of a suffix under the sn number (or a suffix), although each year during WW1 there were ones made that had no suffix (numbering started over).

Ed