1916 matched #. Shooter or collector?
 

OK, I managed to get this field stripped, and back together a few times.

Looking into the barrel, it doesn't look as pristine as a few I've seen. Some pitting, and the rifling isn't as sharp as some.

Is this still a collectable Luger?

Can someone recommend a gunsmith in the lower Michigan area to take a look at this?

Thank you,
Kurt

kpolak -

If your Luger is indeed a "1916 matched#" there will be members of this Forum who will advise you not to shoot the gun. The reason for this is that having all the numbers matching greatly increases the collector value of the gun. And if you break just one of these numbered parts, you will have automatically greatly reduced the monetary value of the gun. The actual amount of decrease in value due to a broken serially numbered part is subjective; however, the reduction will be in the neighborhood of 1/3 to 1/2 depending on whose opinion you want to adopt as your own. And there have been numerous heated discussions on this Forum about whether to shoot an all matching gun, with even some "name calling" going on. I happen to be one of the big chickens who does not shoot my all matching guns, but it is left up to the individual to make that decison. In the stock market they would call this "risk tolerence." So I may be answering a question you have not asked; however, please be aware that if you break a serially numbered part on that old gun, you will be sorry. And it does happen sometimes, as reported here on this Forum. One of the most common breaks seems to be the extractor, for example.

Mauser720 - Ron

Thank you, Ron.

That did answer my question. I didn't realize the weight matching numbers carried.

I will be looking forward to finding a nice mismatched shooter.

Kurt

Kurt, there are collectors (many) who like their barrels very nice to pristine and there are collectors who almost never look down the barrel. I am of the latter, yes, I want a nice pristine barrel, but to tell the truth, the last Simson I bought (from a good friend of mine :)), I never looked down the barrel, it just never occurs to me :eek:


Ed

Ed,
I'm glad You didn't look down the barrel because it is a smooth bore :roflmao:

WHAT? I thought they were made that way! :D

I absolutely respect Ed's opinion on bore. But he used "Simson" as an example, which is a very rare gun..... beaware that regular DWM 1916 is much more common.