Newbie, rookie, etc want to purchase first P08 [Edited]
 

Hello, my first post in this forum - so pls bear with me!

I've always liked the design of the Parabellum-Luger (but I'm not a weapons collector).
Decades ago, I had the chance of purchasing a 9mm (possibly marine - it had a longer barrel as far as I remember) brought from Europe as a war souvenir, but it was quite ugly, rusty, black grips, maybe a Mouser manufactured during WWII, I let it pass.

Now I'm considering the purchase of a P08, but mostly for the looks (I would rather prefer it to shoot, also!). I'm not looking for a real collector's item - some parts with different numbers would be OK.

My dream Luger would look like the ones Thor owns!

What should I look for in a P08 so it can be reworked to a nice look?

Thanks for your help!

JorgeO
What you describe would be a mismatched "shooter. I suspect someone on the forum would sell you one. As to restoring it, it would still be just a shooter and restoring is expensive. I would think you could find a respectable luger for the same total price and the value will increase. Welcome to the Forum. Bill

Jorge; I always tell folks, decide what "era" you want before buying books or guns.

Imperial, Weimar or Nazi, and then the commercial or made for other countries lugers.

If looking for a "luger" then the era is secondary, and look for a nice reblued or mismatched in nice shape, expect to pay $600-$700 for one like this.


Ed

Ed -- IMHO, buying some excellent books for study is OK, even if they don't cover the main field(s) of collecting. Collector grade book is usually not cheap, but comparing with the cost of a Luger, even the cost of a shooter grade Luger, it's .... and, they offer information that impossible to figure out by myself no matter how many real samples that I have observed. The book sets up main frames.

Thanks a lot, gentlemen

It just happens that I live in Brazil, and I don't know (at this moment) how to import an used weapon. I will have to ask some friends at the shooting range (I'm a bowman, and there is a dedicated area for archery in it).

Brazilian regulations are not as stringent as some people thinks - one can have a ,45 weapon, for instance, but one has to go trough miles of red tape.

My first option would be to search locally for a shooter that could be rebuilt (I know a nice fellow that has a collector's 7.65 Luger and is a quite decent gunsmith).

That's why of my question - how to recognize a Luger that could be rebuilt? What to avoid?

I have already ordered the book "Parabellum" Automatic Pistol: Its Construction".

Thanks again,

Jorge

Experts please correct me if I am wrong.

Jorge -- I assume the way is "comparison", detail comparison with known good ones. But, you have to know what to check, and which one is a good one, etc, etc. So new collectors usually depend on old collectors to tell them.

All you need to do -- take pictures of the gun and post in this column of the forum, and ask (I ask questions all the time myself). That's the cyberspace way. Good luck in searching.

Thanks for the clues, Alvin