luger found
 

foud this 1916 DWM in a closet when I bought my house(house is 60 years old),dont know any history on the sidearm, but all numbers match except mags.has what looks to be repro holster(forgot to take picmmaybe tomorrow)m still:rockon: a very cool find

Hi:

The pistol looks too well maintained to have been forgoten in a closet.

Sieger

I smell something fishey here...
dju

If you really found that in a closet in the house you bought, you really lucked out... its value would likely have covered your closing costs. If I were you I would find out the history of the house... cause if the previous owner didn't die, he will likely remember his pistol is missing and report it stolen... not a good position to be in.

If the previous owner had passed on, then you might consider contacting the descendents to see about the appropriate heir?

I would be interested to learn what you find out, as probably many here would.

What state do you live in? Possession may be a problem if you live in a mandatory registration state...

It could happen. In the 70's my father bought an old house in Cleveland, Ohio that was over 70 yrs old. We found a early WW II M1 carbine (in perfect condition) in a closet along with a period type Civil Defense helmet and armbands etc... . The house had been in the same family forever. the surviving heir died there. It was like a museum in there, alot of pictures and letters from the Spanish-American war, WW I and WW II. :thumbup:

Certainly! When our neighbors moved into the house across from us. They found a nearly mint Smith & Wesson M&P .38 Special in attic crawl space. The previous owner was in a nursing home with dementia and his son, the only heir, is mentally disabled from an auto accident.

He brought it to me wanting to know where the previous owers lived. I told him to keep it.

the previous owner built the house on family land after he came back from WWII, he and wife lived here until their deaths5 and 9 years ago, I'm not sure who died when, anyway the house went to a grandchild (who lives elsewhere...)I bought the house "As is, with contents".there were all sorts of things, hospital beds and wheelchairs, clothes , furniture, photo albums,etc. mostly junk to me. when i found the pistol, I was excited, to say the least! I spoke with my lawyer about it, he informed me that since my contract cited "all contents within" it belonged to me.so there it is. I did return all photos and family items to a family member.
I figure it was a bringback gun that sat in the closet for who knows how long.

more pics.the firearm was in the holster, loaded. I got rid of the cartridges, becuase they were corroded. also I have cleaned it since I found it

I have bought 3 or 4 pistols that had "sat in a closet" for 40-50 years, one in a holster the entire time; one in a holster, but the dad cleaned it every now and then.

Depends on where you live and what the humidity level is like. Its wetter here in PA, but everywhere else I have lived, its been very dry.


Ed

The magazine with the concentric circles on the wooden knobs is an orginal German Navy Luger magazine and is a rare item in and of itself...

You could probably trade it to a Navy Luger collector for two or more standard magazines in similar condition...

The holster does NOT appear to be a reproduction and is in excellent condition.

Great find and great story... good luck with it.

Nice find.

I bought a cigarette AC 45 PP that a guy found in a wall of a house he bought and was renovating here in upstate NY. Looked like it was never fired or seen a drop of oil on it. It had several surface rust spots on the finish that cleaned up but other than that it looked good.

Sounds like a great house! :D

All I found in my attic was some gunstock blanks. I was pretty excited at the time, as they are really nice walnut...

Now I'm totally depressed.
Maybe I should tear out all the drywall while the wife is sleeping, and see if there's any Lugers to be found!

Zamo, you do that. please send a link to your on-line newspaper the day before, as I would like to see if you make the news from your wife's beating :D

Maybe go over the walls with a stud finder? A mass of metal like a luger should make the sensor jump...

FN

Hey FN, when I try to use a stud finder, the damn thing just points at me!! :)

Wow, a free Luger. I'm looking for a decent shooter and here we got guys finding them in their house. If I could only be so lucky. Congrats on your sweet find..

A few years back, a local motel was renovating its rooms and found a revolver in the bathroom wall. Turned out it was used in a murder and the perp's prints were on it. She is serving life.

A very nice find. Discarding the cartridges without taking a second look is not recommended. Some 9mm cartridges are collectible and are worth saving.

Always check the head stamps and research them online. A good place to start is the IAA website.

...and just like that, an eight year old thread comes back to life! :thumbup:

I only found dead mice in the old houses that I bought.:typing: