1913 Erfurt
 

Greetings, I just inherited my first Lugar. From what I have learned so far it is a numbers matching (4009) 1913 Erfurt. The back story: My grandfather traded his sidearm with a German Officer who defected to Canada. In the pictures you will see the unusual grips. They are made from the windshield of a bomber that he crash landed somewhere in Texas. I'm not really concerned with value (outside of insurance purposes) as I never intend on selling this piece.
I have some questions about making it safe and restoring it somewhat. 1st question: what to do with the plating? It is in poor condition. Strip and reblue? Leave alone? (I really like blue!)
2nd question: The rifling is bad! Almost completely missing. Obviously accuracy would be affected, but would it still be safe to shoot. If not what are my options.
My intention is to display this piece (with family pride) and shoot on occasion.

Welcome to the forum Pit_Snipe. Your luger probably woudnt be insured past $1000.00.
You could have it restored but since its chromed (fairly poor condition cosmetically) it might affect tolerances of some moving parts if you remove the chrome by buffing it off to allow a new blueing.
A competent restoration by the luger doc or Thor ( more notably for that department I think) on our forum would be a great way to get that famiy heirloom lookin spiffy . Neat story by the way.
as far as shooting the pictures look good ( head space and stuff) as long as you know the caliber of ammo it uses and it feels good mechanically I would shoot it. Im no expert or a gunsmith and pictures arent the same as holding the gun so a gunsmith evaluation woudnt be out of line. You could also have the gun rebarreled. Hope this helped

Lugersrkewl, Thanks for the input. I'm loving all the knowledge on this forum. I've got a lot to learn.

Also don't sweat the rifling/accuracy just yet. It may well shoot nicely, you will not know until you get it to the range.
dju

I think I've read here on the forum from people with similar lack of rifling and yet they still have decent accuracy. I'm not sure if it'd be worth rebluing due to the tolerances from the original chroming, it might almost be worth getting it rechromed but those grips are sure interesting and I like the story behind them.

Your mag bottom is interesting too, is that also something your grandfather did? Otherwise, what a neat heirloom!

"Your mag bottom is interesting too, is that also something your grandfather did?"

Now that you mention it, my mag does look different. It appears to aluminum. My father and my other grandfather were both machinist, so they may have made this for him. I will have to ask him about this.

PS. As an heirloom I'd advise keeping it as is, but if you want to make a shooter out of it, I can install a new barrel and get it functioning normally. I don't do refinishing, so Thor's your guy for that. Tom

Welcome aboard and thanks for showing your Luger.
I really enjoyed the story behind the pexiglass grips - they seem to be nicely fit.
Douglas

Take a look at the muzzle of your pistol..like spokes of a wheel. There is SOME rifeling in there!

Even if there isn't much... the pistol will likely shoot fine for plinking at tin cans. If you want restore the pistol DO NOT replace the barrel. It is serial numbered to the pistol.

One of my best shooters has no rifeling and it works flawlessly. It keyholes beyont 50 feet but it's great shooter. I can kick a can all over the desert with it!

Whatever you do don't buff off the chrome. Have it electronically stripped instead. That's the way it was put on. Given what the EPA has done to this country it might be difficult to find a stripper.

Once again looking at your photo's and reading the history... I would be inclined to leave it as is. The chrome and plexi look cool.

I don't recall reading about the Germans bombing Texas, but I'll admit that it is an intriguing idea... :p

(Long range Condor bomber; fitted with pontoons; and refueling from a submarine...) ;)

Thanks for sharing, I love the "sweetheart" grips. Find a nice vintage picture to display under them.

There is quite a "Little Germany" region in Texas. A German community has been in the hill country since 1846.

Marc

Hi,
First of all: the nickel finish does make the gun look worth then it actually is. It actually protects the metal to some degree , and when removed metal looks as good as original metal does.

Second: removing the nickel can be done without any damage to the metal by a chemical striping of the nickel, done that meany times and guns come out clean from the bath, with no problems, 2-3 hours in the solution and the nickel is gone.

Then, I'd also recommend installing a new set of springs along with the new barrel.

And as a final step a full restoration.

The numbers and proofs do not look damaged that much, that means no buffing was done, just nickel applied.

This gun can be saved without problem. Judging from the pictures anyway.


Thanks.

the towns north of austin is fredricksburg,new branunfels, are two. many many german familes settled in texas, in the 1800's . more than you would ever suspect. But texas is a "whole nother country"

Postie,

I think the "he" referred to was the Grandpa, not the German officer! Texas stayed safe from bombing in WWII! But maybe the Germans were only weeks away from the pontoon assisted invasion... lol

Tyler, Tx. seemed like a great little locale when I was there in the mid 70's. I hope it has not changed too much or lost its shady live oaks.


Eugene,

I agree that proofs and stampings are still visible. But what's up with all the rounded edges? No snot on this weapon, cause I'd say at least this was buffed out. I'll bet you could straighten it out, though!

Oh, I wanted to add: That's not a pistol I'd be ashamed of owning or displaying and I'm sure it'll make a nice hand-me-down in your own turn. It has a neat little history behind it and I think someone does sell a wooden display stand (perhaps you could add a photo of your grandfather to it or nearby with a bit of the story behind the Luger). Thanks again for sharing the story and the pictures.