Opinion on Rguns?
 

I'm new to the forum and discovered it while researching my first luger purchase. I'm looking for a shooter; thinking of one that's WWI era with matching numbers.

I noticed that Rguns has these for $850 hand picked.

Wondering your more experienced on whether my choice of weapon and source is a good pick or are there better alternatives?

It depends on what you want...IIRC, the RGuns Lugers are VoPo refurbs, meaning they're Russian captured Lugers refurbished by East German armorers for their own use. That's good - they should be dependable.

Flip side is that they may be mismatched numbers, may have horrible re-finish (my VoPo P38 was excellent), mix of new & original parts, and are generally considered less than collectible.

But the price is good... ;)

The opinion on this forum seems to be that they are a good buy, for shooters. Also, the 'hand picked' option may be overly optimistic...

The hand pick good end up being the best of the worst.

There has been some discussion of these recently, so I've popped in a few threads. Mostly, people seem satisfied with what they have (disclaimer, I have one of their WWI P08s which is mostly matched but with quite a lot of wear. It's a DWM frame with an Erfurt toggle). Though if mine was VoPo refurbished it sure doesn't look like it (but it's not clear exactly where all of these came form but many, including mine, seem to have the Russian capture mark). Here's a selection of a few related RGuns threads (including my own, the second link).

http://forum.lugerforum.com/showthre...ighlight=rguns

http://forum.lugerforum.com/showthre...ighlight=rguns

http://forum.lugerforum.com/showthre...ighlight=rguns

http://forum.lugerforum.com/showthre...ighlight=rguns

As I mentioned in a previous post, the import mark is extremely discreet on mine (on the right hand side under the right side of the frame just above the the trigger, you'd have to hold the gun upside down and with good light to see the marking distinctly.

I feel they're strictly shooters only but they have an interesting set of history and, to me, a pistol is worthless if I can't take it to the range so the all-matching, perfect finish isn't really my cup of tea (kind of the same rationale behind my collection of fountain pens and WWI watches, I use them). These RGuns P08s are collectable in the sense that they're Lugers but they probably won't appeal to a traditional collector and their general quality would put them in the shooter category for me. I don't see these as being 'the worst' but they're certainly not traditional 'collectable' if that matters to you or if handpick really is all that worthwhile (it wasn't to me). :)

Welcome aboard, though! :) You've come to the right place for information about Lugers, this is where I returned when I felt like purchasing a second Luger (and I read up very carefully on RGuns before I sent off my dosh to acquire this second Luger). There are also other sources, like our own WTB page. Good luck!