New here , just got my first luger
 

Went to the fun show today and found a luger that was calling my name. It's a DWM 1920 commercial all matching with a little light pitting , and a worn finish . It does have the stock lug though :) it's a 7.65mm, I've already shot it and it shoots great! Bore is very good but not excellent , has some frosting on the chamber end. Got it for 950. Can you guys tell me anything I should know ? I'm thinking of sending it to lugerman.com to restore to factory .
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Homie:
Welcome to the forum.
What I say here may upset you a bit. The Luger looks fine but the grip panels looks like replacements to me, and of course the mag. bottom is wrong. Some small parts look blued but should be strawed. The holster is cut away. But you probably knew all that.
But now getting it restored is another matter. I've used Eugene and think his work is good, it was just that he and I have different views of time. In the end you'll be without the gun for a good while and be WAY up-side-down in it once it is restored.
Looks like an honest gun as-is.
dju

It would seem to me to be a waste of money to restore a 20 Commercial. At least ,around here they are a hard sell item. Keep it like it is and shoot H out of it. You will never recover the restoration cost. You will merely have a restored luger which in my opinion will lower the value. Looks like a good honest luger as is. Bill

Thanks for the response:cheers:, yeah the grips are replacements , I went ahead and bought them at the show as the originals were cracked and missing a chunk on the left side . I'm keeping them but I figured I wanted to put some on that would be a little more functional. Not to sound dumb but what is straw? All the numbers match , do you think it's been refinished before? Just curious . It shoots great though . The only reason I was thinking of a restore would be so it holds up a little better . I don't sell guns and am not much of a collector . I'm just working on getting examples of what I feel are designs that are important to the progression of modern small arms. Not to worried about being 100 percent correct but need them all to shoot good!

Welcome to the forum.

You may want to do some searches on the forum here before you decide on having lugerman do any work.

Other guys already talked me out of it . Ill just save my pennies for a nice original one . Ill keep this like it is and shoot it. It's my first one ,ill most likely buy one more someday. Over all the fit of the parts is great . Very tight weapon , and accurate to boot . Ill go shoot it again tomorrow evening . I love this thing .

Straw is a yellowish heat treating process that should be on your trigger, safety lever, etc. Not bluing. So someone has already finished at least those small parts.
It will hold up just fine without being restored. Just keep it cleaned and lightly oiled. It is a nice shooter and we just hate to see you throw money away. For the price of a good restoration you will get pretty close to a matching war gun if you look hard. Then you can have a shooter AND a collectable.
Do your research on this site and be patient before making a restoration decision. I think that down the road you will be glad you did.
dju

Hopefully you saved the original cracked grips. If they are the ones that the gun left the factory with, it would be worth spending a little to have them restored. Hugh Clark (on this forum) does this, and his work is outstanding.

I also would not send it out for refinishing. In my opinion, it's better in it's original historic condition. I only recommend doing the grips because then all the original parts will still be there.

Marc

Yes I saved the grips , I've got them is the package the new ones came it . Update on the range report .

Took her out today after I got out of college and shot 100 rounds without a malfunction . This thing is so accurate I think I found my new bowling pin gun !

Oh and I looked for straw coloring on the small parts and found some under the crap caked on the trigger and on the safety . The other parts are to far gone to tell.

Along with the grips, one could also freshen the straw colored parts. It's easy enough to do once you become familiar enough with the pistol to be able to remove them. Then polish with 0000 steel wool/400 grit sandpaper, thoroughly de-grease with acetone, and pop into a box of sand which has brought up to proper temp. in your toaster oven. Search for the 'sticky' about this process...

Does anyone know a source for mec gar mags? I've been looking and since I only have 1 working mag I thought I'd go ahead and get 2 or 3 more . I've looked at all the online sights but can't come up with anything

Try Greg Cote LLC.....He had a new shipment of MecGar mags not long ago. A nice guy to deal with, also.