BYF 42 Shooter
 

Found this at Cabelas, was missing the sideplate. I have since fitted a sideplate and just need to go to the range to see how she shoots.

The Luger is in really good condition with strong gripstraps and all matching. Really wish the sideplate had been there but it wouldn't have been as reasonably priced.

Steve, A very handsome example! What did Cabela's get for such a fine pistol without a sideplate? Looks like you did a good job with your replacement sideplate..looks great! Let us know how she shoots!

I would like to know that too. I don't think there is a Cabela's store in my state (or my end of it) and did not know they sold used handguns... :confused:

Nice looking 42 Mauser! It looks like someone dripped orange juice on the chamber, but that's no biggie! :thumbup:

I gave them $699 for it and spent another $130 on the sideplate. Probably too much for the sideplate but I was looking for one that matched the rest of the pistol(as in finish).

$830 for a good late war shooter isn't bad at all. Enjoy!
(Did Cabella's have any 9mm ammo for sale so that you can shoot your new gun?)
dju

No 9mm at Cabelas but I have plenty stashed away for rainy days.

Steve..Good job! A very nice shooter at a very reasonable price. Good looking sideplate too..

I don't get to the range as often as I would like but finally went yesterday. The Luger was flawless, no ftf, fte, stovepipes. I was using the original m/m mag that came with it and shooting Winchester white box and S&B. My neighbors nephew especailly liked it and I was surprised at how well he shot. He now wants a Luger.

Very Nice looking BYF 42
makes you wonder what in the world happened to the original side plate.
Anyways good job.
Mike Z.

Steve

Congratulations for your beautiful P.08 and for the new sideplate.
I think you really did strike a bargain!

Many family heads removed sideplates to make the gun "safe" to be in the house. The sideplate is somewhere in the same home the pistol came from, no doubt.

Actually, there could be a very good reason for those spots. I owned a byf 41 that had a much larger area where the bluing had been removed.

I bought the gun from the vet who brought it back. It had been in his closet for at least 3 decades. He told me that when he found a dead German soldier with the P.08 in his hand, he reached for it, but his foxhole buddy jerked him back and told him the gun or the soldier might be booby-trapped. He was correct. The vet told me that he spent more than an hour defusing the trigger to the explosive so he could claim that Luger. The dead soldier's blood had dripped over the top of the gun. When he finally grabbed the gun, he shoved it in the holster and didn't look at it for days (combat kinda kept him pretty busy).

When he finally had time to look at his war trophy, the blood had removed the bluing on the top of the chamber and the toggle where it had dripped.

+1 on Alanint's explanation on the missing sideplate. My father used to do the same thing when we were small. He used to hide the sideplate. (But I still figured out where he kept it! :D I just wasn't strong enough to pull back the toggle and open the takedown lever to install it! Good thing Huh!)

An excellent score, Steve! Enjoy!

Wouldn't removing the firing pin or firing pin spring be a better choice to make it non operational? either way I think you got a great deal. I've offered amounts on the lugers at my local cabeles that some here would considered overpriced and they acted like I was lowballing them

Don't you think that the side plate is so much easy to access? After all, no going inside for it. If you will read up on it, the pattern that blood forms on the bluing is quite a bit different from water and the spots where the bluing is removed has that pattern. I have one Luger with blood spots on it. In fact, the corrosion caused by the blood was still on the gun when I got it. I didn't think of it as still having the blood contamination on it and cleaned it off. I didn't want the contamination on it. On comparing my spots to pictures of blood spots on bluing, to me there is a distinction between a water pattern and a blood pattern.
For what its worth.
thanks
Jack