Mauser banner 42 date
 

I have had this beautiful Luger in my safe for quite some time. I have always admired the absolute mint condition of this pistol. Only recently have I been able to track down the history of this Luger. On pages 330-333 of the excellent book "THE MAUSER PARABELLUL 1930-1946" by Don R. Hallock and Joop van de Kant, the authors give a complete description of this model. Mauser used military dated (42) receivers and "PO8" marked frames. This particular Luger appears to have been fired very little and given the upmost in care in handling and storage. There are no proof marks anywhere on the Luger. I am quite sure it was late war commerical manufacturer. The barrel in marked only with a gauge marking; no serial. All the parts are matched. It appears to be rust blued with straw colored small parts. The barrel, however appears to be salt blued. Your comments are welcome,

Mike

Mike, I have another that was in an earlier "g" block that is like this.

Mine was refinished at some point, and is all salt blued. It also has military acceptance markings on the receiver. It's possible that, at the end of Luger production, they were going back and using available banner marked toggles.

Your's is in a recognized block that had some of these recorded. My "g" block banner may have been made up post war for commercial (G.I.?) sale, and uniformly blued to improve it's appearance at that time. It is in pristine / new condition.

http://forum.lugerforum.com/showthre...ilitary+banner

Marc

Wow! That's a beauty.

Surely people more expert that me will give a better explanation.
It's quite a beautiful Luger, made by Mauser, fitting also military parts, still with the Mauser hump, for the commercial market at the end of WWII.
My 2 cents.

Sergio

Looks like a very nice 1942 Commercial Banner. This variation had the straw parts and un-numbered extractor. Are the holdopen and firing pin un-numbered also?

Hi Tom,
Correct, the firing pin and holdopen are not numbered. However, the rear toggle pin is numbered, which I thought might not be as other commercial Lugers are not numbered. Many thanks to you and others for the kind words,

Mike