Luger S/42 1937 with PSE marked barrel
 

Dear forum members!

I was advised to ask here concerning the Luger I have. The barrel of this gun has a marking – PSE on a bottom, what does it mean? This P08 was reworked and barrel replaced? Is this possible o tell if this period done? For what PSE abbreviation stands?

More photos will be provided if needed.

Note that the barrel has no eagle proof mark.

Thanks for looking!
Alexander

http://www.photo-war.com/wa/egl01.jpg

http://www.photo-war.com/wa/egl02.jpg

http://www.photo-war.com/wa/egl03.jpg

http://www.photo-war.com/wa/egl04.jpg

http://www.photo-war.com/wa/egl05.jpg

http://www.photo-war.com/wa/egl06.jpg

I have no idea what P S E stands for, but it is definitely not the original barrel. If you remove the upper from the lower receiver, there should be a tiny line connecting the upper barrel extension to the barrel on the very bottom. We call it a witness mark and it shows original factory alignment, and I suspect that will not be correct either.
Also, I can't tell from the photos if the trigger, takedown lever and safety lever are all straw colored or blue, and also we need the full serial number and the letter following the number.
Thanks, and welcome aboard.
dju

It looks like they were not very careful with the vise -- are there marks on both sides?? :(

There are also vice "bite marks" on the upper receiver around the serial number.

Thanks to all for comments. The witness mark appears to be destoyed on a barrel, and I guess that the barrel was replaced. Small parts are not strawed but blued.

But note that this is not a single PSE barrel Luger, it has a brother! I have found this thread with description of the same mark:

http://forum.lugerforum.com/showthread.php?t=4633

The serial number with a letter photo is here ...


http://www.photo-war.com/wa/egl07.jpg

P S E was probably the importer's marking, or possibly the manufacturer of the barrel. Not an original barrel...

I have a barrel also with those letters but in a different sequence. Mine is a VOPO import 1918.

Straw small parts ended in the q block. t block should be blue small parts.

The VOPO import sounds interesting but there is no any VOPO marks on mine (from my point of view at least). Another point - the barrel has no any evidence of acceptance stamp or serial number.

What was a reason for VOPO to remove the barrel from a gun? It's interesting but barrel's end shows much wear with bluening peeled off.

There were strawed parts reported into the early "t" block.

What is interesting is it looks to not have the Mauser hump? Or are my eyes just tired?

Bob

Hard to tell from the photo, but it sure looks like there is no hump present.

My memory failed me. you're correct

Perhaps one of the Mauser historians can tell us when the "Mauser Hump" was first implemented. Unfortunately, I don't recall which year it was. It may have been in 1937 when they made the transition from strawed small parts to blued. I don't doubt that the lower half is Mauser production, but the lack of the hump on this example is a mystery to my old mind.

Frank Manders! Do you have your ears on?

For what I know there is a bit of a confusion among Mauser Lugers "with" the hump and others "without" it. I might be wrong but there is not a precise date when they started to remove the thickened back frame to make the so called hump.
For instance I've got a "K" one wihout hump, while another one dated 1938 has go it.
IMHO

I would guess that the PSE marking is the initials of the barrel installer. Too sloppy to be a VOPO barrel change. Why anyone would want to claim this work, is beyond me. TH

Hello alanint! MAny thank for the input, I took abother photo and from my point of view the hump is here. Please take a look.

Yup, that's a hump. Better pic than the one in the FAQ... :rolleyes:

Input from Frank Manders to me via PM:

The Mauser Hump occurred at about 5800s in 1937. After which all Military Mausers had the hump.

But, before that, they experimented with the hump in 1934 (K-Date). The early Lugers up to S/N 2500 mostly were humped, then mostly not humped to S/N 5500, then mostly humped until the end of 1934 production.

PSE marking mistery has been resolved. I had a talk with a vendor from whom this gun was offered to me- he has more those PSE marked re-barelled P08's and I examined them all. All guns are re-barelled and have this mark. He told he purchased this lot from Norway, all guns he has seen with PSE marks before were coming from there only. Thus I guess this code is Norwegian acceptance/proof/gunsmith mark.

Hope this hepls! Many thanks to all for great help provided!


Another one PSE marked Luger from the him.

and another one. Bought from Norway, PSE marked and re-barreled.