point me in the right direction!
 

hello gents,
we have some proud German heritage in the family who once served during the second great war, with quite a few heirlooms passed down on too my father, one prized possession he has desired that unfortunately wasnt passed down is as you guessed....a luger. i want to get him a genuine nazi luger for his birthday in Aug, but not sure what manufacturer produced them, what markings to look for etc. i have read to stay clear of phoenix investments, but they are about an hour drive from me and its quite tempting to make an appointment with them. any advice on where else i could find one? and what to look for in my search?
thanks gents...

There are hundreds of Lugers for sale at any given moment. Auction sites, lots of dealers, here on the forum, etc.

Realize that WWI and weimar lugers were used in WWII. So if wanting only a made for WWII, you have to decide year of Mauser or krieghoff.

Decide if shooter grade or collector grade.

Military or police

Military and police would be in 9mm

Mauser would be the manufacturer you're looking for. They can be identified with the codes of S/42, 42, byf on the middle toggle link and dated K(1934), G(1935), 1936,1937,1938,1939,1940, 41 and 42. I won't go into the Police models or the Krieghoff manufactured models.

So if it were me I would probably look for a late war Luger. There seem to be plenty of those around.

thanks, another question....why do some lugers have white stamps? is this an alteration?

the white you see is put there by owners and is usually not permanent (not counting the 'safety marking').

I would read the FAQ here, read through many posts, etc. Much depends on what you want. If you pick any Luger made before 1939 - it technically is not a WW2 model :D

And the primary weapon of WW2 germany was the P38 - the luger by then was being produced because not enough P38's could be made :)

I would recommend you do some window shopping on the Simpson website. Their prices are high retail so you could probably do better price wise buying from another collector. Go to the Mauser section to look at WW2 era Lugers. Staying away from Phoenix Investment Arms is solid advice.
http://www.simpsonltd.com/index.php?...cecc5b6281d7f0

If you are interested in a collector piece, rather than a shooter, contact site members like George Anderson, who always have nice items for sale.

Im definitely in search of collector grade, I'm not afraid to spend upwards toward 5 or 6k and I've been browsing Simpson all day the past couple days, they seem pretty straight forward

Justin, if you send me a PM with your email address I can email lists of about twenty that I have available.