Help identifying Luger
 

Hi, i hope someone of you experts here can help me identify a Luger i found after my father died. its a 8" barrel, and i think the numbers underneath the barrel says 8.82. I'm from Finland an so my father so i think the pistol may come from the finnish army, i also found ammo, both german and finnish. I know for shure my father never used the pistol, and that he owned it for the last 50 years at least. Can someone help me out with what model it is, how old and maby a value. I understand its hard to say a value, but is it worth a couple of hundred dollars/euros or is it thousand?

You have a WW I artillary pistol. Called the LP08 The 8.82 is the inside bore diameter. I can't read them, but in your last picture should be a 4 digit number and a script letter underneath. This is the whole serial number. with that some of us can tell you momre.


FN

Hi and thanks for the reply.
The four digit number says 6156 followed by an "a" almost looks like the "alpha" sign.
Both the gun and the barrels have the same numbers.

Do what you can to stop and stabilize the active rust pitting and oxidation. A good cleaning and lubrication can be followed by using "0000" steel wool that is well oiled to carefully remove red iron oxide rust.

There should be a year stamped above the chamber on the receiver. That would be the year of manufacture. What is stamped there? Perhaps 1916?

In the USA, an LP-08 artillery Luger in original finish and 85% finish condition that is mechanically sound and functions properly would sell for at least $1,500 between collectors. More at retail sale from a shop.

Is the magazine numbered to match the gun? The serial number is on the front of the frame above the trigger guard. If matching, it increases value about 35%.

Try and get a digital camera and tripod, then take pictures in natural shaded light. Use the self timer to eliminate camera shake, and try and get sharp focus pictures, then re-post them with details of the proof marks and other stampings visible.

There were a couple of types of sights on these guns. Adjustable and non-adjustable.

Uffe,
welcome to the forum.

Your Artillery luger would be worth $1000 or more in the US. Called a Lange Pistole 08 by the Germans, or LP 08 for short. Was likely captured, or found its way to Finland in WWII.

The date of original production should be on the top of the chamber - from 1914 to 1918.

The serial number could be from 1 to 9999, does not have to be four digits. The suffix letter is part of the serial number. First block had no suffix letter, the second had an "a", the third a "b" and so on. Some high production years they reached well into the alphabet.

Hope this helps.

I can't find any production date at all. Do you have a picture showing where it should be?

Send us some photos of the area just behind and underneath the rear sight blade. I'm not seeing the cut-a-way for the rear sight, and if unmolested the date should be there too.
Welcome!

This pistol is put together. The frame and top cannon are not proofed with the Imperial proofs that should be on the right side rail and with no date..It's an Artillery barrel on what could be commercial parts although there are some exposed Military serial numbers.

I'm thinking the receiver has been "scrubbed";notice how high the bevels are, and the uneven-ness of the left side. The missing date may have been scrubbed also- why? who knows?

Uffe, Your LPO8 sights are both the fine tune (adjustable) type, although your front sight may be missing the adjusting screw, which would have 2 holes for a spanner, on the right side of front sight base. TH

First of all, thanks for all the help. I took som more photos, i hope it's the right parts as my english is not very good when it comes to specialized terms. I can not find any date of production on the pistol anywhere, it do not look like someone would have brushed it away either. Why would you even do that?
I will try to get a real digital camera but for now my pics are somewhat blurry, but on the right side of the barrel there are a small eagle? or some sign, just a couple of millimeters high. Every part is marked "56" and all the other markings is the eagle, the "dwm" on the receiver, "6156 a" on both the barrel and receiver, "8.82" on the barrel and some numbers you can barley se when you lift the rear sight. Inside the receiver i can also read something that looks like 4x2.

More

Uffe

Welcome to this Forum, it's an enviable heirloom, never mind its price, don't part from it.

It appears that the upper receiver is a replacement, with no date, markings of notch cut out for the rear sight. I'm also a bit concerned with the toggle not closing completely in the photos, leaving a slight misfit along the front of the frame.
Here is a link to an artillery model for comparison to help you understand what I am referring to:

http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/Vie...Item=531207006

You have a very nice gun, but we need to look harder at it to understand its past.
dju

uffe, Your original LPO8 barrel matches your frame, but judging from the crush marks on the left side of your receiver, I'd bet that it is a commerical replacement. TH

Not that it makes any difference unless you were planning to shoot the pistol, but it is further evidence that the pistol has been put together or at least messed with:

The slider on the adjustable rear sight has been reversed (button should be on the left side) and the slider is no longer properly connected (possibly because of the lack of cutout on the frame for the sight - if it were properly connected the rear sight may not sit far enough down).

If the slider were properly connected below the rail on the sight, you would not be able to raise the sight as high as you are raising it - 80 degrees or so from the barrel. (You would have to pull the pin at the front of the sight to reverse the slider and to get it properly connected below the rail.)

Enjoy your Artillery Luger. They are interesting pistols if you start looking up their history and reason for being. An artillery with shoulder stock and 32 round snail drum would have been one of the most formidable hand held weapons on the battlefield in WW1. With stock attached, it was almost as accurate as a rifle (good up to 500 meters at least and when fired in volleys with other LP.08s, could be effective suppression up to 800 meters). With the 32 round snail drum and the Luger's rapid rate of fire, I wouldn't want to have to face a group of enemy soldiers armed with LP.08s if all I had was a slow firing bolt action rifle.

Doug