1942 Banner police
 

Saw this was for sale locally, so I went to take a look. Negotiated a price and bought it. Looks to be pretty nice. The mag matches number wise, but I don't think the letter is correct. What are the chances of that? 1 in a thousand, I guess. Crisp bore, all the other numbers match on the gun. I would think it's a relatively scarce variant, as I have't seen many for sale, and they are fairly expensive when I do see them.

That's a great looking police Luger. Congratulations.

Doesn't that magazine belong to a earlier Luger? I was under the impression that a 1942 would have a unnumbered fxo magazine.

The mag is possibly incorrect. I would have thought it would be a plastic bottom as well, but maybe not. Someone with more knowledge would have to confirm that. That's why I posted it, so I could gather opinions. As it is, I'm happy with it.

Still a great find. I'd be happy too.

I think , police 1940 magazine have the pin convex and removable , no suffix

Nice pistol, and as you say - kind of scarce.
Mag is also probably/likely incorrect and the result of someone "finding" a matching mag- but in number only, JMHO.

Really a nice looking police luger. Well done!!!

A 122 magazine with an "a" suffix would go with an early 1940 military gun. Quite possible the magazine has been sanded down and re-numbered. The "a' does look faint and the 6 looks like it has been stamped over existing scratches.
The Luger does look good!

There is a known grind profile for factory aluminum magazine bases, and it's different than that seen on your magazine.

Don't police magazines have "1" and "2" numbering instead of the sn and sn+?

I believe Mauser Police lugers can be an exception.

gunbugs,
All 1941 and most 1942 Banner Police lugers have numbered Type 3 magazines with the pinned base. Late production run 1942 Banners had Type 4 plastic base magazines like their BYF 42 Army counterparts. Most, if not all, 1942 Banners were Eagle L proofed and many of the later production run 1942s were drilled for a sear safety, but it was not installed. Yours in that regard is unusual, as it is a fairly late 1942 and has an intact sear safety.
All 1942 Police Banners were of the y suffix and there were about 5,500 made that year.
Lyn

So, from what I gather here, this particular pistol would have been issued with a plastic bottom magazine, same as a BYF Army issue of the same era.

Yes, correct.

Doug,

I would not be so sure.

If one looks at the distribution of recorded examples, one could deduce that 1942, y-suffix Banner Police guns were principally delivered with 4-mm-pol and 5-mm-pol magazines, the main difference being the occurrence of fxo and Herreswaffenamt markings on the 5. But both had aluminum bases. Sprinkled in were a few 2-cgh-pol magazines. And a few other types just to make it interesting to draw firm conclusions.

One should also remember that the Haenel factory never produced the type 6, plastic base version of the Haenel Patent design. These were produced by sub-contractors, notably two in the Suhl area, who produced the type 6 black plastic base magazines used by the military.

And, finally at this time Mauser was exiting the P.08 manufacturing business and frantically trying to produce the P.38 which had become the standard issue sidearm. Thus excess parts and inventory were flying all over the place.

John