New acquisition
 

This is my first Luger and I really don't know what I have here. Please help. Thanks in advance!

It looks like you have a very good looking DWM military pistol from world war 1. I want to say 1914 but the pictures of not of the best digital quality although they were in good positions. All exterior numbers seem to match. But you have other places to look to make sure it is completely matching. If it is, it is a nice looking gun with honest wear and good finish left.

Jealous
 

Beautiful Luger!:cheers:

Very Nice. Bill

Since I am not an expert by any stretch, I will have to let someone else chime in on that, BUT to me it looks like a very nice DWM.
Good choice as a first Luger I would say.

What is strange to me is the serial number. It appears to be 42 with the letter b next to it. I figured that the four number series ran out and this one is number 42 of the "b" run? Don't really know. Hoping you guys can educate me. Thanks!!

Definitely 1914 manufacturing year, and the serial number is as you suspected, #42 of the "b" manufacturing run. Very nice.

Yes, the correct legal serial number of your DWM Luger is "42b".

It's quite early in the third block of 10,000 military serialized pistols which start with "no suffix", then "a", then "b", etc...

You'll possibly find this confusing, but later during the 1930's and 1940's, "42" was one of the military concealment codes used by Mauser. For that reason, spare parts provided to the Wehrmacht by Mauser often had small "42" dies stamped into them to indicate the source of the part. This has nothing to do with the serial number of your pistol. The common way of matching fitted parts on a Luger is to use the last numeric digits of the serial number. That is why your pistol has "42" on several parts. You'll also find a large number of worker inspection die marks on interior surfaces of your pistol.

Your Luger has the "unrelieved sear" which is common for earlier military Luger pistols. The change to a relieved sear started happening in 1916.

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Welcome to the forum.

Marc