My 1918 DWM
 

Nothing spectacular. Paid $500 for this puppy several months ago. All matching, no import marks, bore is ok, a little peppering inside though. Grips are repos, the originals are in bad shape. I asked the guy at the pawnshop I bought this Luger at about its history. It was sold to him by the son of an old US veteran who brought it back from Europe after WW2. The son was afraid his dad might hurt someone with it, because his mind was going. Looks like he carved the first letter of his last name with a bayonet on the right side of the frame. Maybe he won it in a card game or something. Does that little “H” make the pistol a shooter?

http://boards.rennlist.com/upload/1918Luger_Right.JPG

http://boards.rennlist.com/upload/1918Luger_Left.JPG

http://boards.rennlist.com/upload/1918Luger_Top.JPG

Heydrich,

Nice purchase, certainly well worth your investment. If it were mine I'd shoot it but then I'd shoot anything. You say the original grips are poor, perhaps Hugh could work some magic on them. KFS

Nice pics, Heydrich, looks like a prime candidate for Thor to me.
<img src="graemlins/beerchug.gif" border="0" alt="[cheers]" />

I wouldn't change a thing. It is an honest piece that looks pretty darn good and can be shot without fear of damaging a pristine example.

Here are the original grips for my Luger. When I first got the pistol, they were soaked to the bone with gun solvent and oil. They both have a little 86 stamped on the back of them. And one has what looks like two “1”s stamped on them. (Above the serial number stamp there.) Anyone know what those 1’s mean? Sorry for the poor picture quality, my scanner sucks, and converting it to a .jpg file and then loading it here makes it worse.

http://boards.rennlist.com/upload/DWM1918_Grips.jpg

Heydrich, I like it. I agree with Ron Wood, it is a nice honest piece with all matching numbers and it looks like it went through some of the war in 1918. I would put the original grips back on it. Then go out and find a mismatched shooter and have Thor reblue that one. Or Hugh can chrome it and make one of those armadillo leather holsters :-)

heinz

Those are GOOD grips! They match the gun and don't even have the "million dollar" chip out of the left grip at the safety area. Overall, that is a dandy Luger! I believe the 1's are an inspector's mark.

I agree with Ron,
I wouldn't do anything to those grips except put them back on the gun!

Leave as is!!!! If the magazine is original (matching serial number or not) then get a repro mag and use that for shooting. Just keep it clean and oiled and you will be fine. Oh! Don't put oil on the grips. At $500 you got a good deal.
Big Norm

P.S. Use the repro grips for shooting too.

From the looks of the original grips, they have been applied with boiled linseed oil. I do not see a problem with this.
Do not use gun oil or polyurithane.