1940 mauser
 

I'm new to luger collecting and have a couple of questions. Mine is in the 4800 range serial number. The reciever is stamped with a "Eagle over L", the leftside of the barrel has a stick Eagle over letters or numbers, and a "X" suffex. Does this make the firearm a commercial model or a military. It came with a holster marked, "Schambach & Co, Berlin, 1940, Eagle over Swastika".

Sounds like a police Luger to me! Sear Safety?

Eagle L is a polezi proof.
Tom A.

yes, it has a sear safety. It was taken from a German solder in France in WWII.

Hi Orv,

The fact that this piece was captured in France is interesting. Since it is a polezi pistol, one may conclude that it was taken from one of the Orpo reservists who was sent to the front. Technically they were still cops, not soldiers, but they were serving in military controlled areas and conducting military operations against partisans.
Good book on the subject is Chris Browning's Ordinary Men, the story of a group of reserve policemen from Hamburg who wound up getting deeply involved in the sonderkommando operations in the east.

Tom A.