This is a fine line of how original something is. I have seen lugers and other guns used in war that looked brand new, while I have seen others very beat up. It depends on how the gun was stored, both during and especially after the war.
In the US Army I was told and sincerlly believe, more guns are worn out by over cleaning than shooting them.
A friend of mine bought an artillery luger (originally made for WW1 and believed to have come back then), it sat in the basement in a trunk for 50-60 years, it is in really nice shape, but very "dried" out. I have also seen examples that were in a attic, hot as heck all summer, cold in the winter and the finnish on them was horrible, all dried wood, holster and the metal gets weird, ruins the finnish.
Being stored for 50 years in a holster can ruin a gun, as the holster can hold mositure, yet I have seen lugers kept in a holster since after the war that look pristine. I am sure it depends on the weather in your area (hot and dry or moist and wet), where stored, how stored, how put away (freshly oiled and then put away, or blood or slightly damp when put away.
It all depends.
AND, it depends on where it came from. Sometimes we hear of a luger that the owner swears came off of a soldier nickled (this was common after the war to have them nickled or chromed, by the US GI), this never happened, but the GI or family will insist on it. It simply did not come that way from a German soldier.
Or they insist it came from WW2, is a bring back, yet it has much newer import marking. Yes, the GI may have had one in WW2, but maybe he sold it and bought a new one. The family wants to beleive it is a WW2 bring back, and sometimes it simply isn't.
After 50-60 years, stories get switched, changed and not remembered right, or embellished...
Ed
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