Good question.
Sometimes one has to look at overall condition of that part vs. the overall condition of the rest of the gun. Is that takedown lever pristine with strong straw coloring while the rest of the gun shows more wear? Or does the bluing match?
Some parts may have a correct or incorrect WAa marking for the supposed period of mfg.
Also on side plates the later Mauser Lugers actually used the first 2 numbers, plus or minus "1" on the INSIDE of the plate, as well as the last 2 digits on the outside. Thereby making it statistically tough, if not impossible, to substitute a plate from another gun.
There may be other tricks that I have forgotten, but reasonable, detached judgement AND years of experience go a long ways in these situations.
Or you can post photos here and one of the gurus can get us back on track and keep us out of trouble...
dju
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