[John Sabato]

Hi Frankp,

Just like anything else, the â??dumbâ?? questions are the ones that don't get asked... This is a good one worth repeating for you and others.

Because of the common mistake of thinking that a Luger serial number only consists of numbers... there are folks that believe that if they display a gun in photos or in such a way that the serial number shows... or talk about it in a public place or forum or trade magazine, they have somehow compromised their claim to ownership... and may subject themselves to fraudulent claims that the gun is stolen.

For this reason, they only discuss the gun's serial number by using xx's for the last few digits. A practice that is often negated by posting un-sanitized photos such as in this case.

Some of this thinking has to do with the fact that a great many of these guns entered the USA decades ago in the hands of returning veterans and without any formal ownership documentation.

In reality, because of the way Lugers were serialized, the serial numbers repeat... and there will be many with the same serial number. What actually distinguishes one Luger from another is the small alphabetic character that is under the serial number on the front of the frame near the trigger guard, -AND- the year that it was manufactured.

The gun above is a good example... this gunâ??s serial number as determined by what is written on the photograph is that this gun was made in 1937 and the SN 36xx and the last two digits appear on multiple parts in the photo itself. So the serial number is actually 3672... but what we donâ??t know is the letter series that is an integral part of the number.

Since most military Lugers have a 4 digit serial number, and the first 9999 of a years production have no character, the second 9999 have the letter â??aâ??, and so forth until the year is over, or they reach # 9999 â??zâ??.

Armed with this information we can consult one of the published Luger references and determine that in the year 1937, it is estimated that between 120,000 and 127,000 Lugers were produced by Mauser. So the series could have repeated at least 12 times and if we had all the Lugers that were marked as made in 1937, and serial number 3672, there would be twelve of them.... the only distinguishing mark would be the letter suffix to the serial number.

So if a legitimate police report existed in the National Crime Information Center that a Luger, SN 3672 was a stolen firearm, there could be possibly 12 Lugers in the USA that would be considered stolen...

All that verbiage above was to explain why some folks are reluctant to display or make known the serial number of their Luger or other firearm.

How do you protect yourself? ALWAYS get a bill of sale that is witnessed. On the bill of sale, make sure you have the name, address, and SSN or drivers license number of the person you bought it from, and of the person who witnessed the sale. Make sure that the FULL description of the gun includes the manufacturing code (S/42 in this instance), the year of manufacture (1937), and the full serial number including the letter suffix if it has one... Also record whether or not any parts that may have been replaced do not match the serial number... If you look in the Old Ownerâ??s Corner, in the folder with my last name on it, you will see an Artillery Luger that is made up of several parts of different guns...

If you report a Luger stolen, make sure you report ALL this information to prevent 11 other Luger owners some possible grief in the future...

Now that I have explained all that, let me state that full serial number disclosure is not an issue for me since I have the documentation I have described above for my Lugers.

I trust that this explanation has been clear enough to be helpful to you, and any other new folks that may read it.