Quote:
Originally Posted by Kyrie
Brace yourself for an old fart, back-in-the-day, pseudo-rant.
<rant>
Back when I was a young Luger collector the term "matched" or "matching" was verbal shorthand for "all factory original". That meant no replaced part - the gun was just as it initially came from the factory. If it wasn't all original it was a shooter. Part swapping to create a Luger that had the appearance of being factory original was viewed as a fraudulent action, that created a fake Luger.
The rise in part swapping to create a Luger that appears to be all original is the major reason I gave up collecting Lugers (other than "shooter" Lugers).
That "all original" extended to markings. If a Luger was unit marked it wasn't factory original and was a shooter.
Things change.
Part swapping has become a common practice. People even advertise for specific parts with specific numbers. The market demand for Lugers is orders of magnitude above what it was circa 1960, as is our general standard of living. Small wonder people pay collector grade prices for what I still regard as shooter grade Lugers.
</rant>
To each his own...
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This is all great information for a new Luger guy. Mine is a 1918 Erfurt (like parts of the OP's
) with a DWM civilian side-plate and an after-market magazine. I'm always trying to make things as original as possible, but reading what you had to say, I'm thinking that "as original as possible" is to leave it with the DWM side-plate and try to find a mag that's from a wwi-era Erfurt.
I did not realize that any mis-matched parts makes a Luger a "shooter". But I guess I'd rather have a mis-matched Luger that shoots than a collector version that doesn't.