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Unread 10-02-2003, 02:49 AM   #13
Dwight Gruber
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Kris,

From the photo it is difficult to tell about the witness mark. It appears that it is aligned, but I cannot tell if it is a single strike or two. A larger view of just this area would prove useful.

The barrel serial# and the barrel gage (the 8,82 = groove diameter of the barrel) have what is called "halo", an indicator that the stampings were done after the barrel was blued and characteristic of Lugers with their original finish. You can probably find out quite a bit about halo if you do a search on the term.

The other stamps, particularly the capital letters, are workers' stamps. It is not entirely clear what they signify, probably a "sign-off" in some manner on the work. The regulations for marking P-08s permit these stamps, but do not assign a meaning to them. A study of these stamps was begun several years ago, but I am not aware of any published conclusions.

It looks like your gun is a 196-dated S/42? Are the small parts--trigger, safety lever, magazine button, ejector--actually strawed, yellow-colored? Is the magazine body nickel-plated or blued? It would be nice to see larger views of the entire gun--from what you have posted here, it looks like a pretty fine example.

--Dwight
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