Please excuse the following as it's off topic, and long.
I bought a Swiss made Bern Luger in the mid 70's when the collecting bug had bitten me really hard. Payed way to much for it, $2,000. That was a lot of money to me in 70's but I had to have it!
The only way you could describe it, was being brand new. As I had collected military handguns for many years the idea of finding a 60 year old military issue pistol in that condition was unbeliveable!
The Luger was from the first production run at Bern. The serial number placed it in the first 30 Lugers made there in 1919. (15,216 - 15,246)
The only thing that disappointed me was that the rear sight had a "square notch" rather then the correct "v notch". I was assured by some RKI's that this wasn't unknown. Some of the Swiss Officers who bought their own pistols had this "professionally" done to improve the sight picture.
Fast forward (6) years, I had decided to sell my collection. Most of the stuff went pretty quick but I was having trouble selling the Bern Luger. A co-worker knew Mel Torme he suggested I call him "as he was interested in getting back into Lugers".
When I called Torme he invited me up to his home in the Hollywood hills.
This guy had a ego that was unbelievable, he was his own favorite subject! I was there a better part of an hour, most of it was taken up with his ex wives and how he had to sell his guns to pay for the divorce, yada! yada! yada!. He did show me some albums with fabulous gun pictures, both Lugers and Colt SAA's. Before I left he offered me $1800, which I turned down. The next time I saw my co-worker, he told me Torme had called him and he was "really pissed".
I would up selling the Bern about 6 months later to a local gun show hustler who gave me $1900 + for it. This guy had a reputation for peddling guns south of the border.
I often wondered if the Bern wound up down there?
I like to ask If any of the members have or know of a early production Bern Luger with a variant rear sight? Hope the Bern is still around and not in some coke baron's collection.
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