My first gun was a .410 Mosburg shotgun. I was 12 years old and my father bought it for me out of my money that I earned delivering newspaper. My father loved hunting with a passion. I got many pheasants with that gun.
In 1989, my brother called me from San Diago and told me that he had just purchased an artillery Luger. He said that it was lots of fun shooting it. Well sibbling rivalry compelled me to buy a beat up 1917 artillery for $735. I thought that it might be fun to kill tree stumps with while deer hunting.
A few months later we found out that my mother had serious terminal cancer and was not expected to live long. I temporarily closed up my business to take care of mom in her final days. But the pressure of watching my mother die was getting to me so I called the guy who sold me my Luger and asked him if there was a gun show that I could go to to relieve my tension for a day. He took me to the Ohio Gun Collectors Assn show one Saturday.
I felt like a kid in a candy shop. So many different Lugers and so many different prices. It didn't take me long to realize that not only are Luger fun to shoot, they are good investments.
All the guys that I went to the show with are collectors of army Lugers. I needed them to teach me about Lugers so I decided to start collecting artillery Lugers so that they would not get mad at me and stop teaching me about these guns. I didn't want to compete with them. Within a year I had my own C&R license and was going my own way. I was officially a Lugerhead.
After a while, my financial condition began to improve and I started collecting navies. Then the 1900's and 1906's. Then came the Krieghoffs. I eventually even aquired a DWM Borchardt. Somewhere along the way, I began improving the quality of my collection. So I have a few duplicates. I cringe at the thought of actually selling any of them.
I am still a bargain hunter, but I am glad that I started when I did because I don't think that I could accumulate what I have if I had to start over again. I pretty much like the WW1 and earlier Lugers with their cool looking strawed parts and rich bluing. I have approximately 45 or so Lugers (mostly artilleries and navies). My favorite is a chamber dated 1914 DWM artillery (I have three of them). The one that I like the most has 'trench art' grips that have one and a half inch high imperial eagles carved into each grip. I put a type 1 Trommel mag on it and an original but unmatched stock on it. Looks great. Thank you Don Hallock for selling it to me.
My big thrill now is when I take a Luger into the local police department and all the police there crowd around my newest purchase and take personal pictures of it. They feel as good about it as I do. Plus it gives me an opportunity to brag a bit. Bragging is good.
Big Norm
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