Re: 1937 S/42
Geez! I hope that we are not scaring this guy off. Maybe we are giving him too much information and we are drowning him. There has got to be a way to help someone without overfilling the bucket. I know that one of the reasons I started with imperial lugers was that the nazis di not have a chance to screw around with bluing, strawing, toggle markings, different types of magazines and so on. I had a guy who knew his lugers but he was so arrogant about it that I forced myself to read everything I could and only used him as a final second opinion. And I stuck to the imperial lugers. After eight years, I am still trying to learn more about the nazi era lugers. I am getting better a spotting redone guns but the Kreighoffs are still hard to get. There are many guys trying to monkey with the guns so that they can get a few extra dollars on a faked gun. I saw an artillery luger at the Ohio Gun Collectors show two shows ago that have naval markings on the rear strap that I immediately saw as recently etched in. The guy was asking $2000 for it because of the markings. I wanted to tell him off but didn't. But he sure acted sincere. There are also reportedly, two guys in Florida and one in Cincinnati who are faking Kreighoffs. One of the is doing a number on 1944's. I hear that he does a good job but his bluing stinks. The National Automatic Pistol Collectors Assn(NAPCA) is constantly warning their members of these cottage industry fakers. A few have recently been arrested in Frorida by the BATF for other resons but there are still a lot of them out there. I know a restorer who has a few guys coming to him to take the import markings off and to reblue the guns. The trick here is to look at the ring at the front of the barrel to see how much metal was turned off of the barrel. Compare it to a known authentic luger and you will see a big difference. But these guys are selling these guns as mint guns at big prices.
Big Norm
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