[Luke]

Tracy -

Are the grips made of black plastic or Bakelite?

I agree with John; they appear to be too shiny for Bakelite. It is possible that they are plastic . . . . cast in molds formed by originals; in which case, if they are good repros, they would have some of the same mold details on the back that the originals have.

By the way, since this Luger does not have a suffix, the black grips could not have been original to the gun; as Mauser didn't supply black grips until late in the 1941 production run. Some collectors have proposed that many of the earlier Mausers could have been retrofit with the black Bakelite grips when the original wooden grips were damaged. Seems like a reasonable hypothesis.

Luke