A long time ago I bought a 1936 and a 1937 HK. I was real proud to own two of these prizes even though I didn't really know a whole heck of a lot about them. At that time of my Luger collecting was growing, I was only interested in artillery Lugers and had not yet started my Navy Luger rampage. I eventually took my prizes to Doug Smith of FGS to have them verified and to brag a whole heck of a lot. He took (in my opinion) an extremely casual look at them and decreed that they were restored and maybe even faked. My heart sank, beyond past the ground level. To say that I got defensive would be an understatement. But I put the HK's into my drawer and proceeded to start accumulating navy Lugers.
Eventually, I recently bought a 'minty' P-code Luger that I was informed was authentic by an experienced seller whom I sorta trusted. Well 'minty' Lugers of any kind scare the dickens out of me. I usually want to see some character in my Lugers, which means that I want to see some normal, but light, wear after about 90 plus years of service. I have recently discovered that a gentleman that I knew had a great deal of experience with Lugers and so I asked him to look at my 1936 and 1937 and to give me an opinion. Because of my personal increased experiences in recent years with Lugers, in general, this also offered me an opportunity to re-examine these HK's since they had sat in my drawer for a number of years collecting antiquity (and moola value, I might add).
Well, I saw that all the proof marks and serial numbers had nice plumes around the edges. Appropriate markings stategically and appropriately placed serial numbers. And I was convinced that Doug Smith was dead, lower frontal extremity, wrong. But my insecurity about HK's told me to use my recently acquired source of a second opinion to secure my belief (or hopes, as it where) that my HK's were sound collectors pieces and that I would, in later years, be able to rip newbees off for humongous amounts of cash money and be able to afford to live in Pete Ebbinks neigborhood.
My expert informant poured himself a cup of coffee, put his feet on a table, picked his nose and adjusted his jewelers monocular microscope (he has one eye anyway) and carefully examined my prizes. I also poured myself a cup of coffee and co-mingled a few fresh finger nails clipping with the coffee in my mouth while I faked looking as calm as I could (it wasn't my house, so I couldn't put my feet on a table).
Well, he decreed that my 1936 was authentic and that the only thing that bothered him was that it looked too good. W-E-E-E-L-L, the coffee went down the sink and the Chivas Regal came out of my duffle bag. Halla Luya! Years of self doubt, insecurity and second quessing kinda evaporated
Now the 1937's turn to be examined. (OH! OH!) He's been examining the gun too long. The side plate comes off. Some rubbing around the frame edges. Shortly, he put the gun down an gave me that disgusted look. (Gulp, gulp, so much for that glass of Chivas Regal.). He said that the gun was messed with. The gun has a visible two digit serial number on the Thumb Safety Lever and on the Sear Bar Safety Lever. He said that the military HK's had the two digit serial number on the reverse side and he showed me my 1936 HK and that the two digit serial number on it were not visible. (I slowly added a pinch of more Chivas Regal to my glass...well, not really so slowly and my pinches are rather large). But, he said that the rest of the gun looked pretty good. Good plume around the edges of the proof marks, the serial numbers and everything else was where they was supposed to be. Again, like my 1936, it almost looked too good. Well, I slowly put my Chivas Regal back in my duffle bag and went home. While one of my HK's was good, the other wasn't. I was really feeling down. The gold metal was snatched from me and all I got is this silver thingy on a t-shirt. (Who remembers the second place finishers?)
I got home and poured a few more thingys of my Chivas Regal. I was in no condition to study my stocks on the stock market for last week out of Barrons magazine and I really didn't want to even turn on my computer. (I'm not driving any more tonight, so everything is OK.). So I picked up my Gibsons book 'The Krieghoff' and started just casually thumbing through it after I threw it against a wall. I somehow got to page 104 where the author talked about proof markings. (Whoa there Nellie!!!! The book says something else.). On the Sear Bar Safety Lever, this component is NOT numbered below 6,000 in the range. My serial number is 7617. (AH-H-H!! I'm gold! Here's your silver t-shirt back!). Where is my Red Wing, five gallon jug of Chivas Regal?
One more thing to check, the Thumb Safety Lever. Oh,oh! Confusion reigns its ugly head again. (Where is my jug of Chivas Regal?)
The book says: "This part is un-numbered except for a few scattered examples in the 8,000 to 11,000 segment of the range.".
Well, I am pretty #?&# close to the lower end of this spectrum. (My emotionals are beginning to feel like a yoyo.). Is the authors vulgar extremities wrong? Were the BB's from his shotgun opinion aimed a triful bit high or am I just wishful thinking? So I submit this question to the people on this forum, whose monster intelligence is slightly better than mine. Its 4AM and I am going to bed while you all contemplate an answer to my query on this non fiction novel that I have written. ("you all", that is in case southern boys John Sabato (Va) or TomA (Ga) contemplate commenting). But first, I will put my feet on my desk (I m home now) and finish my humongous glass of adult something or other (waste not, want not... besides, its good stuff) before going haha.
Big Norm
