1940 chrome P08 GI bring-back given to me by a lady with whom my wife works. She inherited this from her father, who brought it back from WW2. She couldn't tell me much about it, except that it had no mag (I have since bought a Mec-Gar) and that her dad didn't tell her many war stories, but that he told her it suited him just fine going ashore on D-Day wearing one of the Germans own Lugers to use against them. She said he got a big kick out of that.
1940
42 on top
ser # 27
655 grips, no orig mag
all matching numbers
Obviously it was in rough shape, and still shows the pits from the rust it had before being plated. There's deep pitting at the rest for the trigger finger.
It is all-matching numbers except of course for the missing mag. It wore walnut grips when I got it, smooth ones, that I thought were some made after the war. But after reading here, and getting out the magnifying glass (and my strongest reading glasses-HA!) I see a tiny emblem, and a 655 below it, on the back of the grips. I do not see a serial number on the back of the grips. They have almost no checkering, are very smooth, oil-soaked at the top. Also, they appear to have been painted white at one time, as there is what looks to be white paint in some of the pores of the wood. When my camera batteries are charged, I'll get more pics. I currently have some repro black plastic grips on it, as the walnut grips are a bit loose.
It has the bolt-hold-open in it. Most of the markings that should be on it are gone, like the ones on the right side of the receiver. It is smooth. The only marking on the outside is the eagle on the left side of the toggle (being in a recessed area, it escaped the buffer), the number 27, 1940, and a 42. Inside are all sorts of markings and proofs.
{I have to wonder, given the almost complete lack of any German or Nazi markings on it, if they were removed deliberately.}
It shoots very well, feeding WWB 115 gr flawlessly, both FMJ and HP. At 7 yards it put 4 bullets in a tight cloverleaf circle, with one hole being overlapped by the other 3 around it, an old metal baking sheet with the HP. I haven't had a jam in a couple hundred FMJs and a hundred or more HPs over the course of about a year.
