shooting a # matching luger- collector value range

[battering ram]

I won my GB auction tonight and have a beautiful 1937 matching #'s luger coming...http://www.gunbroker.com/item/724882727

i want to shoot it maybe 1-2x a year...i want to enjoy my gun and am willing to risk its value to do so.

i want to minimize the risk to the value while shooting it....i think i should buy a firing pin and maybe a mag...looking for advice on how to minimize risk and what to buy and where?

buy a new firing pin ? (are the repro ones good?)
buy a new mag? (how can an original mag be damaged?)

where to buy parts?
what is the best book?

im extremely excited tonight....im a long time gun buyer...i own too many to count...i recently bought a Mp40 and wanted a handgun from ww2 Germany also....ive bid 15-20x on items on GB and never won..this is the first time!

[battering ram]

http://www.e-sarcoinc.com/lugerfiringpinrepro.aspx

https://www.midwayusa.com/product/13...-8-round-steel

[Edward Tinker]

Look at stickies, one says broken parts

The faq includes it

Best book for what?
Type, army, police?
Era?

.
It may be the angle but the barrel number looks odd and the matching mag, is that a double stamp?
.

[George Anderson]

Given the excellent condition of that pistol and its scarcity, I would replace the entire toggle train for shooting purposes.

[4 Scale]

All your questions can be answered in depth via the FAQ and searching the forum on the various topics involved.

The best first book recommended to me was Lugers at Random by Kenyon, and the advice was excellent. It attempts to cover the entire range of Luger history and can be found around $50 used.

Replacing the entire toggle train is also excellent advice, but those require time and patience and $250 or more to find; a significant fraction of the cost of a separate 'shooter'. IMO replacing firing pin, extractor and left grip would be the next best risk strategy to reduce risk; to eliminate breakage risk entirely (the strategy of most serious collectors) a separate shooter is preferred. The left grip can chip around the safety lever due to recoil, in my painful experience. For original parts Tom Heller and G.T. and sometimes GunBroker are most helpful. Repo parts are also available via web search.

Congratulations on your purchase and welcome to the Luger owner fraternity.

[DonVoigt]

This has been discussed many times, and there is no "correct" answer.
Chances are quite small you will break anything; but another "shooter" will assure you do not.

These choices are up to you.

[battering ram]

i bought a mec gar mag

i plan on buying a firing pin....are the repro's good? or should i find an original?

in the end i will probably just roll the dice on some of the other parts....hopefully it will be safe, but im willing to take the risk to enjoy the gun....i like to own/shoot minty guns and am good at keeping them looking minty....ive never broke a gun yet....

ill be researching more and buying that book to start with....always wanted a luger for 25 years now....ill only be buying one, so i wanted it to be a nice one

thanks for all advice and ill gladly listen to any more you have to give

[battering ram]

Originally Posted by Edward Tinker

Look at stickies, one says broken parts

The faq includes it

Best book for what?
Type, army, police?
Era?

.
It may be the angle but the barrel number looks odd and the matching mag, is that a double stamp?
.

where does it say broken parts?

what looks odd about the barrel #?

i see what your saying about the mag...i think its something youd have to examine in person

the seller is a known seller w/ a good reputation...i trusted them as part of all of this....a friend knows of them and said not to worry that they dont sell fakes or junk. He saw no issues with this gun and he owns a few of them. i also asked forum members on another post and got no negatives on this gun.

[battering ram]

ive been offered 2 original tools...not sure of values


WaA 135 from 1941 or 1942 $200 the other is a WW1 tool used by the Weimar police between the war and numbered 30 for $100.

as its not matching to the gun and i dont really need it i think ill skip it...spending too much $$

[Edward Tinker]

Originally Posted by battering ram

ive been offered 2 original tools...not sure of values


WaA 135 from 1941 or 1942 $200 the other is a WW1 tool used by the Weimar police between the war and numbered 30 for $100.

as its not matching to the gun and i dont really need it i think ill skip it...spending too much $$

A good choice is a DDR tool (east german made after the war) - any Repro tool is almost always soft and weak, I have bent them.

A DDR or even a blank DWM tool can be had for less than $50 - I have several (unsure if I have any DDR tools)

-------

ref the barrel marking, looks off to me, but must be me, everyone else seems to think it is fine.

Parts - as above - I can find Dwight Grubers parts breakage listing, but as Marc said all the info you are asking is in the FAQ (Marc, who took the old FAQ which I wrote hah hah - okay, compiled) and Marc re-did it completely. It is now an outstanding resource!

Books, there are several threads, at least one is a stickie

Basic ones, 1-Lugers at Random, old and out of date, but nice to read, 2- Datig's, 3-Jones, 4- Walters Luger book is very good, I forget which is an encyclopedia, good, but the Luger Story is just a good read.

And then any of Jan Still's books (4 or 5 of them)
Joop and Don's the Parabellum Luger

Specialty books, Simson Lugers, Police Lugers, Don maus Police unit book, krieghoff, etc

Some books are not worth the time even tho inexpensive..


Ed
.
.

[Lugerdoc]

BR, Best of luck with your onine luger purchase. If it was advertised as all ORIGINAL matching parts, I'd advise having a local collector check it out for you, as the value of a collector grade matching PO8 would be quite a bit higher than a mismatched or refinished shooter. I'd do that before risking shooting it, in case you decide to return it. If determined to be in good shooting condition, it shouldn't hurt to do so a couple of times a year. Should you find it to be a shooter, rather than collectable, you don't have to worry about matching parts and only need new replacements as any current parts break. I do have all of the original &/or repro parts mentioned above. Also have new repro (same shape as originals) mag loading tools available @$25 postpaid. TH

[battering ram]

any opinion on the Sarco reproduction firing pin? good or bad?

i go to faq and type in firing pin/ repro firing pin/ firing pin replace...nothing comes up....sorry if i dont know how to use it...ive been looking through that section to learn this morning

[DonVoigt]

Sarco pins work ok.

I can't find the broken parts survey either, but it is there, someone will find it and post a link!

[DonVoigt]

It is not rocket science, I just typed in "parts survey" and found it.

http://forum.lugerforum.com/showthre...t=parts+survey

[cirelaw]

What part is the most vulnerable to breakage in daily use? Are any DWM and Erfurt parts interchangable?

[battering ram]

after seeing the chart of parts breakage ive decided to just shoot it as is and risk it....hopefully 100 rounds a year will do nothing.....

ive got a spare mag ordered, so i can easily just swap that to shoot it....odds are after a few years it will just sit in my safe only coming out to show off......but im excited to shoot it a few times at least

planning on shooting normal 115 grain S&B....nothing powerful...

i will have my gunsmith inspect the gun to make sure its safe to shoot when it arrives....its worth $50 for 30 minutes of his time and to let him shoot it first before its in front of my face

[George Anderson]

David, where do you live?

[battering ram]

Mukwonago, WI

ill be using WI Tactical for my transfer in....their gunsmith said he would look it over for $45

should have the gun next week.....anyone in Waukesha CO, WI interested in helping a newbie look his new Luger over?

[George Anderson]

We have a member and friend in C(K)rakow(au), Wisconsin.

[mrerick]

You asked for advice, so I'll add mine.

You have bought a less common early 1937 Luger with the rust blued / strawed finish and the frame profile from before the "hump" was milled. There are fewer of these than the later ones with humped frame and salt bluing. It appears to be a matching pistol with matching magazine (even though there is a die strike bounce on the "4").

It is worth more than the $2,200 you paid for it with the holster.

Break a numbered part and value drops 35-40% or more. That is the risk you take by shooting it. Even if you can match up a part (which is difficult), it will never be historically matching again.

I personally would not take that risk. It could be less expensive to buy one that is mismatched, or that has finish conditions as a shooter and then take it and shoot it as often as you like.

At one point, tired of the question, I cynically posted in the forum that I should change my advice to encourage people to shoot them so that the rest of the matching ones would rise in value, but I got heartily criticized for that attitude, so I've changed my opinion to just discourage people from doing what you're planning.

Of course, it's yours, and your results may vary... The Mauser steel's metallurgy is the most modern of all the steel used in German military production.

The "Broken Parts Survey" starts at the bottom of page 37 of the August, 2017 version of the FAQ Document. Just search the PDF for the word "broken" and you'll find it, or click on the item in the index.