What a deal!

[nukem556]

If you act fast, you can buy a 42 Mauser , lightly buffed and badly refinished with fake strawing for only $6500.00 !!

http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/Vie...Item=409729835


It says the pistol underwent a "165 hour restoration"......I guess it could have taken that long, given the guy probably IS wearing a straitjacket.......

[Mike B]

Actually the Luger looks right to me. A 42 dated Mauser Banner should have strawed small parts. The Luger does not appear to be refinished to me. The price is not far off for a Commercial banner with two matched mags. That is a rare Luger.

Mike

[nukem556]

you might wanna look again.....clearly states its refinished, and thats not strawing, its some kind of plating , and it has obvious buffed areas

[rhinemann]

I'm inclined to think that this is a re blue too. Please look at photo 43 the boar stamp is almost half gone do to buffing. Also look at photo 34 the (y) on the frame is really rounded by buffing and not crisp as it should be in my opinion.
Regards
Jeffrey

[sheepherder]

The barrel was turned, trued and rifling pulled for accuracy.

...Uh...What???

[drbuster]

The seller clearly states that this luger is a restoration. I would quarrel with the seller's opinion that a commercial banner 1942 date, one of 5500 according to the seller, is worth $6.5K, let alone $10K.

[lugerholsterrepair]

Richard, They meant to say your leg is being pulled..

[SteveM]

There should be an "N" under that eagle...

[DavidJayUden]

I'm not feeling the love on this one either.
Question: Would it not be a red flag that there is no suffix on the magazines on a commercial model, as it would on a military gun?
dju

[nukem556]

Yeah, Rich.....that's probably the most bizarre statement in the whole weird ad.....we're to believe this "craftsman" at the mysterious "Mauser Restoration" firm took the barrel off, trued it in a lathe, and pulled a rifling button through it? See my first statement about the straitjacket

[sheepherder]

Originally Posted by nukem556

...firm took the barrel off, trued it in a lathe, and pulled a rifling button through it...

Is that a real accuracy operation??? Do gunsmiths actually do all that??? Not just to a Luger, but to any kind of handgun/rifle???

I know that rifling is not always concentric with the outer diameter, and it stands to reason that any kind of rifling operation could be off center or even result in a 'curved bore', but do people actually try to correct it as this vendor describes???

Seems like doing this would only make it oversize [bore] or out-of-spec ["trued" OD]...

[sheepherder]

I Googled 'Mauser Restorations' and the only hit was this auction...Is this supposed to be a Mauser factory restoration??? If so, why would they 'restore' the Waffenamps???

$70 for shipping??? Even for overnight, that's way over price.

An eBay vendor once told me they sometimes leave an auction active but overprice it so that no one will bid on it. Then they let the auction expire so they don't have to pay the surcharge. Then they re-list it for a fair price when the item is back in stock. I've never done it, and don't really understand it, but it's something like that...

The guy obviously put a lot of time into taking pics.

To me, some of the edges look 'melted', as overbuffing looks. Not clean & sharp like a wartime machining.

I think I'll ask about the rifling being pulled...

[alanint]

The magazines are numbered in the Police fashion. These are not as rare as two truly matched military magazines. I agree that the "straw" is some kind of nickel nitride.

[nukem556]

No...if a barrel is made correctly to begin with it is "trued" by nature of being turned on a lathe. Rifle barrels are sometimes straightened after manufacturing on a fixture but they're 18-26 inches long....nobodys going to "true" a 4in barrel. As far as the rifling, running a rifling button of the correct specs through a worn bore wont cut any metal, as theres none touching the cutter....this is total BS.

[John Sabato]

Originally Posted by nukem556

No...if a barrel is made correctly to begin with it is "trued" by nature of being turned on a lathe. Rifle barrels are sometimes straightened after manufacturing on a fixture but they're 18-26 inches long....nobodys going to "true" a 4in barrel. As far as the rifling, running a rifling button of the correct specs through a worn bore wont cut any metal, as theres none touching the cutter....this is total BS.

AMEN brother! A rifling button? run through a barrel that is already rifled?

IMNSHO What a crock!

I haven't even looked at the photos or the auction, but if that description is any measure of the item... it doesn't even sound as if it is worth my time to look at it, let alone buy it!
===============
Okay, so I went to look at it... a buffed and refinished Luger... Ho-Hum... It will make a great SHOOTER, not a collectible. Certainly not worth the asking price... $800 tops.

[sheepherder]

OK, I got a response to my question, from the seller. Here it is:

Me:

Hello! This is a very nice looking Mauser Luger! I am a bit confused, however... Is 'Mauser Restorations' the Mauser factory doing the restoration??? You state "The barrel was turned, trued and rifling pulled for accuracy." I'm not familiar with that operation - Could you explain??? Thank you for your time!

Eric [seller on GB]:

Good morning,

I actually went back to the gentleman I took this on trade from as I'm by no means a great Luger mind, below is his response.

My understanding is the company was Mauser trained in Luger restoration. They were the best and highly recommended. The finished product proved them worthy.
As for the barrel work, I was told these operations were needed to bring the pistol back to original factory spec's as it was out of shape. The re-pulling is a procedure performed on lots of high-end rifles and pistol's to re-shape the lands and clean debris from the edges. It just gives a perfect pathway for gas escape without setting up harmonics to disturb bullet performance. That generally is not something performed at the factory on any gun except for one's like the Remmy I sold you, but if you can imagine trash and particle build-up after all those years, the procedure just made perfect sense. I was having it re-done with all intentions of shooting it and from what he told me from the test bullets the pistol is amazingly accurate.

If there is any more information I can get for you let me know,

So it appears the seller is getting his information from a third party.

I am happy that the seller [Eric] answered my question.

[nukem556]

Hmmmmm....we're gonna need bigger hip-waders....it's reallllly getting deep now!

[Ron Wood]

Originally Posted by alanint

The magazines are numbered in the Police fashion. These are not as rare as two truly matched military magazines. I agree that the "straw" is some kind of nickel nitride.

I notice that it is also drilled for a sear safety but doesn't have the safety nor is the side plate cut for one.

[DavidJayUden]

Regarding the straw colors, could the parts have been bead blasted prior to heating, vs. polishing? The color looks close, just sort of frosty.
dju

[alanint]

This guy must sell used cars for a living. My BS meter always goes off when the disclaimers start:
-I'm no expert
-The guy I bought it from assures me
-Experts I've shown it to agree...

Meh!