legend of the Black Widow

[Marvin]

I have to back Thor on this too! I do believe that Jan Still has done a LOT of research to make the statements he has made concerning when the black plastic grips were used. I have been in NAPCA for about 7 years now and I have never seen anyone take an opinion that differs from Still's. If it is a fact that the "u" block was the beginning, why is there no other source that can quantify this statement? Has Gortz, Kornmeyer, Kenyon, Walter, Jones, Etc made this statement? I go with the folks that have done the research!


Having been involved with manufacturing in one form or another for 35 years, and I can state that very few changes are made in a certain set time frame unless engineering deems there is a problem and an immediate change is necessary. Why would a plant like Mauser get grips and wait until a certain suffix block to begin using them. The statement by Still that the were used on 2% of the 1940, and 20% of the 1941 make sense since they do seem to be a limited production item.


It is my OPINION, that the plastic grips were used to supplement the wood grips, in production, when the wood grips were not available. So, if any of you have a Luger with plastic grips and the pistol is before the "u" block, made in 1940 or 1941, they could be original to the pistol. But, as a matter of fact, there is NO Luger that can claim to have the original set which was installed at the factory unless the GI, or other authority got it from the factory. Many of these plastic grips were used as replacements.


Marvin