VOPO Luger frame

[SteveM]

Not sure about the frame but the barrel appears to be made by steyr, E/623.

[tain669]

I'm new to the subject of VOPO Lugers .Could you give mesome morei info on this ?

[OD#3]

I'm new to the subject of VOPO Lugers .Could you give mesome morei info on this ?

Well, if you peruse this forum much, you'll see many posts about them. But in a nutshell, the DDR (East Germany) used (among other weapons) Lugers captured by the Soviet Union to arm their police forces after WWII. These pistols are refered to as "VOPO" Lugers, because "VOPO" is an acronym for "volkspolezei" (people's police). About the only thing definitive about VOPO Lugers is that there is little definitive about them. Most of them were extensively rebuilt and "force matched" using parts from one pistol to rebuild another. It is common to see mismatched parts that have had their original numbers "Xed" out and replaced with other numbers, either stamped or electropenciled. Most have had their barrels replaced, and most have been refinished--often many times, often with little attempt to remove pitting. And they usually bear mottled composite grips that look like a kind of bakelite made up of resins, plastics, and fabric adorned with a "bullseye" logo.

Most people consider these "shooter" lugers, and their price reflects this. I've read and heard that there is growing collector interest in these, but I think it would be a difficult niche to become an expert in. They are a crapshoot of too many variations and combinations, and would therefore be difficult to authenticate as being in their "original as-issued to the DDR" condition. But I have seen a few that were evidently in excellent condition as received by the DDR and therefore retained all their original parts; I would imagine that these would be much more valuable than the average VOPO. I suppose condition is everything with these.

I posted this same inquiry on other forums, and I've managed to learn that my frame is a DWM--probably 1917--and that what looked like a partially-obliterated serial number suffix is actually probably an "f". The barrel is Steyr (thanks SteveM!); I don't know how rare that is among VOPO's. The importer is E. C. C. S. A. PENNSAUKEN N J. This is supposedly the import mark of the Crossroad Gun Shop of Pennsauken, New Jersey which, interestingly, initiated a lawsuit against the U.S. Customs Service in 1987 when Customs seized 1,000 Lugers that Crossroad was trying to import. Customs suspected that the Lugers had come from East Germany which would have been in violation of U.S. Law at the time (it would have been illegal to import firearms from Eastern Bloc countries) These pistols were suspect because the shipping labels had been torn off the individual boxes, but enough of the label remained on some of them for Customs to see the name of an East German shipping airline. The importer maintained that the Lugers had come from Great Britian via Austria, and that the Austrian company denied getting the pistols from East Germany; they claimed that the pistols had just been placed in some old boxes they had. I don't know how the lawsuit was settled; ironically, U.S. Customs was correct in their suspicions. But I suspect that Crossroad eventually got their 1,000 Lugers and that mine may be one of them. I'm still researching to find out how many Lugers Crossroad imported.

I value the VOPO's for what they represent--pieces of Cold War history and wartime Lugers that "soldiered on" decades after most of the nicer pieces in people's collections became safe queens--even if most of them were mixmasters. They are also reported to be good shooters due to their receiving relatively recent attention by qualified armorers sometimes well into the 1970's and possibly beyond. I have yet to fire mine to see if it is among the good shooters, but I'll be sure to post something about it when I do.