Dream come true

[mrerick]

Hi,

Welcome to the forum and congratulations on your Luger. I know that it must have been difficult to acquire one of these in Canada, and congratulate you on completing that process as well.

The Russians captured large numbers of Lugers and other German firearms at the end of WW-II. Many of these were reworked, and some refinished for use by their military and police organizations. When they went through Russian armories they got the "X" stamp. This also helped them verify when a firearm had been turned in upon capture, especially preventing it from being removed from stores and then "found" and turned in later.

As more modern firearms became available, these old Lugers went into storage. Starting in then 1950's there were several importers in the USA (and probably Canada) that worked deals with the Russians and other governments behind the Iron Curtain to buy their surplus firearms.

This is how most came to the USA.

Is your Luger import marked? This became required in the USA in 1968.

Since your Luger came from parts of several separate firearms, it's unlikely that you'll be able to trace issuance. The SoldBuch that soldiers carried listed firearms issued to them individually. I think copies of these books were kept at unit level, but no central records were maintained.

Your Krieghoff frame came from the Luftwaffe. The 1913 upper is a WW-I firearm, probably a DWM like the toggle.

The "Chinese Markings" you mentioned are the fraktur letter proof marks applied when the pistol was originally completed, inspected and proofed.

Marc