BUYER BEWARE - 1906 Navy

[Big Norm]

I went to the Cabellas store in Dundee, Michigan today to get some sunglasses for a trip to northern Michigan to do some grouse hunting. While there, I went into the classic gun department to see if they had any Lugers there. I saw, in one of their glass display cases, what looked like a 1906 Navy commercial Luger. No proof marks on the right side of the receiver. It had a grip safety and looked like it had decent blueing and strawing. It was selling for $3500 plus some beer money change. Whew! Call the salesman over and take a closer look see.

While the salesman was opening up the display case, I noticed that there was a 3X5 discription card with the gun in the display case. It read that the gun came with a matching mag. Whoa! Commercial navy Lugers don't come with a matching numbered mag. (alarm bells started going off in my head) The salesman handed me the gun and I looked at the mag. A $5-10 replaced, repro wood bottom with concentric circles. Small sized serial number on bottom. No attempt by the amateur hacker to even come close to the larger sized numbers on authentic navy mags. (Oh well, look at the rest of the gun).

The gun was made to look like a 1st issue altered 1906 Navy. The thumb safety was altered but the ground off old "GESICHERT" was blued. The two C/M'S on the left side of the receiver were there but they just didn't look right. If they were right, then there should be military proof marks on the right side of the receiver. They weren't there.

My lady-friend then came over and wanted to go. So, since I had seen enough, I stopped looking at this gun. I would have loved to look at the barrels serial number and the front of the frames serial number to see if they matched or even if they were there. This was just maybe a $1,000-1500 "put-together" navy Luger that Cabelas was trying to sell as authentic w/matching mag for $3500+ and it just got me mad all the way home.

There was also a P-08 Luger there that they listed as a 'G' date, Kriegsmarine Luger and I would have loved to check that one out. I probably would have been disappointed, but my date was calling and I had to go.
Big Norm