my first luger(s) -- how did i do? and a dilemma!

[beetledude]

Hi There!

Just spent the last few days reading through all of the posts on this forum. To say there is a wealth of information here would be an understatement! I really enjoy the fellowship displayed on this board -- bravo!

Anyways, the luger bug recently bit me. I've been collecting war rifles for the past couple of years, and finally decided to branch into the pistols of the major powers. With that I started looking for a nice wartime luger specimen and ran across a forsale ad posted in a local forum.

We met up so that I could examine the luger. I have to admit that I really don't know much about lugers, just what I was able to absorb from reading this forum. All I really knew was to look for matching #s on the marked parts. Well, I ended up agreeing to a deal. Without further ado, here are the pics. Your opinions would be most welcome.

This was advertised as a "complete rig", which included the gun, two mags, holster, tool, and one box of ww2 era ammo.


all of the exterior parts are numbers matching (I haven't stripped it to review the interior parts, but the seller represented it as all matching).




Bore looks a little frosty, if I was brave I think shooting it a little might clean it up. I'll probably leave it as it though.


Close up of the proof marks


The included accessories
1) Two FXO marked magazines and the loading(?) tool


2) Holster marked "DLU 1942"



I like to shoot my guns, so on my rifle collection I've been getting two of each -- one to shoot, one to collect. So I was thinking about doing something similar with the luger. Well the seller must have read my mind, because he brought along two lugers. I was thinking "great", since the byf42 was a complete, matching, set that would be my collector. This other one I can use as a shooter.

So I made him an offer on both, and he accepted. This is the second one I ended up with.

A "G" Date
You can see probably the main drawback on this luger, looks like some minor rust/pitting was removed with steel wool near the toggle bolt (a little area of worn bluing)




Matching Mag:


Matching parts:


Proof marks:


Bore pic:


Well, there you have it. I ended up with two lugers in one shot


Ok here's the dilemma -- my plan was to save the black widow as a collector, and perhaps use G date as a shooter. But in talking to the FFL who did my PPT (who is very familiar with lugers), his advice is that they are both collectors, especially since G dates are a little more rare.

Does this mean now I have to go buy another one to use as a shooter?

Anyways, just wanted to introduce myself to this great board, share my new toys, and ask for your opinions for these two guns. To be honest, I really don't care too much about the value as I plan to keep these a long long time, making any price i pay today somewhat irrelevent. Still, if you have an opinon on the value, it would be fun/interesting to hear. What do you think of their condition? Do you think that one spot on the G date will signficantly detract from it's value/collectability?

Anyways, any and all comments welcome! Thanks!