Simson "sneak" re-work?

[Don M]

Ed,

I don't know about the "Simson rework" aspect but this appears to be one of the Lugers manufactured by BKIW in 1929 just before the transfer to Mauser. Most of these with t and u suffixes went to the police as did yours. It has a sear safety and remnants of a mag safety. The front of the grip strap apparently was never marked, indicating it went to a police unit that did not mark its weapons according to Prussian regulations for the Schupo or Landj�¤gerei. It may have gone to a Kommunal- or Gemeindepolizei unit. These units, if they marked weapons at all, used a variety of formats. I suspect the 170. is the weapon number for this particular unit.

In my opinion, the "sneak" designation is a misnomer. I don't think it was an attempt to be sneaky since the IMKK had departed two years earlier than this pistol was manufactured. Some of the pistols in this serial range had DWM logos and some were blank. It is more likely that they fillled the order for police pistols with whatever components were immediately available and this included some blank toggles.