Lessons Learned and Applied

waffen · 04-12-2007, 08:56 AM

I knew I needed more information and like thousands of others I found my way to this website. The answers were (and are) here, written by many good, experienced, and patient people who (apparently) don't mind us asking the same questions over and over and over again (well, not too much anyway!). I also lucked into one of the last copies of Third Reich Lugers available directly from author Jan C. Still, who has to be one of the nicest people on the planet. So I guess Jan is responsible for what happened next. (My wife says that "blame" isn't too strong a word! But my life was so screwed up before I e-mailed Mr. Still that he really can't be blamed for anything.) After a lot of reading and reflection I decided that my best chance of finding an affordable, functional WWII Luger in good original condition would be to search for a slightly nonmatching example of one of the most common variations. The "boosted" and/or "reblued" pistols foisted on the public as "rare & desirable originals" are usually hyped by the seller and claim to be much more than they really are. Either that or Hermann Goering owned 4.8 million SS-marked Lugers.

Although I've had a good experience with Auction Arms on the internet, I visited our one truly interesting local gun shop first. These folks have been in business at the same location for more than twenty years, have two experienced gunsmiths on the premises most days, and they deal in an eclectic array of used firearms that go all the way back to the Civil War period (and further; the oldest piece I've seen there was a wheel-lock pistol from the 16th century). All firearms are inspected by a gunsmith before they are resold, and if the piece isn't deemed safe for shooting they don't sell it at the shop. And there, as luck would have it, tucked away in a dark corner at the bottom of the "Used Hand Guns" display case was the unmistakable outline of a Luger.

It turned out to be a plain 1940 42 code; all-matching except for the locking bolt and the magazine, (even then I knew that a nickel-plated magazine with a wood bottom wasn't right for this Luger). At that point I made a serious mistake; I picked up and held a Luger for the first time. I have several hand guns that I've owned and shot regularly for years. Frankly, none of them gave me the same electric feeling as the Luger. It was as if the pistol attached itself to me as a natural extension of my right arm/hand/trigger finger. How could I possibly just put it down and walk away? Well, I managed. Barely. And a week or so and a couple of phone conversations later I returned. This time I left a good many hundreds of dollars poorer and very, very happy;

04-12-2007, 08:56 AM	#2
waffen User Join Date: Dec 2006 Posts: 14 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	I knew I needed more information and like thousands of others I found my way to this website. The answers were (and are) here, written by many good, experienced, and patient people who (apparently) don't mind us asking the same questions over and over and over again (well, not too much anyway!). I also lucked into one of the last copies of Third Reich Lugers available directly from author Jan C. Still, who has to be one of the nicest people on the planet. So I guess Jan is responsible for what happened next. (My wife says that "blame" isn't too strong a word! But my life was so screwed up before I e-mailed Mr. Still that he really can't be blamed for anything.) After a lot of reading and reflection I decided that my best chance of finding an affordable, functional WWII Luger in good original condition would be to search for a slightly nonmatching example of one of the most common variations. The "boosted" and/or "reblued" pistols foisted on the public as "rare & desirable originals" are usually hyped by the seller and claim to be much more than they really are. Either that or Hermann Goering owned 4.8 million SS-marked Lugers. Although I've had a good experience with Auction Arms on the internet, I visited our one truly interesting local gun shop first. These folks have been in business at the same location for more than twenty years, have two experienced gunsmiths on the premises most days, and they deal in an eclectic array of used firearms that go all the way back to the Civil War period (and further; the oldest piece I've seen there was a wheel-lock pistol from the 16th century). All firearms are inspected by a gunsmith before they are resold, and if the piece isn't deemed safe for shooting they don't sell it at the shop. And there, as luck would have it, tucked away in a dark corner at the bottom of the "Used Hand Guns" display case was the unmistakable outline of a Luger. It turned out to be a plain 1940 42 code; all-matching except for the locking bolt and the magazine, (even then I knew that a nickel-plated magazine with a wood bottom wasn't right for this Luger). At that point I made a serious mistake; I picked up and held a Luger for the first time. I have several hand guns that I've owned and shot regularly for years. Frankly, none of them gave me the same electric feeling as the Luger. It was as if the pistol attached itself to me as a natural extension of my right arm/hand/trigger finger. How could I possibly just put it down and walk away? Well, I managed. Barely. And a week or so and a couple of phone conversations later I returned. This time I left a good many hundreds of dollars poorer and very, very happy;