My Grandfather's Luger

[apis mellifera]

Last weekend my Grandmother came to visit for my son's birthday and surprised me with this present: It belonged to my Grandfather who go it from his father-in-law. It's not in the greatest condition and is not the hot ticket for collectors, but this one will be mine for the duration.

The thing that has me concerned is several years ago I cleaned out his old ammo and brought home two boxes of old green and red boxed Remington in 30 Luger. There were empty cases with the live rounds and all the empties have a large bulge in the brass. It's almost like they were fired in a pistol with a wallowed out chamber. I thoroughly inspected the gun and aside from the worn finish and million-dollar chip, the gun is damage free.

This Luger is the only firearm Grandpa had in 30 Luger so part of me thinks the empties are from this gun. However, yesterday I fired three rounds from the same box and the empties all look normal. See picture: Outer L&R were fired yesterday. Inner two were in the box. Furthermore, I don't know how any pistol could produce such a casing and still extract it.

Anyway, I'm baffled. Has anyone seen this before or care to speculate.

Finally, all numbers match except for the hold open is one digit off. Anything could have happen since the early 20s, but is there any documented occurrence of a Luger leaving the factory this way?

I'm debating on having the chip fixed and putting the "correct" HO in, but right now, I'm leaning toward leaving it the way Grandpa left it.