Luger 1918

[Dwight Gruber]

My source for the proof mark information is “The Standard Directory of Proof Marks”, Gerhard Wirnsberger (trans. R.A. Steindler), 1978. After reading Don Voigt’s comments I went back to this source. A closer re-reading reveals certain information I missed the first time around, which substantially alters my factual commentary and conclusions. I have revised the pertinent parts of the post to reflect this.--DG

The chamber date on this pistol is 1918. The single crown/letter Imperial inspection mark (along with the associated c/RC Revisions-Commission certification) indicate that the receiver was inspected after manufacture and date stamp. The absence of any other right receiver marks reveal that the receiver was never assembled into a complete pistol, and never made it as far as being an armory spare. It simply languished as an unfinished piece.

The 42 stamped under the barrel indicates that the barrel was a Mauser-made armorer’s spare part, made after late-1939. The straight-wing eagle/63 on the barrel’s upper left is the style of WaffenAmt inspection mark in use after 1937.

The straight-wing eagle/63 on the trigger guard is mysterious. It is suggestive of a spare-part frame, but this is an unsupportable speculation. The frame has the distinct “hump” protrusion at the rear which appeared in 1937, but lacks the P08 frame panel stamp introduced in 1941.

The byf center toggle dates from 1941-1942.

The sideplate bears the Imperial inspector’s stamp from the Erfurt factory.

Mauser's production of the P08 for the Wehrmacht ended in November of 1942. There were still sufficient parts on hand to provide replacement and repair stock, and intermittently produce small contract and specialty pistol runs. The characteristics of pistols produced under these circumstances are generally recognized.

The eagle/letters which denote police acceptance are e/C, e/F, e/K, or e/L. These are found only on the right receiver, and are of a distinctly different size and style from the eagle/Letters on this pistol.

The e/Ns and e/J found here are specified by the German proof law of 1939, which became effective in 1940. These are markings stamped after power-proofing at a civilian proof house. The e/Ns are the actual nitro power proof marks, and the e/J certifies a repair after proofing. After 1939 the established German proof houses were located at Oberndorf am Neckar, Suhl, Zella-Mehlis, Fehrlach, Vienna, and Wiepert. (In accordance with known practice, the Oberndorf proofing office was probably located within the Mauser factory.)

Each proof house also applied their own particularly identifying stamps:
Oberndorf = a stag’s antler
Zella-Mehlis = a heart with a fir tree
Suhl = a (shoe?) “sole” with a pick-axe
Ferlach = the coat-of-arms of Carinthia
Vienna = the coat of arms of Vienna
Wiepert = a falling fir tree within an escutcheon, below two iron clubs
Without the inclusion of the appropriate identifier, it is not possible to know which specific proof house proofed this pistol.

At the war’s end in 1945 the manufacture and use of firearms in Germany was forbidden. After 1948 shotgun manufacture was begun in Suhl, proofed with only the Suhl identifying stamp; the characteristic East German proof stamping at Suhl began in 1950.

In 1952 limited firearms production began in West Germany, under the 1939 proofing regulations, but with a different style of eagle stamp.

In conclusion, it does seem that this pistol was assembled from predominately spare or unused parts by some independent gunsmith (and numbered as a singular pistol), between 1941-1945 (highly likely after 1942), for commercial sale in Germany, or in one of the other countries in Europe which shared reciprocity with Germany’s proof law.

If this was, indeed, a post-war assembly intended for a U.S. GI, it would assuredly not have any sort of German proofs as there was no government to proof them.

--Dwight