My First Luger

[Heydrich]

Frank, Thor, Roadkill:

Thanks for the nice welcome. I can see this is a great place to learn about this type of firearm! I would never think of putting a live round in just the top detached part of the slide. (Without the bottom frame.) A 98k rifle can be fired with only the barrel/receiver and bolt assembly attached on their own. But this is highly discouraged. But thanks for the warning Thor! I’m allergic to death.

Right now, I don’t even have any 9mm ammo. I’m thinking about getting a box of standard commercial Remington 9mm. Would this be a good idea? I only have experience with firing my Model 98 rifles. To be quite honest, I’m somewhat pensive about even firing the Luger. (Since I don’t know anything about it right now.) I must sound like a pansy.

As far as the 1918 DWM, I would say it still has about 70-80 percent bluing. No real pitting or rusting. It has never been re-blued as far as I can tell. The bore is bright. I don’t know what the word “straw” means in regards to a pistol’s condition. I’ll try to take a photo of it, and digitalize it. The guy at the pawnshop who sold it to me said that it was a war trophy. That the son of an “elderly” gentleman had sold it to him. He said the son was worried about his father, since he was real old, and starting to go senile. He didn’t want his father to hurt anyone with the pistol. So he bought it from him, and then sold it to the pawnshop. Now I guess it’s mine.

I printed out the technical documents from this Web site. I got the 40-step part on how to disassemble a P 08 Luger. I also printed out the exploded view of a Luger. I still don’t know what I’m doing though. I’m going to clean the bore today. And clean the inside of the frame and handle part with Q-tips and Hoppe’s solvent like I always did with my 98k rifles.

Thanks everyone!

-Curt