s/42 found, background wanted (soviet refurbs??)

[ronin]

This afternoon i found a gunshop that has 5 Lugers for sale! Four of them are 9 mil. military types and the last one is an earlier model, civilian, in far better shape, 7.65.

Price ranges start at U$D 600 for a couple of them beaten up mil. models and peak at U$D 1500 with the 1900 (??, it has the grip safety and the "other" style toggle) civilian model. The one that caught my eye is selling for U$D 800.

Let me tell you about this one, it�´s a Mauser, s/42 G model. Looks like a serious piece of military equipment in good to very good shape. The others look real bad besides the one i like, the shop owner told me that the guns had served with the russians and might sport a few extra soviet proof or inventory marks. I didn�´t handle the guns just looked at the display. Boy, did the 7.65 look elegant by comparison. There was something definitely sexy about that particular one that the others didn�´t have. Maybe it was the slimmer barrel and what remains of the strawing.

I noticed that the guns seemed to have been badly stamped or marked on the flat surface on top of the trigger. That didn�´t look right but i fear all the mil. models might have that. Could not see clearly what it was, maybe someone can tell me what it is.

The guns are sold with one (probably non matching) magazine. Viewed from the top and at an angle, i could see that a couple of numbers matched, that gives me some hope and probably also mean some more value.

I�´d like you to tell me if i should consider these guns or not and beg you share with me any particulars on the story of them. There�´s no literature available on lugers down here and since generally speaking the firearms market is so small there�´s little hope there will ever be.

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