Unit marks

[wworker]

This Luger appears to have been unit marked at one time. Apparently, someone has removed most of the unit mark.

Question is would unit marks normally be removed if the pistol was converted to say a police issue?





Also, has anyone ever seen a stamp like this one. It looks like a crown over a B.

[Hugh]

Wworker,

From the pictures you supplied, I can surmise the following: Your gun is an Erfurt ( the Erfurt acceptance mark on parts), it has been buffed & reblued (thus the removal of the unit mark & blued rather than strawed TD lever and trigger), and the sideplate number is not original or has been restamped (it is too large to be an original stamp). The crown B is an acceptance mark.

[wworker]

Hugh, this Luger also has a sear safety, so I surmise it was reworked for the police to use it sometime after 1933.

It must have been quite a rework to go through. It makes me wonder why they didn't just issue new Lugers to the police. I guess it would be like buying a factory refurbed tool verses a more expensive new tool.

[Navy]

WWorker,

Re-furbed Army guns were issued because they were plentiful and Germany was poor.

Also, unit markings were typically Xd out rather than buffed out.

Tom A

[John Sabato]

It appears to me that the sideplate has been filed on the large flat surface to remove the existing marks, and then the stamps have been crudely replaced to make the pistol matching numbers. Notice how the lower edge is not very straight?

and the front strap has been so ground down to remove the unit marks that the grip edges extend way past the frame into the area where your fingers rest... probably not very pleasant to shoot with those grip edges against your fingers...