"What mongrel did I buy" - Auction mis-match photos

[Frank H.]

I truly am looking forward to collecting the various great reference books out there that have been recommended to me (since I'm a newbie), but my curiousity is hard to contain re: this mis-matched, mongrel shooter I bought off of GunBroker a few weeks ago...

I bought this as just a shooter, final auction price was $605. It's obviously a mis-matched, maybe an arsenal put-together Luger, I don't know if it's an East German jobbie or an actual "done for the war effort" re-work, the receiver is marked 1913 but it has a S/42 toggle...

The numbers have been force matched (toggle for sure and maybe the sideplate, and the mag bottom looks grinded down and re-numbered to match), seems more like a military armoror force numbering rather than a "forgery" force numbering since obviously it's not a collectible...

I was just curious what you folk who know more than I might have to say about this "bought as a shooter" piece, where you think it might have been, what it's story might be since it seems to have been re-worked long ago and not for current market purposes.

When I got it a few weeks ago it had crummy aftermarket grips, and I bought "also crummy aftermarket grips" on ebay that were a bit fat on the edges and around the safety but at least had some nice grain, those are the "recent version crummy grips" on it in the photos, so disregard the grips as they are "shooter grips" as were the grips that came with this gun at least at the stage that I got posession of this gun.

Other than the grips, everything else is matching or "force matched" as is shown in the photos. I welcome all comments and thoughts re: the long walk this shooter may have been through...

Thanks in advance,

Frank H. in L.A. (Click on thumbnails for a full size image).

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