German luger

[4v50 Gary]

The 9212 on the magazine base plate indicates that the magazine has been matched and issued with that P-08. It has nothing to do with the year of manufacture. Congratulations.

 

[Jim K]

Well it was matched to that pistol, but not from the factory. I agree with those who say it is a postwar marking, but that conflicts with the "brought it back from the war" family legend. FWIW, the German armorers did cannibalize pistols and also replaced/mixed both magazines and other parts but rarely bothered to renumber them.

Jim

 

[paradox998]

The luger may have been rebarreled. Usually the original barrels show a "halo" on the serial number. They were blued first and then the serial stamped. This caused the metal to "stretch" and the bluing is often lighter around the numbers. I don't see any halo in your picture of the barrel serial. Also, the numbers on the barrel look sharper than the ones on the frame. Might have been an East German rework.

 

[David Peterson]

Paradox - interesting observation. I'll take a closer look.

Whether the family history of this gun is correct or not, my father did remember that my grandfather gave it to him as a curiosity in '46 (it was a different age when a 15 year old was given a 9mm as something to play with. He didn't get any bullets with it, he told me). Whether or not it came from a returning G.I., I don't know.

Was there a brisk market for all things German immediately after the war? One can only imagine the millions of items that would have been there to take as artifacts or souvenirs - or to sell as such. And were the E. Germans reworking weapons for their own use or as artifacts to sell?

 

[Jim K]

In 1946, Lugers were selling for all of $10; P.38's were $5. Even allowing for inflation that was not a lot of money, so giving a kid one as a toy is not as screwy as it seems today.

At that time, all of Germany was smashed flat; there were no guns being made except a few for the occupying armies (mainly Americans - the British even then had rigid anti-gun laws).

Jim

 

[MCMXIautomatic]

I have an old 7.65mm Luger that has been in my family since the 1920s. The first time I fired it was back in about 2005. Before that, the pistol hadn't been fired since the 1950s, and had been tucked away in my dad's bedroom closet for years and years. When we took it out and shot it, I had no problems with it, except that I was limpwristing and we found out that this was what was causing the pistol to jam. Other than that, there was nothing wrong with it at all.

You should not have any problems if you decide to fire yours again.

 

[Jim K]

To the question of "why" on renumbering parts and magazines, the answer is simple. It was done by or at the request of importers, so that the guns could be sold to suck... , er, I mean aspiring collectors, as having "all matching numbers".

Jim

 

[bigmouth]

I'm really an old timer who started collecting in he 50's. You could pick up Lugers for often $10-25 but for a 12-15yr old that was a lot. As yrs passed,I've seen many & owned many with orig. holsters. The Luger holster always had the crecent cut in the mag. pouch to fit the finger shaped plug on the Lugar mags. P-38 holsters did not. I'm going by memory but that's a firm memory. Hey, senility has it's advantages, - I just can't remember what they are.

Pessimist: Optomist with experience.