[Guest]

At the passing of my father earlier in the year, I received a rather pitted 1918 DWM Luger with one grip missing, matching #s and no mags nor holster. serial# 7859 with some cursive letter beneath it. It has small eagle on both sides of top along with I don't know what followed by two things with crowns on top and then the eagle on the right side. The barrell has 8,82 on the underside. Does have lug on back lower portion of grip and gold color to trigger but nothing else. I think this is a shooter or restorer due to the pitting and almost no evidence of blueing. What do you guys think?

 

[Luke]

Sounds like a good job for Thor . . . . . . depending on the degree of pitting. It certainly sounds as if the gun is a keeper since it was passed down by your father. Do you know prior history? Did your father bring it back from WW-II?

Can you post pictures?

Luke

 

[Edward Tinker]

Very interesting, yes, this could be restored and sounds like it'd be a good canidate to do so! The eagles make me wonder? Can you provide pictures? If it was proofed for the nazi's it might be a police or army pistol used through the weimar period and then WW2...

Ed

 

[lugerlou]

daveys-pal

First off welcome to the forum, restoring a firearm is dependant on the amount of cash that you wish to spend.Another grip you can pick up here on the trader forum if you run an add or on ebay under ( luger).

The 8,82 on the barrel is the distance between the lands of the rifeling.

If your luger has heavy pitting it becomes expensive to restore as the pitted surfaces have to be built up and reground, depending on where the pitting is it is at times somewhat impossible to do.

The fella's that do the restoration jobs are located in the USA so you will have to contact them for final analysis.

That being said it is your decision on how you wish to preserve your fathers gift.

Given the amount of deterioration you described I would look for a replacement grip and leave as is and use the funds that you would put out for a restoration job and purchase a better condition luger if you are so inclined.

Other collectors will be able to provide the names of luger restoration experts.

 

[Guest]

My real goal is to preserve it as a working weapon. It is from the family and should stay in the family. My uncle gave it to my father when Uncle Joe was stationed in Germany during the fifties. He got lucky and didn't have to go to Korea. I realy would be most likely to regrip, buy a couple of aftermarket mags and find a good gunsmith to check it over and show me how to dismanlte, clean a reassemble.

 

[Guest]

I'll shoot some Pics of the markings and post them next week.

 

[donmaus]

If it has any markings on the front or rear grip straps, please include photos of these, as well. They will help in establishing the history of this gun. Also a photo of the cursive letter under the serial number on the front of the frame and/or barrel.

 

[taudelt]

Marty.... I think your "goal" is the right one and a good one. It is what it is and the things that have happened to it along the way are part of it's history. Find someone who knows Lugers and have him check it out. Enjoy it and pass it on. Thanks for sharing with the group.

 

[Luke]

Marty -

If you decide to shoot the gun, for those times when you take it to the range, I would suggest that you contact Tom Heller (Lugerdoc on the forum) and purchase some of the East German brown plastic grips. They are inexpensive, fit the Luger well, and feel good in the shooting hand. If you want good-looking reproduction wood grips, check out the Nil Grip web site. I don't know if they are currently selling in the U.S. Also, Tom Heller does have authentic wood grips from time to time if you want a more realistic restoral.

Luke

 

[Luke]

Also -

My thoughts: If the gun is all matching and you will be shooting it, you might consider replacing some of the more breakable parts with susbstitutes when you go to the range. That way, you can preserve the original gun and not wind up with substitute parts in your family treasure.