Luger from WW1 with mags holster lanyard and story of how it got to Canada.

MA get me some G D MEATLOAF!

This is a little off topic (lol) but speaking of shermans in the 60s... I once had a MCpl ask a group of us pte/cpl types on the Carl G range.. "what kind of tank was that, do you think?" And as I looked out across the field, at the smoldering unmistakable long flat sided wrecks of several centurions... he said they were Shermans.

So it takes all kinds in this world!
 
man oh man that is a sweet luger and accessories

I'd still love to research into how it got to Canada and the fact it has a Manitoba connection is even cooler
 
@ TWOSTEAM:

Thanks for helping out, Janice! I have tried and tried, but Photobucket does NOT like my computer. It's just as if it were Magick, except that my Spell-check program doesn't even help!

As to the Lugers, guys, I bought my first one, the battered 1918, from a local RCMP Officer while I was still in high-school, so I have had it 50 years now. Took 10 minutes to register and I carried it home in my pocket. Paid $20 for it, which was most of a week's pay, then another $17.50 to replace the parts which were missing (it had been strippd). My Dad found out about it and blew his top completely, screamed at me, "This is your Mother said you could have this. She'd let you have a g*d-damned German MACHINE-GUN if you wanted one!" And he stomped out, but left the gun; Dad had a lot of respect for personal private property. About a month later, Dad did another inspection on my room and discovered a round black thing looking at him from about 27 inches off the floor. He picked it up as if it were a dead rat and said, "Allright, what's THIS?" and I had to answer honestly, "Uh, that's a German machine-gun, Dad." (It belonged to one of HIS friends, had been given to me to discover why it didn't want to work. Kinked mainspring housing on an MP-40 will do it every time.) Dad looked at the MP and asked, "How does it work?".... to which I replied, "Real good!" Couple of nights after that, he told me to bring him the Luger and show him how to strip it.... so I did. He asked why the trigger was so damned hard to pull (it was about 35 pounds) and I said that I didn't know and that gunsmiths didn't like working on them because they were too finely made. So Dad analysed how the trigger mech worked, got out his snips, tiny files, little bar of tin solder and a little piece of hard copper plate and got to work. I watched as he built up the hand on the bell-crank lever which actually pushes the Sear. Just once, almost under his breath, I heard him mutter something. It was "Christ, this thing's crude!" and right then was when I began understanding what being an Air Force INSTRUMENT MAKER was all about! He slapped the Luger back together and it works beautifully, proper 2-stage trigger pull and all, just like it was 1918 all over again. I have fired any number of rounds through it in the past 50 years and it always works fine..... and it still has that tiny copper plate on the bell-crank hand. Thanks, Dad!

The holster it lives in is marked inside as the property of Wilhelm Hartmann, who was a Captain in the Imperial German Army. Funny story there; I was going out with a girl named Hartmann at the time and she told me that her Grandpa was in an Army at one time, so I asked which one. She didn't know. And she didn't think her Grandfather had an accent - he just talked like her Grandpa. MY Grandfather didn't have an accent, either - but he talked exactly like half the County of Kent! Her "Grandpa Bill" had moved into a smaller apartment recently and had got rid of some of his old junk...... and I had bought his holster for 75 cents in a Vancouver second-hand shop! So my first Luger lives in Captain Hartmann's holster to this day.

The 1916 turned up at Sidney I. Robinson for $200, 18 or 19 years ago. I bought it and went through a month of Gummint BS before I could go back and pick it up (It's only a 600-klick round trip, you know!). When I picked it up, the counter guy said, "Just a minute; there's a holster for it and some ammo." So I waited and along came that gun's original holster, WITH a spare WWI mag AND a little cloth bag containing a mixture of Sten Gun rounds, black-ball MP-40 stuff...... and Fiocchi-made Model 38 rounds for the Beretta SMG, so we have an idea where it has been. Interesting thing is that, despite the brand-new condition, this gun is NOT matching. The entire upper has been changed as an assembly, and this was done when the gun was NEW. I have a whole Raisin Pie that says that this was done in the Army in 1916, when two good friends sat down and cleaned their guns together..... and traded uppers as a gesture of friendship. Sounds romantic? Yes. But gestures such as that, however romantic and silly to us today, would have made perfect sense in the Germany of the Kaiserzeit. So I have what is likely the PRETTIEST mismatch in existence! This is the one I took to the shoot here.... for anyone to try a Luger.

The 1938 was purchased at the closing-out auction of a Brandon gun shop. I live 3 houses from the RCMP station, so I thought that I could buy the thing and shoot a match with it in 3 weeks' time. Hah! Getting this one registered took FOUR YEARS AND EIGHT MONTHS and cost me more in storage than I paid for the damned gun! It is a mismatched Mauser, as anyone can see, and it has the crossed-Moisins stamping which indicates that it was captured and re-issued by the Russians. It has been shot a LOT; the rifling is very weak and it was fouled terribly. Every time it is cleaned, out comes another layer of fouling. Who knows? There MIGHT even be a half-decent bore in there! Time will tell.

The P-38 is a local Vet bring-back from the Second War.

Talk about war crimes all you like, but the one thing I will NOT forgive the Nazis for is taking the Luger out of production! The P-38 is very slick and very modern (this one is a 1944 V-block Mauser) and it works flawlessly.... but it does not have that indefinable ELEGANCE of Georg Luger's creation.

So that's my Lugers.

Enjoy!
 
DDORGAN's snail drum was made by Bing of Nurnburg, a manufacturer of metal toys.

They also turned out the snail drums for the Lugers and for the MP-18I, as well as being one of the 2 contractors for the 25-round Mauser rifle magazines.

And here we have a very nice example of one of their finer "toys"!

(Oh, what I wouldn't give to have one of those to play with!)









Under a green cloud of pure Envy, Smellie retreats again in the direction of the fabled Sock Closet!
 
He's had a tough time of it lately fellas, First Buffdog spoils his 1908 Brazilian Mouser- now this.
Have a heart guys.
janice

Ein gutes mauser!
 
ddorgan said:
Well maybe I'll have to bring it over to your place so we can play!!!
Click to expand...

You do that and you had better be prepared to fight SMELLIE for it, two falls out of three. You might even bring your friend. In fact, have him bring 3 or 4 of his friends --you will need them.

Just a bit of advice here --- wear a helmet, and watch out for your throat! .Laugh2
 
Fantastic Lugers guys!! I am truly jealous i can't own on in in unaltered condition, maybe after i get off my mauser high, Ill find a restricted s/42......
 
CanadianAR said:
Fantastic Lugers guys!! I am truly jealous i can't own on in in unaltered condition, maybe after i get off my mauser high, Ill find a restricted s/42......
Click to expand...

I'm very blessed, I can't own a Luger but I can shoot one!!

Thankyou Smellie!!

In fact the first handgun I ever fired was indeed the same Luger!!

It's good to have friends!!
 
Three Lugers that I consider myself very lucky to own.
The 1937 dated Mauser S/42 I got from the vet that picked it up in Dunkirk on May 10th 1944 just after the German surrender.



1938 dated Mauser S/42.





Matching magazines for both pistols.



1917 dated DWM Artillery Luger with unit markings with a Type one AEG snail drum magazine and Bing mag loader.



The unit marking.

122.R.4.6.: 122. FÜSILIER-REGIMENT (4. WURTTEMBERG), 4. KOMPAGNIE, WAFFEN NR. 6.
Wurttemberg represented 4 percent of the national contingent in the German Army during World War I.



One of the very unusual aspects of this Artillery rig is that the stock iron shows the same unit marking as seen on the pistol...same font.....but the serial number on the stock iron does not match the serial number on the pistol. Most puzzling?

Jan Still the Luger Guru who writes the books made this comment back in 2004 when I got this Artillery Luger.

“A possible explanation is that the stock and iron were battlefield pick ups that were pressed into service with this Luger”.

Jan presented this Artillery rig on his Luger Forum back in 2004 when I did not know how to do it or how to post photos.
He was a great help back then.





Faint Imperial Crown over S marking on the stock.





Matching magazine.





AEG manufactured TM08 with Bing magazine loader.





Imperial inspection marking on this AEG Type One snail drum magazine.




Markings on the Bing magazine loader.






The 1937 and 1938 code S/42 Mauser P.08s with holsters and belts.



NOTE;

It is interesting that the registration certificate from the CFC does not include the suffix letter that is
part of the serial number on some of these German guns.

As an example the letter "i" on the Luger shown below.
I spoke to a lady at CFC about this ...and I hit a blank.



I am not sure that this is a big deal but it is not correct.
You could have the same S/N with a different suffix letter.
Their system is not set up to deal with this.
They can't do it.



David
 
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I assume the "GERMANY" on the snail mag indicates that it was supplied to some other country or sold commercially post-WWI?
 
RRCo.

See below...I can only assume that this snail drum magazine was imported into the U.S. sometime after 1968.
I got it in Montreal.

The laws regarding Import marks have been around for many decades. Prior to 1968 many hundreds of thousands if not millions of firearms were imported into the US without any additional markings other than what they were originally manufactured with.

In the 1950's US firearms manufacturers lobbied congress and won an import ban on importation of firearms which had previously been shipped overseas as military aid. The reason for this law was US manufacturers could not compete with the prices of surplus firearms coming in from overseas.

In 1968 requirements were added to require the country of origin to be added to firearms coming from overseas. That's why on many German guns you see "Germany" stamped into the receiver. If you find a firearm bearing the singular stamp for its country of manufacture it's a dead giveaway that it was imported after 1968 and before 1986.

David
 
Very nice David!! I talked to a very nice and very knoligeble man from Montreal yesterday that ownes Luger collector.
A great guy who helped me out with alot of the questions I had. If you want to sell or buy a luger that is a guy that seems very fair and honest.
Thanks Peter.
 
Quote : "It is interesting that the registration certificate from the CFC does not include the suffix letter that is
part of the serial number on some of these German guns."
!

That is Correct1 I know of one incident where the Police, acting on information that a German handgun was a stolen item, clamped a legitimate gun owner into the cells because they were ignorant of the numbering system where the letter is also part of the serial number. The numbers matched but he had one hell of a time trying to convince them that the suffix letter was different.
 
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