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Found 2 papered Lugers.... Which one should I buy?


WWIIBuff1945
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Well, I sold a bring back rifle and will use the money towards another bring back pistol. Top of my list has always been a Luger and now I found two but can’t decide which one to buy. They are both interesting. The first one was bought back by a Staff sergeant from the Pacific Theater. The paper lists him as being in Okinawa in December of 45. The luger is a 1917 police rework. Its mostly matching including the magazine. It has 75% finish -10% straw. Its been in the shops inventory for 18 months and list price is $1750. I think they will take a reduced offer.

 

Second Luger is a matching S/42 1940 dated gun with 95% finish. Its only been in the shop for a month and they recently reduced the price from $2150 to $2000. It has the standard bring back capture form but the signing officer is from the 1051 Engineer Port and Repair Group. This was a small organization of Engineers which I feel brings more value (at least to me).

I don’t usually worry about the condition of capture papered guns but in this case I think the better the condition the greater worth. Opinions please?? I'm only going to buy one papered Luger so I want to make the best choice! Any Luger collectors that can give some advice?

 

post-158759-0-16930800-1542652485.jpg

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Definitely the S/42

But let them know the grips are not correct.

Does it have a holster? Does the mag match?

In the condition shown, I believe it to be a 950-1050 piece and that may be high.

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That was quick thanks Ronald. I'm leaning towards the S/42. I thought all Lugers had wood grips. Maybe for WWII they changed it to plastic? The 42's are plastic.

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Definitely the S/42

But let them know the grips are not correct.

Does it have a holster? Does the mag match?

In the condition shown, I believe it to be a 950-1050 piece and that may be high.

 

Thanks Ronald. There is no holster and the mag matches. So the grips have been switched then? Why would the vet do that?? They should be wood then??

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I'd say the S/42 as well. Condition, and the other one being a police re-issue (and a Pacific vet?) make it somewhat less interesting.

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Found this online, "During 1940-42 production the Mauser sub-contractor making the grips for the Lugers apparently ran short of logs and was slow to supply Mauser with grips, To compensate for this shortage, Mauser purchased some brown plastic grips that were comparable to the grips used on the early 1940 Krieghoff Lugers. I would suggest that less than 2% of the total 1940-42 code Luger production had brown plastic grips. Like the black plastic grips, these brown plastic grips were not numbered. A pistol with these brown plastic grips would certainly enhance any Luger collection." May be one of the rare variants!

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I would say the S/42 has more going for it being better condition wise and not a rework. I am intreged by the other pistol however, being brought back by a Pacific War vet could be an intresting story behind it and I find it hard to beleive that there would be many Lugers coming back from that theator.

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I would say the S/42 has more going for it being better condition wise and not a rework. I am intreged by the other pistol however, being brought back by a Pacific War vet could be an intresting story behind it and I find it hard to beleive that there would be many Lugers coming back from that theator.

 

I agree and I am also curious about a Luger in the P.T.O. I'm sure it happened. The bring back rifle that I recently sold was taken by an officer on the USS Quincy. A ship that was in Normandy and the Pacific. There are documented cases of Lugers being capture in Nam. So its not situation that would never of happened.

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I am no expert:) but never saw an S/42 that had the plastic grips. According the research, it appears possible. Since they are not numbered in anyway, it might be impossible to say either way. That said, I still vote the S/42.

 

 

Found this online, "During 1940-42 production the Mauser sub-contractor making the grips for the Lugers apparently ran short of logs and was slow to supply Mauser with grips, To compensate for this shortage, Mauser purchased some brown plastic grips that were comparable to the grips used on the early 1940 Krieghoff Lugers. I would suggest that less than 2% of the total 1940-42 code Luger production had brown plastic grips. Like the black plastic grips, these brown plastic grips were not numbered. A pistol with these brown plastic grips would certainly enhance any Luger collection." May be one of the rare variants!

 

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Like the others...the S/42 is probably the better one, but the PTO bring back one is a first for me. Would love to have that pistol talk!

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Thanks Ron. I forgot I had a friend that knows Lugers well and he said that some did have the plastic grips. He had to end the call early so I will get more info from him later.

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Like the others...the S/42 is probably the better one, but the PTO bring back one is a first for me. Would love to have that pistol talk!

 

Thanks Dave! I wish I could buy them both as they both are pretty cool!!

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Marchville1918

As to the Luger owned by a PTO soldier, you want to remember that a large number of men moved from Europe to the the Pacific for the invasion of Japan. He could easily have brought it with him from Europe......or he may have acquired it from another soldier who came from the ETO. I assume that there is some indication of his unit on the capture paper and a little research on where they served might answer that.

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As to the Luger owned by a PTO soldier, you want to remember that a large number of men moved from Europe to the the Pacific for the invasion of Japan. He could easily have brought it with him from Europe......or he may have acquired it from another soldier who came from the ETO. I assume that there is some indication of his unit on the capture paper and a little research on where they served might answer that.

 

Excellent point Marchville!

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I have personally spoken with (10+ years ago - he is now deceased) a WWII ETO vet who arrived back home in the U.S. via the PTO. Thus, his ETO war trophy P.08 "Luger" pistol has capture papers from the PTO. Specifically, after the surrender of Germany his unit was shipped directly from the ETO to the PTO in anticipation of the Invasion of Japan. After spending some post-war time in Japan, this soldier was eventually rotated back to the U.S. for discharge. As part of the paperwork and preparations for his return to the U.S., he had war trophy authorization papers (i.e. "Capture Papers") issued that authorized him to bring his war trophy Luger (sourced in the ETO) back home to the U.S. with him.

 

Thus, the mystery of a wartime production P.08 with PTO capture papers was really not much of a mystery at all . . . and perhaps even a fairly common event.

 

Of course, some "Lugers" did come back as war trophies captured from the Japanese . . . for example 1920's or earlier commercial production Parabellum pistols that the German firm DWM sold to the Netherlands for use by the Dutch colonial forces in the East Indies (i.e. Java and Indonesia). Some of these Lugers (both "DWM" marked and "Vickers, Ltd." marked - but all of German origin) did end up with the Japanese and, eventually, with some ending up in the hands of U.S. troops who encountered the Japanese.

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Wow, what a dilemma... And one I'd like to be struggling with right now as well! I'm in the S/42 camp as well for all of the reasons mentioned above. Its a great looking piece and one I'd be happy to own.

 

Tom

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Those are Kreigoff grips and would be correct on a 1940 dated Luger IMO, I owned a Luger like this several years ago that was bought out of an estate, nothing wrong with those grips IMO

 

Fritz

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No Ronald I haven't. The more I look at the S/42 the more I'm convinced its the one. If I'm only going to have one Luger, I might as well get one matching and in excellent condition. I still like them both.

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