Best Luger for collecting but also shooting

[The Dumb Gun Collector]

Hey guys,

I want to pick up a Luger P-08. I don't want to get ripped off. I also want a gun I could actually shoot from time to time without crying.

Any tips?

[The Cat]

Hey!

'Collector' grade Lugers are outrageous in price nowadays. My advice (as an owner and lover of them) would be to find one that's in as good a mechanical condition as you can find. You should be able to find a good, non-matching Luger for about $6-800. Replace all the springs right away - get a mainspring that's rated for 115 grain bullets - and enjoy her

For me personally, the nonmatching numbers (my P.08 has the frame from one gun, and complete toggle from another) isn't a really big deal. That said, I wouldn't want all the parts to be from totally different guns... am I making sense? Collector-wise, they're *all* going up in value.

[The Dumb Gun Collector]

That sounds like a good idea. I am not really a collector. Or at least, I don't care about having "perfect" guns. I just want a good, shootable example of this classic.

[Outrider]

Shooting collector grade Lugers is tempting fate. Break something that is numbered and original to the gun and the value can take a big hit.

The most affordable option I have seen is the non-matching or forced matched Lugers. You'll probably see some VoPo (Volkspolizei) or Russian capture Lugers for sale that can be good shooters.

Basically with Lugers you need to do your homework. There are plenty of sellers who have no idea what they have and ask insane prices or they do know what they have and are hoping to get over on someone less familiar with them. Lugers produced during the war years that have matching numbers are going to be the ones that garner the most interest. The holsters / rigs that accompany the guns can be expensive as well. The police Lugers and commercial ones generally are more affordable unless it was a special run or configuration.

One of the reasons people love collecting Lugers is that there are many different variants. There were also a bunch of different companies that made Lugers, i.e. DWM, Mauser, Erfurt, Krieghoff, Simson & Co, etc. Also pay attention to calibers listed in the ads. Not all of them are 9mm.

My suggestion would be spend time reading stuff on the Luger forums so you can get a sense of the market and issues before you jump and make an impulse purchase.

[The Cat]

That sounds like a good idea. I am not really a collector. Or at least, I don't care about having "perfect" guns. I just want a good, shootable example of this classic.

I just remembered - you'll want original mags, and you'll probably want to swap out the springs in them, too. Wolff is your one-stop shop.

Aftermarket mags - the ones I've used function okay, but the plunger on the side likes to break off. When that happens, it's hard to load the mags all the way, and the toggle wont stay back when the mag runs dry. You'll want a tool like this.

You'll have a lot of fun - and you WILL get attention at the range

[TOrrock]

Your Luger shop.....

http://www.simpsonltd.com/index.php?...9f3114aaf33cf5



A post WWI Commercial will be the least expensive shooter out there.

If you want a military bring back, those tend to be more money.

[durus5995]

Besides your standard non matching P08s keep an eye out for a Russian Capture like the ones that hit the market quite a few years ago. A guys wife that I do WWII reenacting with has one that she shoots quite a bit and is in surprising condition as well.

[JonInWA]

I would recommend getting one of the 1930s through 1945 Mauser-made Lugers; their slight redesign and improved metallurgy makes them more durable as shooters. Additionally, there are the 1970s vintage Mauser commercial Lugers, but these (at least to me) somehow seem to lack the cachet and feel of the earlier guns. The 1970s guns' features were an amalgamation of German and Swiss production guns; initial production were virtual Swiss copies-not surprisingly, as they were basically manufactured on Swiss machinery. They've slowly established a collector niche of their own, but will be as shootable as the earlier Mausers mentioned.

I obtained a 1938 vintage Luger, one of the matching number WWII Soviet capture pieces that were dip-blued and then imported about 10 years ago. I had John Martz thoroughly mechanically go through the gun; it was then sent to Tennessee for hot rust re-blueing and strawing, and then had a beautiful set of presentation english walnut grips made for it.

It came out magnificently, I'll have to take some images of it. Once a year I shoot it in an IDPA match, where it performs quite nicely.

Best, Jon

[The Cat]

it was then sent to Tennessee for hot rust re-blueing and strawing, and then had a beautiful set of presentation english walnut grips made for it.

Where did you send it? I've toyed with the idea of having mine reblued, and I live in TN, so my interest be piqued!

It came out magnificently, I'll have to take some images of it. Once a year I shoot it in an IDPA match, where it performs quite nicely.

Best, Jon

You know - with its size, design, etc. it'd make a hell of a carry pistol.

[JonInWA]

The Cat, John Martz sent my Luger to Charles Danner; here's a link to the thread on the Luger forum where I discuss the reworking of my Luger, and subsequently shooting it in an IDPA match:

- - Shooting a Luger...In An IDPA Match! (http://forum.lugerforum.com/showthread.php?t=17368)

When set up by someone who genuinely knows and understands Lugers, they can be quite reliable-and they've always been exceptionally accurate, despite their small sights. Much like a 1911, many conundrums attributed to the gun are actually "owned" by the magazines. Luger magazines are a bit of an arcane art in themselves, and Luger magazines/magazine springs often need to be tuned to a specific gun and cartridge. In the past, John Martz specifically recommended that Winchester ammunition be used, although I've had success with other contemporary commercial loadings. Quality late-war "Type III" FXO magazines (ones identifiable by a roll-pin through the dished basepad, among other features) are the ones that John recommended and supplied to me. Interestingly, their follower rises a bit higher in the magazine tube, to the point of where all of my Type III FXO magazines will reliably chamber Winchester Silvertip hollowpoints.

Lugers are actually very strongly built. I'm strongly convinced that much of their reputation for unreliability in combat is due to the issue holster for Lugers (issued before WWI through WWII). It was designed to completely protect the gun from foreign material. This was accomplished by a buckle flap (in some cases, the flap was secured by a stud piercing a slit in the flap, but the buckle arraingement was overwhelmingly predominant in German military issue holsters). The gun also is emplaced so low in the holster body that there's a leather tab needed to raise the gun into an easily extracted position, once the flap is unbuckled.

So: If using the holster in combat, a soldier must 1) unbuckle the flap securing strap, 2) raise the flap, 3) pull the leather tab to raise the Luger to it's retreival/extractable position from the holster, and 4) (finally) draw...

The upshot of this is that it quickly becomes blindingly clear why we see so many pictures of German soldiers in (or facing imminent) combat chose to carry their Lugers simply stuffed behind their tunic belts-where, while they were much easily accessed, they were concurrently much more exposed to dirt, mud, etc.-especially if the soldier needed to crawl around in the muck of the battlefield. Given the relatively exposed sear spring/mechanism, it becomes easy to see how jamming could be induced by an action compromised by foreign material entering the action.

As a carry gun, a Luger can certainly be usable; for IDPA, I use a Uncle Mike's nylon "convertible" holster (one with appropriate clips and belt loops for both/either IWB and OWB carry). Despite the custom re-work and attention devoted by John Martz, I have found that the slide hold-open device to be problematical-with standard-pressure (or lighter) ammunition, it usually doesn't hold the toggle open upon the magazine being emptied, but that's of relatively minor consequence. Obviously, there are certainly far better choices available for duty and carry today-but a Luger can certainly be a viable defensive firearm, and is tremendously enjoyable to shoot.

Best, Jon