My 'Gun of the Year', well maybe...

[Daisyman]

There is a thread below about the Gun of the Year, a Sig something or other in 9mm. Well, by golly, I picked up 'MY' 9mm 'Gun of the Year' Friday night at a local gun show from a fellow walking around. He showed it to everybody in the show but no one was interested. The dealers were selling those little small carry guns right and left, so I guess this old clunker wasn't what they wanted......not aluminum and no black spray paint or maybe pink, or that nice plastic....

It's all matching except for the magazine, 1917 Erfurt. The grips are kinda worn smooth, but no cracks of gouges.
The fellow said he'd had it since he was 14, (he appeared to be close to his 60's) when his dad passed and thought maybe his grandfather had brought it back from the War. I asked why he wanted to sell it and the stated that he'd had his fun with it all these years and was ready for something new. It worked for me

I know this isn't one bit lever gun associated but I just couldn't help myself!

The gun is actually better than the pics. I took these under fluorescent lights with a flash and I can never get them to come out right. I've tried with and without flash and I always get shadows. The brown on top of the receiver is actually a nice blue.

[octagon]

Cool! I remember as a kid, seems like everyone had one. Neat score

[JohndeFresno]

I think that few people would deny that the 9mm Luger is one of the coolest looking handguns ever made. It's stylin'.

Congratulations on obtaining this (still) unique and fun shooter!

As for different lighting, bouncing your flash - aiming it if you can to a white card held at an angle above the object - works well for an even fill of light. But those photos look good to me.

[Blaine]

My Uncle picked up one off a Nazi at the Bulge....I never got to shoot it before someone broke into his house and stole it.

[bmtshooter]

Cool pistol indeed, but they don't fit my hand well. They are too wide at the top of the grip where the web of my hand makes contact to shoot it comfortably. Definitely a fun gun though.

[M. M. Wright]

Definitely a cool find. Happy for you.

[JB]

Nice. I see a few Lugers at the local shows, but they're normally priced well over actual current market prices. Of course so is 90% of everything at the local shows

[Merle]

Very nice! Makes me wish I hadn't sold mine.

[Pete44ru]

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Nice grab ! !

If the magazine's SN matches the gun's, it indicates that it was personally captured from an individual German soldier, and not taken when a bunch of captured German soldier's Luger's were surrendered - the pistols tossed in one pile & the magazines tossed in a separate pile (making a match virtually impossible, given the numbers of pistols).


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[Daisyman]

Thanks for all the nice comments. John, I'll have to try the card board reflector. I've seen photographers use a white umbrella, I guess for the same reason. I just never get around to making a good photo booth.

I'm really tickled with the Luger. It seems really hard to find one that's in the hands of the original owner, rather than a dealer. With a dealer you don't know what you're getting and the prices are usually pretty high, IMHO.

I was very fortunate to obtain another one a lot of years back from a WW2 Veteran that lived here that I got to know. He was involved in keeping the bridge at Remagen open during the last days of the war. He told me some really heartbreaking stories and some humorous ones, too.
Sadly, there was 150 in his outfit at the start and only 9 left at the end. He almost felt guilty for being alive, but he lived a full life and was a successful businessman. RIP Melvin

Edit: Peter, this one came off a German Storm Trooper, outside of St. Huber, France, and as you say, it has the original magazine. I had no reason to doubt his story.

The one I got from him is a 1921 DWM all matching including the magazine plus another one. I also got a chest worn holster for it made for him by a catholic priest in France.
I'll see if I can make a better picture of it.

Irv

[Daisyman]

Cool pistol indeed, but they don't fit my hand well. They are too wide at the top of the grip where the web of my hand makes contact to shoot it comfortably. Definitely a fun gun though.

I've got some pretty big paws and they fit me really good..

[samb]

Beautiful! Thanks for sharing.

[marlinman93]

Shows the quality of gun show vendors, and most of the populace attending! How can anyone pass up an original Luger 9mm over all the modern junk? I guess I'm a dinosaur, as I remember when everybody wanted to find a clean German Luger, and the prices were stupid high!
Congratulations!

[Rusty]

Nice buy Daisyman. I've handled a few over the years but can't remember ever shooting one. I always thought the artillery Lugers were cool.