I travel a lot for work, I'm actually in Oklahoma now. One of the few things to do besides go drinking (well, when it's not baseball season anyway) is to go to gun shops after work. I sometimes find good deals on ammo or accessories, but I don't normally buy guns.
About a month ago I was in Tucson and we wrapped up early, like lunchtime, so I had a half a day to kill. I start googling gun shops and see I'm about a mile away from a place that looks like they specialize in old/milsurp stuff. Perfect, I'll go check it out.
So I walk in and I'm just browsing, there's some interesting stuff, including a Pedersen Trials Rifle hanging on the shop wall. As cool as that was, I think my wife would probably see through any yarn I could spin to explain an $18,000 credit card charge. Anyway...
As I'm walking around, one of the workers comes out with a box and opens a display case that has some other vintage pistols in it and starts putting new stuff out. 1917 revolver, a Nagant revolver, couple other things. I see a Luger come out of the box, and when he sits it down, the pricetag on it is...cheap. Like really cheap. Too cheap, but marked "as-is"
First question: Will you ship outbound to my FFL? "Sure!"
Second question: Can I take a look at that Luger? "Sure!"
Third question: What's wrong it it? "š¤·āāļø"
Okay cool. So I don't know much about Lugers, but I google a takedown video real quick. Pull it apart, all the parts seem to be there, and I put it back together. I go to dry fire it and...nothing. Squeeze the trigger hard...nothing. Harder...nothing. Apply the force of 1000 suns to the trigger and...CLICK!
Aight, that's weird, but whatever. Seems to work on some level, I'll take it. They write me up, I hand them cash, and it beats me home to my FFL.
After I picked it up, I started digging a bit. Obviously I noticed the lack of markings on the pistol when I was looking at it, but there really aren't many marks. The frame and slide serials match, as does the trigger plate, but that's it. The trigger bar has a different serial, and the barrel doesn't have any. There's no marking on top of the toggle, and save for some other scattered single letter stamps, that's it. No proof marks, no markings on the toggle, nothing. The barrel also looked weird, and I've guessed at this point that it's a 3.25" "Baby Luger" barrel that Lugerman sells.
That's all fine by me. I never thought I'd have a Luger (though I now have 2, and that's a different story) especially for less than the price of a new Glock 17. I can actually take it out and use it, and that's what matters to me.
But wait, I've got to fix it first, right? It really didn't take too long to track down the root of the problem. There's a tiny little spring-loaded plunger in the trigger bar that gets actuated by a lever when the trigger is pulled. That plunger was flipped around backwards. Turned it around the right way (big end out) and the gun works flawlessly.
So yeah, a bit rambling, but I'm pretty happy. The grips that were on it appear to be WW2 vintage and they don't' really stay on the pistol, so I swapped them out for a modern production pair and put the ones that came on it back in a box. The mag also isn't original, but it seems to feed just fine so we're calling that a win.
I really do wish there were some way to identify the manufacturer or a date, but oh well. It's probably just a commercial production gun from somewhere, or just something that got put together from spare parts at one point. Fine by me.
About a month ago I was in Tucson and we wrapped up early, like lunchtime, so I had a half a day to kill. I start googling gun shops and see I'm about a mile away from a place that looks like they specialize in old/milsurp stuff. Perfect, I'll go check it out.
So I walk in and I'm just browsing, there's some interesting stuff, including a Pedersen Trials Rifle hanging on the shop wall. As cool as that was, I think my wife would probably see through any yarn I could spin to explain an $18,000 credit card charge. Anyway...
As I'm walking around, one of the workers comes out with a box and opens a display case that has some other vintage pistols in it and starts putting new stuff out. 1917 revolver, a Nagant revolver, couple other things. I see a Luger come out of the box, and when he sits it down, the pricetag on it is...cheap. Like really cheap. Too cheap, but marked "as-is"
First question: Will you ship outbound to my FFL? "Sure!"
Second question: Can I take a look at that Luger? "Sure!"
Third question: What's wrong it it? "š¤·āāļø"
Okay cool. So I don't know much about Lugers, but I google a takedown video real quick. Pull it apart, all the parts seem to be there, and I put it back together. I go to dry fire it and...nothing. Squeeze the trigger hard...nothing. Harder...nothing. Apply the force of 1000 suns to the trigger and...CLICK!
Aight, that's weird, but whatever. Seems to work on some level, I'll take it. They write me up, I hand them cash, and it beats me home to my FFL.
After I picked it up, I started digging a bit. Obviously I noticed the lack of markings on the pistol when I was looking at it, but there really aren't many marks. The frame and slide serials match, as does the trigger plate, but that's it. The trigger bar has a different serial, and the barrel doesn't have any. There's no marking on top of the toggle, and save for some other scattered single letter stamps, that's it. No proof marks, no markings on the toggle, nothing. The barrel also looked weird, and I've guessed at this point that it's a 3.25" "Baby Luger" barrel that Lugerman sells.
That's all fine by me. I never thought I'd have a Luger (though I now have 2, and that's a different story) especially for less than the price of a new Glock 17. I can actually take it out and use it, and that's what matters to me.
But wait, I've got to fix it first, right? It really didn't take too long to track down the root of the problem. There's a tiny little spring-loaded plunger in the trigger bar that gets actuated by a lever when the trigger is pulled. That plunger was flipped around backwards. Turned it around the right way (big end out) and the gun works flawlessly.
So yeah, a bit rambling, but I'm pretty happy. The grips that were on it appear to be WW2 vintage and they don't' really stay on the pistol, so I swapped them out for a modern production pair and put the ones that came on it back in a box. The mag also isn't original, but it seems to feed just fine so we're calling that a win.
I really do wish there were some way to identify the manufacturer or a date, but oh well. It's probably just a commercial production gun from somewhere, or just something that got put together from spare parts at one point. Fine by me.
