Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns German Luger Question

My old man has a Luger that was given to him by a guy that has long since passed away. This guy told my dad that he had personally taken this pistol off a dead German soldier on DDAY. There is no documentation for this so can't say for sure. ANYWAY, how would I go about trying to date, model and value this pistol? Thanks

That's intresting, because last night on Sons Of Guns an old guy brought in a Luger. It was dated back to 1918 and the appraiser offered him $2400, and he took it. That one had the 8" bbl. I believe it was an artillery model.

there is no easy answer to your question. Having said that, you could try the german section on gunboards.com or some other forum such as that.
Condition and originality is everything, and the model and who it was made for is also important. But you CAN get the info you are looking for.
I have a number of P08's which is the correct designation, one of which is the WWI artillery pisto, snaildrum mag, shoulderstock, leather, and loading tool. It is good enough it looks unfired.
This were numbered on the grip as to the division and unit assigned to.
Interesting enough, mine was in the bayerische division, adolph's division in WWI. Of more interest, the man in charge of these artillery units in the division has the same, german spelling, of my last name and most certainly a distant relative.
I like to tell people the pistol just found it's way home.
You could see prices from in the six hundred dollar range up into the thousands depending upon what you actually have.
Without seeing it, or detailed pictures hard to guess.
I would be careful about firing it, until you know what you got. If it is all original and you break a part, you have really hurt value, parts are numbered to the gun.

Another place you can look on the main www.gunboards.com site is Jan Stills' Luger forum. It is on the homepage, not in the list of "main forums". Any Luger in good shape is a gem!

I just found a site, Search Words: > Rock Island Auction Co." <
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On the lower left half of the page is an alphabetical list of contents ...
Click on "Lugers".

'There' you find a page of many German Lugers of various manufactures and configurations with "thumb nail pictures", and the precise model identification. Also a "Low" and a "High" U.S. Dollar Estimate of the pistol's "auction value". You also can 'click on each listing and bring up that pistol separately.

You can also put your pointer on the small picture and a MICROSCOPIC 'moveable' veiw will appear showing extreme close-up details of features, proof marks, other markings, serial #'s, etc. Also you can just 'click' on the picture and get a MAGNIFIED veiw of the entire pistol. Each Luger listed has a 'side' veiw and a 'top' veiw picture.

The first Luger listed there looked exactly like the one I have and the magnified details indicates all the same markings as mine.

A WWI era DWM (Deutsche Waffen Und Munitionsfabrik) manufactured German Luger that my father sent home from Germany during WWII, along with a leather Military flap holster, take down tool, and an extra magazine. The German soldier's name is written in ink on the back of the holster, "McDermott".

From this site alone you may not find all the information you desire, but it may provide you a good start.

The German Luger is the consummate side arm ... You just can't help 'goosestepping' when you have one.

I know.

Dads stepfather had a Luger and an MP40 he used to keep beside the bed. Both of them were undocumented war trophies. The police came round one day to ask him about something and he realized from the front door you could see right into the bedroom.
The next day he took them both to the railway workshop and gas axed them into several pieces and threw them in Wellington harbor.

First determine the manufacturer, the most common were:
DWM (Deutsche Waffen & Munitionsfabriken)
Erfert, Royal Arsenal
Spandau
Simpson & Company
Mauser�Obendorf, Germany
Krieghoff, H. Krieghoff Waffenfabrick� Suhl, Germany
Waffenfabrick Bern

Next determine configuration & caliber: .30 or 9mm for caliber (if it�s anything else it�s ether a Martz gun, or it�s so incredibly rare that only auction will tell value). The std P08 (that�s the proper name, only American�s call it the Luger) had a 4� tapered barrel. The Navy P08 had a 6� barrel. Artillery had an 8� barrel and barrel mounted tangent rear sight. The most likely if it was a WWII gun is a standard model in 9mm. Next most common is the std in .30 Luger.

Now Google up take down procedures and field strip the gun. The Luger required a LOT of hand fitting of parts, so almost every part was stamped with the last two numbers of the serial number. So you�re looking to see if the gun is all matching, or a mix match gun; that has a considerable bearing on the value of the gun. Be sure to check if the magazine matches also.

Now guage general condition: What % of bluing is left on the gun, and how much checkering remains on the grips? Be HONEST, and don�t give it extra leeway just because it�s been dragged through at least one war. A 90% gun is a 90% gun, simple as that. Give your best estimate of how much of the gun retains bluing, then consider any nicks or dings and make your best guesstimate.

By now you should know if it�s a matching number, manufacturer, configuration, caliber, and condition; next comes where you�ll learn a lot about Lugers, the market for Lugers, and judging condition.

Go to Gunbroker.com, type Luger into the search box and start looking in detail through every darned Luger that�s up for sale. This will teach you how people are judging the condition of their guns, what other things are of consideration, and the bids and asking price will give you an idea of the market pricing/value of said piece.

If the gun is in greater than 90%. If the gun is in anything but .30 or 9mm. If the gun is anything but a 4 or 6� barrel; then you need to consider having a professional look at it and appraise it.

For common P08�s in .30 or 9mm with mix match parts, expect somewhere between $550 to around perhaps $900-ish. For an all matching common configuration P08 they start around $800 and can go up to around $2,500 depending on condition and date of manufacture. Navy P08�s tend to command another 10-15% on average, and Artillery P08�s an additional 15-25% depending on manufacture, date, and condition.

While the Luger is FAR from a �rare� pistol, they haven�t been made for a long time, and the classic lines and military heritage have ensured they will hold their value VERY well. If you want to make the your gun a shooter, they can be made to be reliable if you understand the action. Many neophytes will tell you that you have to use very hot ammo for your P08 to function properly; this is a bad idea. The hot ammo gives more dwell time at the end of the stroke, allowing the magazine to ready the next cartridge. Hot ammo is the wrong solution, most P08�s just need a new magazine spring.

The P08 toggle action cycles VERY fast, which is why you need a very stiff magazine spring. P08�s came with a magazine spring compression tool to assist with loading the magazine; that ought to tell you how stiff that spring should be. Use standard pressure 115 grain FMJ�s ONLY and with a new magazine spring in a proper magazine, your P08 ought to work pretty well.

Wealth of info. Thanks guys I really appreciate it. He is bringing it out after the holidays so I look forward to the detective work.

Lots of good advice above. Also take a look at the Luger section in The Standard Catalog of Firearms, which has a 10 page section, and the Blue Book of Gun Values, which has about 17 pages -both are widely used by gun stores for pricing. Both have basic information on identifying marks and variations as well as approximate values. There is a huge difference in values depending on both condition and variations. Gunbroker can be very useful for pricing info, but because of the wide differences in pricing depending on which variation is being sold, you have to be very sure that you are comparing like with like. E.g. the price on a DWM 1916 Military may be quite different from a Mauser S42 commercial that superficially looks the same. Getting a local Luger enthusiast to look it over may be the most useful. When I lived in Texas I knew a couple guys who could do a quick field strip, inspection and reassemby and tell me the condition and approximate value in about a minute. They would do this at gun shows if they found one that they were interested in - one time I saw one of them buy a relatively rare variation that the buyer had significantly underpriced because they weren't as knowledgeable as my friend. I could see he was excited, but I was pretty naive about Lugers so I just watched and kept my mouth shut. Another friend helped me select a nice sample of a standard DWM at a decent price, to make sure I wasn't getting taken on the deal.

Finally, assuming the story of its acquisition is correct, it is likely to have matching numbers rather than being a mix-and-match piece, since presumably it was an issued weapon rather than something assembled from parts after the war. Mix-and-match decreases the value considerably.

I remember reading long ago ... (Whether true or not ???)
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That there was a period 'early' in the Second World War when surplus stockpiles of WWI German Lugers were gathered from various Armorys and were reworked, refitted, and reassembled, often using mixed parts from various models of Lugers - resulting in some 'ISSUED' Lugers having mixed characteristics and serial #'s.

These 'issued' Lugers were NOT post war mix & match Lugers.
(But I don't know how you could tell the difference between a wartime or post war Conglomerate Luger amyway.)

Whatever ... ANY LUGER is still worth something and having. IF priced accordingly.

one other P08 that is worth mentioning in the Russian capture P08. Many were captured by the russians on the eastern front, arsonal refinished and marked with the russian cross sabre capture mark and then placed in storage.
For a few years, you could find these along with p38's and of course mauser K98's.
This was a number of years ago but i picked up a "russian" p08 locally for about 240bucks which was a steal. Gun was perfect except for the crud russian refinish. Often wondered who the poor son of a gun was that had it before the russians.

Well thanks guys, it is here now and the research is to begin. It is an Erfert made luger and it looks 100% original. I will google to figure out the takedown procedure and let you know.

If your gun is an Erfurt Luger, then a ballpark valuation for a 50% finish gun would be something in the $800-$1500 range. Yeah, I know that's a pretty wide swing, but a lot depends on your location, and the markings on the pistol. Sight unseen it is harder to nail down a price.

Rock Island Auctions has a number of Lugers coming up for sale in their February auction, and their on-line catalog would be a good place to look for photos of comparable guns with expected auction prices.

thanks for the reference. I will check it out.

Also..A lot of Erfurts were rebarreled in early WWII from WWI frames.You may see a small notch cut in the top of the barrel where it would screw into the receiver.