Gigantic Walther Luger Collection with Various WWII Pistols Part 2
Part 2 of our collection
Hey guys, this is part two of the collection that I got in recently. Today I'm going to go over the lugers.
Quick Recap
So Part one was the Walthers, I just went over those; if you haven't watched them, you can go check it out, just take a look at Part 1 - The Walther Collection. Those are going to sell really quickly, very popular. Part 2, I'm going to do Lugers. There are not as many of them, but I'm going to start out with Navy lugers. These are both beautiful Navy holsters, but they're both commercial Navy guns. Let's take a look.
A bit about commercial Navies
Okay, this is the first one and this is probably the nicest of the two. A little bit more money but let me say a little bit about commercial navies before we get started. Commercial navies are actually rarer than military-issued ones meaning they went to the Navy, but the ones that went to the Navy are more expensive because they went to the Navy. So you can pick it up by commercial Navy for a bit less than a navy-issued gun. This one in particular is in beautiful condition.
Let's start with the holster
But let's start with the holster. It does have a maker mark here, and a logo. This is a real Navy holster; the holster alone easily can go for $1,500. I've seen them over $2,000. But this one is in pretty good condition, probably about as good as they come. There is no tool in there. But let's take the gun out.
Now for the commercial navy gun
This is a commercial gun. Now first and foremost, you can see that it has the crown N proof which is just the commercial proof, which is correct. It does come in 9mm. But a true Navy, if it's issued to the Navy, will have the Navy inspector or navy acceptance stamp and they look like this. Most of you are used to those and they have several variations. I'll talk about the different variations when I mention this book by Dave Molchen. But let's get back to this commercial gun.
Here's what happened
So what happened at the end of the war, they stopped production. They probably had some already ordered, so they finished producing them and they sold them commercially. It's probably more complicated than that but basically, the Navy was not allowed to order any more weapons because of the Treaty of Versailles. So therefore they had these guns ready to go but they never went to the Navy.
A beautiful commercial Navy
This one was exported probably to the United States. You see the Germany marking, you also see halos around Germany. I believe this is all original finish from the factory, original straw and this is absolutely beautiful. I think it's as good as they come. You can see some fire blue in there. Now the barrel is not numbered or marked in any way, there's no proof mark, there's no numbering, and the barrel is not marked. I have seen others that certainly would have had the Crown N proof under here, and others that have the serial number along here, but in this case the barrel does not look replaced to me, but I'm just mentioning that it's not numbered at all. Made by DWM; this 100 is not a serial number, but rather the adjustment for 100 meters or -- true life confession off camera, it was really hard to pull back but we did get it back with Randy's help. 100 meter, 200 meters so it's an adjustable sight that pushes down -- Now, it moves easily. It was just stuck. Probably a little dried grease in there. Okay, it worked really well. Very little wear; holster wear, a little bit of wear here, a little bit of wear there, just a gorgeous gun. Now it does have the concentric circle, that is far blue on that screw, the grips are not marked, nickeled magazine and blank bottom, which is fine for a commercial gun. So this is a very nice commercial Navy, it comes from a very nice collection. As I said, probably as good as I've seen, maybe it will stay with me, and it came with an original Navy holster. Now let's take a look at the second one.
Another Commercial Navy
Same maker mark. There's actually a name right here. I can't really read it, maybe you can see this. Somebody put a little marking in there and I believe this one was dated, it is. This says 1916 I believe; there's another marking above it and then 1916. Again, there was no tool. Actually, this holster is a little bit better than the other one. Probably should have swapped that but I'll leave it alone. This is the way they came in the door. Now this one has a little bit more wear, a little bit more aware on the straw. You can see side by side the straw isn't as bright and this one has a little bit more wear. Also, I believe this one was refinished. Now, I think it was Arsenal refinished, meaning it was probably made for the war, sent back, they reworked it a little bit. Again, this one has the crown U and it looks a little filled in. Now I could be wrong, maybe this is original finish but this looks a little filled in as opposed to this marking which is sharp and crisp. When we look at the bottom, notice this one does have the proofs and the serial number here and here. They're also numbered here, and also under the side plate. This one is numbered under the side plate and under here, but we've already discussed the lack of marks on the barrel. So this barrel is more what I'm used to, it has the proof and the number. But I'm not 100% sure that this is original finish, just because that looks a little filled in. I could be wrong. If you want to comment, feel free; this side actually looks a lot better. You can see the straw looks really good and again, hardly any wear. This is a model 1906 because it has the additional grip safety. This is a 1908, no grip safety and it also has the adjustable rear sight and this one pops back very easily DWM.
Navy Lugers by Dave Molchen
Now before I go on to the other lugers I wanted to mention this book because it just came to me in the mail. It's by Dave Molchen. I knew it was coming for many, many months, he talked about the fact that he was doing a book on Navy lugers. Obviously, I did the book on access pistols. And I just reviewed another book on FN Brownings but I wanted to at least go over this book. If you collect navies, or if you have a navy, this is a great resource, great pictures in it. That was his granddaughter, by the way. But the first one is a 1904 Probably you didn't even know they made one, but that's like finding a Singer. So he has the 1904 then we'll have the model 1906 coming up. And there's some model 1906, you can see that over here and the stock. So it has pictures of all the different variations, but there's also one other thing about this book that it makes it extremely helpful. Over the years I used to always ask for Norm Rabinowitz' list. He collected data from the forms of guns, and took notes on them. This by the way, is just a list of all the property marks and the serial numbers. So if you have Navy, you can look it up and see if it's been previously reported. Also you can see the ranges there. So if you're contemplating buying one, you can look up and see okay, here's the property numbers and it should be in this range. Here's the B range, the C range, all the different serial numbers.
A little about Norm Rabinowitz's List
But what I wanted to show you on Norm Rabinowitz' list, with help from others, he collected this data for a very long time. Now the red is red flags. So remember, I said the 1904 was the rarest, it's kind of like buying a Singer, you can see there's problems with every one of these. A lot of times red means fake and it'll say it's fake. But other times, it just means something was changed out, something is not original, something has been re stamped, there's something wrong with it. As we go through this, you'll see when buying a navy, you really need to have this kind of a book where you can go through and look it up. There's issues there at red flag with every one of these, it's getting a little better over here. So for example, profusely engraved that means engraved the whole lot, this one is fake and assembled, we'll keep going. See now this is getting a little better here. So you get information about the gun. This one is in France, a lot of good information. But every page has red flags, meaning there's something wrong with the gun. And so when I go to buy a gun, or I see a gun on auction, I like to look it up in this list. It's a very valuable resource. This is just all 1906s and then we'll get into 1908 navies. And then just basically, here's some commercial guns. So I'll look up and see if these were reported, but these are commercial guns. So these books are available; brand new, hot off the press available from the author or just go to our website. It's available under our resource books.
Now for some World War II Guns
Okay, we've moved on to World War II. This is a Mauser 42 code on 1940. You can tell it's from Canada because it has the Canadian tag, not flag, a Canadian tag; I do have a price on that one. It is all matching except for the magazine; the magazine does not match the gun. But everything else is matching. You can see it is 990 and a letter suffix C. Beautiful finish, not much wear at all, only the grip straps are a little bit light. Front and back a little bit light, but otherwise a beautiful example of a world war II, wartime, German Luger.
Is this another World War II German Luger?
I believe this one is the same exact thing. It has the holster, the holster is dated 1938. I know from a previous video that is a GI number. But it has the maker acceptance stamp and 1938. We open it up there is a tool and I believe it's blank. Let's check that out. Yes, the tool appears to be blank. We'll put that back in there. The interior is really clean on this one. There's that number again, it's like a GI number. And this one is in about the same condition. You can see it's Mauser code 42, 1940, little bit of patina in here, but overall, a beautiful gun. You see a little bit of plumb finish here. In here there's the acceptance proofs which are 655 and then the test Eagle. On this one, the straps are just a little bit nicer. And because it comes as a rig, it looks like somebody put their initial there or something, but it's a P. So that one has been marked a little bit, but otherwise the straps are a little bit better than the previous one. This gun which is maybe 1% better than the other is also all matching except it also has a matching magazine. You can see that it is a matching magazine with the D suffix. Same as right here. So it does have one matching magazine and that helps the value quite a bit. That looks like almost a plumb; Notice the plumb in here. This actually has a plumb, the tube has a little bit of a plumb hue. I'm not sure if you can see that in the video, but I can see it with my eyeballs.
Prepare to be rocked
Alright, are you ready for this? This one is going to rock your world. We have a brown holster, this is a Luftwaffe belt buckle and they came together, so I'm leaving them together. So Luftwaffe and brown holsters are often associated with each other. This one also you can see the maker mark, the Waffen stamp and its dated 1937. But what we have inside is a Krieghoff. That was like a drumroll right, it was a dramatic pause. That's what that's called. Okay, we have a 1936 Krieghoff Luger. We already said this is a '37. Now somebody will ask, and of course I would also ask, doesn't this come with a Krieghoff holster? I'm not sure that all of them did. Certainly every one that left the Krieghoff factory didn't necessarily go in and Krieghoff holster. But if you read my book on Third Reich lugers I do mention that a lot of guns went to the Luftwaffe that were not made by Krieghoff. So the Luftwaffe had these assemblies already together. So it's very likely that this could have these could have been together for a very long time. As I mentioned, this is how the gun came and so I'm leaving it alone.
Drumroll!
And what makes it extra extra special is now the drumroll. We have two matching magazines. Here you see the serial number here and the two matching magazines. Now whenever you have a gun with two matching magazines, I always worry about them being faked or forced matched. What I look for in here is notice the one has the flag on it, that's what we call the flag that's the little, the little line that goes up before it goes down. They have a long flag on these and also the five has a stubby neck. The fours are very unique, and if you study them quite a bit you can see that they are the exact same font and in my opinion definitely not faked. Same is true for this number. The gun is all matching, It has a few minor issues such as you know like wear here, there is a tiny scratch here. It's got the nice high polished finish, there's some wear here , there's holster wear. Seems like there was a little bit of smooties here on the front strap and a little bit on the back strap.
This won't last for long on the website
But a gun like this is not going to last long. People call me all the time looking for to match mag rigs. It's very, very rare to see. Just look at this whole assembly. This was in the Luftwaffe during World War II, came back from the war, I believe in this exact configuration and it stayed together all these years. So this is an incredible find. These are, by the way, what we call a brownish red, bakelite grip, which is correct for 1936. So this one won't last long. By the time that video comes out, it'll probably already be gone.
Three more to go
Okay, I have just three left. These two are Canadian rescues. Again, you can tell by the tag, this is the way they import them and that's an ATF registration. So we know that everything was done legally. And then my last one, I'm going to show you a G date. But let's go through the Canadian rescues.
1918 Luger, original condition
This one is a 1918 luger DWM. It is all matching except for the magazine original finish. Never diverted to the police, not reworked, it doesn't have the 1920 stamp. So it is military proofed, so it went to the German army during World War I. Look at the grips on this just absolutely beautiful, wonderful condition. And as I said, everything matches except for the mag. In fact, the mag is a World War II magazine because it has an aluminum bottom. There's a bad spot right there. I was gonna say that's not even wear, it's a bad spot and wanted to point that out, particularly for somebody who wants to buy this. But you can see the halos here. So we know it's an original condition, never reworked or sent back to the factory, no police markings, no unit markings, but just a really nice example of a 1918 and that gives you an idea on pricing. But over 100 years old, and still shoots very well.
1916 Luger, all original condition
This second one is also from World War I, except this is a 1916 DWM and in about the same condition. If we look at these two, about the same condition on the top, this side so this one we haven't covered but notice this one has the correct wooden magazine. So this is an original World War I magazine, although it does not match the gun. So once again, this is all matching straw small parts. This one's buggered up a little bit here, a little bit of wear here, a little bit of patina, but the straps are a lot better than the last one. You'll notice that the straps on the 16 is better, backstrap same thing. It's got a very nice backstrap. The grips I believe are numbered to the gun and the straw small parts still is really nice. There's the Imperial proofs meaning it went to the German army. And again, no rework marking, no police sear here. So it's an all original condition from World War I, over 100 years old, altogether and original, except for the magazine. The magazine is correct, by the way World War I magazine, but not a matching magazine.
The G-date rig
This last one I'm going to cover is the G date rig. These are getting harder and harder to find. Now G-Dates often won't be in a 1935 holster. This one is not marked back here, which makes me scratch my head and I think hmm, they usually mark them so I wonder where it's marked. Lo and behold, it's on the inside. So let's pull this out. Pull that out real quick and as soon as I see the interior I know this is a 1934 because G-date had an extra tool here, they were the only ones that had the cleaning rod in here. So I know right away this is a 1934 and it says 1934. Also is numbered but not to this gun because this holster was made in '34 and the gun was made in '35. But you can see the condition of the holster here. And it's pretty average condition, 1934. So technically a K-date. They must have had a lot of key date holsters left over because in 1939 they made very few and they used up the old '34 holsters now here's the gun itself.
That was the holster, now for the gun
I believe this is an early G-date. So the code this time remember before it was 42 code now it's S42. You see the G, I can see halos on the bottom here. The halos are actually a bit light but you can see it here and here and then the suffix, I believe that's an A suffix. Look at the straps on that. 1935 beautiful straps, beautiful straw color. There's the proof marks military marked, look how beautiful that yellow is. But the proof marks tell me that it's an early G- Date because acceptance stamps, the first one is W154 which is a rare early proof and the second proof is an S42 with the test firing proof here and here and it has a matching magazine. Again the font on the k-date and the G-date is very unique. If you take a look at it the two is different, the three has a flat top, you can see the suffix and then it also has a B90 proof, which would be correct for an early G-Date. So this is a matching magazine with a correct proof. Beautiful gun in 9mm. Really hard to find a G date or a K date with a matching magazine. So this one won't last long. Somebody out there is going to want it for sure.
Stay tuned for Part 3
Hey, thanks for watching. That was part two of our guns that I got in recently from a large collection. The ones that are remaining are going to be miscellaneous almost all rigs but there's some rear guns in there as well. So make sure you like and subscribe to our channel so you'll be notified when we come out with part three.