Huge Gun Haul: Navy Luger Edition
As promised Lugers Galore
Hey guys, this is part three of our latest haul of guns. And as promised, I showed you some lugers that were rescued out of Canada but I said part three will be Navy lugers that were rescued out of Canada. Check them out. I have six Lugers here that was rescued out of Canada and they go through a time period from the model 1906 all the way up to World War II, 1940. And I'm also going to recommend this book by Dave Molchen and say a little bit about that.
Yes, we are going to Louisville
But before I do, I want to let everybody know yes, we are going to Louisville, a lot of people were asking if are we going to do Louisville this year. And you can go to the SOS Louisville Gun Show and Google that and you'll find out more about it. But it generally is February 24 and 25, that's Friday and Saturday.
Stay tuned for our Legacy Party
And yes, we are going to do our Legacy party again. So details will be rolling out probably soon after the first of the year. But if you don't have a hotel room, you might want to go ahead and get that now. The party will be on the night of the 24th. So that's Friday night. We're not doing Saturday night because a lot of people get out of town as soon as the show is over. So Friday night, the 24th we are going to have a Legacy party. Stay tuned, we'll get give you more detail. The party is at the Hilton Garden, the same place it was last year. If you want to get a room there, they're running out of rooms but there are a dozen hotels around there. And certainly much cheaper hotel rooms if you want to search around a little bit. Get your hotel room now because they will go quickly.
Today's Agenda
Okay, let's talk about some rescued lugers. We're going to take a general walk through time starting with 1906. Now there is 1904, I don't have one of those and probably never will. This is the cover of the book again. Dave Molchen wrote a book about Navy lugers from 1904 to 1940. And I actually have 1906 to 1940 to show, you all coming out of Canada.
Let's Jump right in
The main difference with 1904, you'll probably never see one or touch one. They only made about 100 and that's in a known serial range. Obviously, before you buy something like that, you'd want to check it out. But here's the main difference. This is from the book, you can see the toggle. The toggle link is the like the model 1902, model 1904. It's just a slightly different toggle link and that's the most externally recognizable thing. Now if you read the book, there's other little differences of the 1904 - 1906.
I did touch a1904
But I'll just tell you my story of I actually did touch a 1904. I was at the Lakeland Gunshow -- I put a smile on my face because I thought it was funny. This is like a year ago. So I certainly knew enough to know that it was a 1904. But I saw a luger, it looked a lot like this, and it was in the case. And I said can I see that Luger? And he said sure; he knew me that's why he actually handed it to me. I never noticed the toggle link that looks like this. Instead, I was just looking at the markings. And by the way, the Navy markings are a little bit different. I thought that's strange. I even remember thinking I wonder if this is fake because those markings don't look like the 1906 as I'm used to. And so I asked the guy so how much are you thinking? And he said $150,000. I said what, is this guy crazy? And then I looked at the toggle link and I realized no wonder the markings are different, it's because it's a 1904. I don't know what happened to that gun. I did try to track it down and it disappeared into a private collection. But that was the only time I touched a 1904.
On to the 1906
Now let's talk about the 1906. This is the model 1906. I've done Navy's before. This variation of course has the 6 inch barrel; it's not exactly 6 inches but that's as close as we're going to call it and of course the World War II are all four inch barrels. I just had somebody write to me and say I got a navy Luger, but I think it's fake because it doesn't have the six inch barrel. And I think it was a 1937/1936. So World War II all have the 4 inch barrel and the World War I or before will have this 6 inch barrel. They're all in 9mm and there is the Navy markings. Now what's distinct is no date here. And then of course the rear sight is adjustable for 100 meters and 200 meters. So it slides back. And again we've done videos on these before and then the grip safety is unique to the 1904 which we don't have in the 1906. So this is the safety, put the safety on and then you it doesn't fire unless you grip that safety and put down the safety lever. So that's how it works.
Other features of the 1906 luger
Straw small parts, I'll show the other side. They all are made by DWM by the way. There's the magazine concentric circles, they rarely will come with a matching mag. This one, what you want to look for is a navy magazine. And it looks like this is a navy magazine, poorly struck. But I don't see a number. So this looks blank. It is all matching except for the magazine, I'll show you the grip straps, this is really as nice as they come. And then this also has a property mark, I guess that's Kielworks. So the Kiel Navy Yard property that's called the Navy property mark. And that was applied not by the factory, but by the arsenal, the Navy arsenal. Ah! I didn't notice that before. This is Germany mark. So that means it was issued and used. And then after World War I, probably exported to another country, could have been the United States but could be elsewhere. But this was definitely exported after use in World War I.
The 1908
Now, this is the 1908. Everything is the same and it should have a concentric circle. It should have the same magazine, everything is pretty much the same no date at the top, the markings are the same, the Navy markings here, and here, those will be the same. And they also have a navy marking, they both will have a navy marking, a tiny one under the barrel. This one the finish is not as nice. Again, it came out of Canada. I should mention that one of the reasons that there's a high percentage of Navy lugers coming out of Canada, there's more in the United States, but a higher percentage coming out of Canada because the Canadian troops occupied some of the Navy bases at the end of the war. And they did go through and collect all the weapons out of the homes and all the boats in the Navy Yard, all the offices, they cleaned out all the guns, and many of them came home with the Canadian soldiers. So this one is all matching, except for the magazine. It has the little chip here, which is not unusual. We call that the million dollar chip because it's probably done a million dollars worth of damage with all the ones that are chipped. And then this is also in the Kiel Navy base. And then the most distinctive feature is it does not have that grip safety. The only major difference is that grip safety and you can recognize that right away. When you're walking down in a gun show and you look in the case, you can immediately say, Oh, that's a 1906. Unless it's a 1904 and then you call me. Or you say oh, that's a 1908 and you can see both of those markings. They're very different in the front. And that's because they were individually applied at the arsenal. So it's not like a factory stamp and it is over the finish. You can see halos but it's over the finish and that's the way it should be.
Model 1914 but they are dated differently
That takes us to the model 1914. What makes this model distinct. It's a model 1914 but they were made there and dated 16 and 17. So this one is dated 1917. It is made by DWM, the date is also right here. So you want to make sure that's there. It does come in 9mm. Notice the Navy markings, it's the same and there's the date again. So the date is 1-2-3 places. They also made a 1916 and it'll be marked the same.
There are no real 1918s
There are 1918s out there, but they're all fake. I did pick one up at a gun show and realize it was fake and was able to return it. But that same gun had showed up several times at the Allentown show. But there are no real 1918s.
Pay keen attention to these markings
So 16-17 there is the proper markings. There's the marking Navy marking here. You see halos underneath and what makes this one interesting. I have two of the same, both of these are 1917s. You see the date here, you see the date there, but this one is 927. And this one is 924 both of them A-suffix. So these are just three numbers apart. Notice how quickly I do my math, that's three digits apart. Both of them are all matching both of them are similar condition but I don't know. They have pros and cons but they're similar condition. Notice the concentric circle those are the correct magazines. Neither one of them are matching magazines, so they're all matching except for the magazine. There are also no navy property marks, which on the 16 and 17 most of the property marked ones are faked. But in reading through Dave's book again, it's right here, he has a List of several numbers. And it's very, very rare to see a navy property mark on a 16 or 17 but they do exist. So generally you won't see a navy marking.
I think we are up to 1917
And then that takes us up to 1917. And then between the wars, some of them were reworked for the Navy, this is a rework because you see the 4inch barrel but notice, see the end was just cut off. So this was shortened and that was because the Treaty of Versailles limited the barrel length. Seems silly, but they did. And then they just moved the front sight back so that was shortened and notice it's 1917 and notice it has the Navy markings. Notice that it's numbered here and these navies were not originally numbered there, they were actually numbered under here, that's the side plate. Here, when they reworked it, they numbered the side plate, they reworked the whole gun. I'm sure they refinished it at the time, they cut off the barrel to comply with Treaty of Versailles. This, by the way, is a marking that indicates it was reworked, maybe not in 1920 but that is just a marking indicating it did comply with the Treaty of Versailles for the inspectors. They marked it as being reworked. It does have the Navy rear sight. And it does have a property mark. So it was reissued to the Navy and that would be the North Sea Navy base in Wilhelmshaven. So this is actually a Navy from the Weimar period. It has just a standard DWM magazine not Navy marked. But this is also a variation on a gun that was reworked 1917 parts but this is not a 1917 receiver. So leftover parts Navy parts and then when went to the Navy. So Weimar period from the 20s, we'll just say from the 1920s; it could be the early 30s.
A World War II Navy Luger
And then finally, we have a world war two Navy Luger. This is dated 1940 made by Mauser, it has really nice grips but look look at that. There's that little tiny chip beautiful grips little tiny chip and that's from somebody taking this out and then prying it up and that chips that off; again million dollar chip. This is all matching except for a blank magazine. And again this is all original correct and not cut off barrel, correct barrel. Notice the difference. This is a correct World War II barrel, four inch barrel on a 1940 Mauser and there is the Navy property mark now it's pretty thin, meaning it's been worn down a bit, but the whole gun shows the same amount of wear and is all correct.
Recap
So we went from 1906, 1908, 1917 and finally 1940. So a little bit of everything and something for everyone out there. These Navy's are getting harder and harder to find because they're prized by collectors, and therefore bring a little bit of a higher price.
That's a wrap, more content coming
Hey, thanks for watching. That was a quick overview coming up next I'm going to talk about guns from World War II early compared to late. I think you'll find it interesting so stay tuned, make sure you like and subscribe to our channel.