My first Luger

[Thomas Durante]

Very nice Frank! I don't know crap about these, as you know I am only a lowly "badge" guy, but that is one sweep looking Mauser my friend.

Tom

[fdodge]

Thanks Tom.

As for the two percentile of 1940's with bakelite grips, page 71 in Still's book of Third Reich Lugers only addresses them as black. I know that there were also bakelite grips in brown (duh!) and wonder of the 2% total, how many were brown? Probably impossible to answer, but I've seen 25 or more black gripped 40's to every brown (bakelite) gripped example.

[GWA]

I have been collecting and trading Lugers since I was a kid. I have seen or had exactly five times as many brown plastic gripped 1940's as I have black. This is an easy number for me to recall as I have seen only one black gripped 1940 and that was about two years ago.

[fdodge]

I have seen or had exactly five times as many brown plastic gripped 1940's as I have black.

So I assume Jan Still is seeing the black ones that you're missing?
My luger-savvy friends tell me the brown ones are less common and that is what I have seen in the short time I've been looking. If you've been into lugers since you were a kid and have handled that many of them I'm not going to dispute your experience. So now I'm looking for a black gripped '40 Mauser.
I took the gun apart today and everything matches. The previous owner had oiled it excessively so I cleaned it all up. Man, it is extremely tight, much tighter than others I've handled, and has obviously not been fired much at all.

[edbullet]

they look like krieghoff grips two me at least they match what is in gibsons book I would put a picture of them on the luger forum someone there will know for sure

[fdodge]

they look like krieghoff grips two me

I think they should look exactly like Krieghoff grips.

[fdodge]

they look like krieghoff grips two me

Both of them.

[N.C. Wyeth]

I have been collecting and trading Lugers since I was a kid. I have seen or had exactly five times as many brown plastic gripped 1940's as I have black. This is an easy number for me to recall as I have seen only one black gripped 1940 and that was about two years ago.

Fifteen years ago, I needed some fast cash. Amongst many other items from my collection, I let go quite a few P08's. Two of the Mauser P08's I let go were black plastic gripped - a BYF-41 and a BYF-42 (but not 1940-dated). I still miss them to this day . . .

I have thought long about getting back to collecting P08's, but as costly as these are nowadays, those thoughts often come to a very brief end . . . even a nice "shooter" would be a warm welcome for me again.

By the way, the P08 at the start of this thread is very nice - you did good!

[redjames2004]

Hi Frank, You have a nice Luger! I like your Luger very much. Most of Lugers I saw have all black grips. Few Lugers like yours have brown grips. By the way, A nice Luger!