BYF 42 with wood grips

[nd164th]

Anyone know if there were BYF 42 lugers issued with wood grips and FXO plastic butt magazine clips such as usually seen with the Black Widow Lugers? Usually the BYF 42 Lugers are seen with the plastci grips.

[GWA]

They were issued with wooden grips as well as bakelite. There is no reason to question a 42 byf with wooden grips and bakelite bottumed magazines. Mauser, like all manufacturers, simply used up parts as they went along.

[nd164th]

42 byf

I suppose one should take the grips off and see for a number

[Cassidy]

Byf41

I suppose one should take the grips off and see for a number

I looked in the Luger Book by Aarron Davis and it says that both the BYF41 and BYF42 can be found with either wood or plastic grips with the the Plastic Bottom Mags.

Here is a shot of my BYF41, all matching, the wooden grips match also.

[Ronnie Fry]

Here's mine, one grip matches, the other does not, but its numbered. Obviously a later replacement...

[Ronnie Fry]

Here's the other side and inside the grips

[Ronnie Fry]

But the mag is alum bottomed, and #'ed to the pistol

[Cassidy]

Byf41

That is great having a mag numbered to the pistol. You have a really an awesome example.

From my reading of the reference books for a BYF 41; the matching mag, the unnumbered aluminum and the plastic bottom mag can all be correct.

I guess that its the great thing about a BYF41.

Here is another photo of my BYF41 with some other Junk.

I guess that I need to focus!

[Ronnie Fry]

JUNK ????

[Alan Smith]

Please tell us about your MG-34 that is in the background: looks like an interesting gun. What is the maker code/date? All (or mostly) matching? Any interesting NFA registration history with it?

[Cassidy]

Mg34

Please tell us about your MG-34 that is in the background: looks like an interesting gun. What is the maker code/date? All (or mostly) matching? Any interesting NFA registration history with it?

Sorry, It is just a display piece with the solid non gun aluminum receiver. I see a lot more MG42 display guns than MG34. It is just a cool legal piece that I got years ago for $600. Not sure what they bring now?

[Alan Smith]

Got it - thanks for the clarification. Yes, it is a nice display piece and looks great in your photo.

[JasonA]

Hi,

Byf Mauser coded pistols were issued with extruded magazines in both an aluminum and black plastic base. The latter were typically not serialized, and were issued were greater frequency with byf 42 pistols than byf 41 pistols. These pistols were also issued with both black plastic and wood grips.

I've heard people talk about Black Widow configurations with black grips only, and others say it's with the black bottomed mag and black grip combo. My understanding the former is correct.

That said, any configuration of the above grips and mags is correct for either a byf 41 or byf 42 issued pistol. A lot of people like Black Widow configurations, and can easily swap out grips and magazines to instantly increase the value of the gun. There's no way of knowing if it's correct or not. The only exception I'm aware of is that with byf 41's, this in the n and o serial number range were issued with the Type 3 Army magazine (blued body, aluminum extruded base). So if you have a byf 41 pistol in the n or o S/N range, it should be an aluminum based magazine. Anything other than that could have either mag or either grips.

Keep in mind only about 20% of the byf pistols were issued with black grips.

Hope that helps,

J-

[nd164th]

byf 42

good info

[nd164th]

wood luger grip numbers

is it unusual to have grips stamped with pistol last two digit numbers but switched around, pistol number 71 matched on all parts and then grips stamped 17 on one grip and 359 waffen stamp on other, sound ok?