Canadian Lugers Explored

Did You Miss Me?

Hey guys, welcome to another Walk In Wednesday. I know you missed me. But I have some more Lugers to show you. And just like I showed before, I have a video called oh Canada, based on their national anthem, but I said it like this, oh Canada. 

 

It's gonna get harder

Unfortunately, Canadian laws have gotten stricter for gun ownership. I don't fully understand everything, because all I know is what I read on the internet, and we already know how accurate that always is. So I hear conflicting things from people. But generally, what I hear is there's about a two month window before they shut down, buying and selling of weapons between individuals. Now that's a broad brush, so let's all agree that it's going to get a lot harder in Canada to own handguns. It's already difficult, it's gonna get harder. So we have been inundated with people who say I have a collection, I need to get it to safety, meaning, I don't want to see these guns destroyed. I don't think they have to be destroyed right away but it does make it a lot harder to legally sell your guns. So therefore, we believe it's going to get a lot harder to transfer guns even to the United States. And so there is a rush of people sending us guns.

 

Let's help you save those historical pieces

Now, if you're thinking about doing that, if you're watching from Canada, first, we are an importer of guns, but you have to have an exporter. You send your guns to the exporter, the exporter transfers them to us as the importer, and then we can sell them on the internet to people in the United States. It is a way to at least preserve the value of these historical pieces of art. And so if you want more information, you can contact us at our email which is shown right here. 

 

Here is our first educational piece

Okay, let's take a look at these. Now, not every gun here came from Canada, but almost all of them did. I'm going to start with one that I want to use as an educational piece. Because maybe some of you have seen this contraption, but probably a lot of you have never seen it. So this is a model 1900 Luger, it's also American Eagle. Actually why don't you come look over my shoulder and we'll go over this together. 

 

What a contraption!

Okay, first let's talk about the contraption. This is called the ideal grip and it was a guy named Ross Phillips in September of 1901. 

 

Let's look at the gun first

So the gun, this actually model, this could have been made in 1901 but this model is the 1900. You see the dish toggle, compared to the standard toggle. Actually after 1904, they went to this toggle which is the standard toggle, you can see just a slight difference. This is the dish toggle, which is distinct for the 1900 and 1902. This is this grip safety, and that went away with the model 1906 to 1908, that went away. It was just an additional piece of safety that most people opted out of. In order to hook this up, they need to change the grip and you can see the standard grip just has the one screw. But here, we're going to show you in a minute that there was a metal insert, which this attaches to. 

 

More early features of the gun

So the gun we've talked about before, DWM is the factory, American Eagle shows that it was exported to the United States in about 1901 most likely. Germany marked which means it was made for export. You do see halos around that by the way, which is correct. This is all original finish. It does come in 30 caliber. Most of them were in 30 caliber early on. The 9mm became popular later. But the early guns the commercial guns at least were in 30 caliber. You'll notice another early feature is the wide trigger guard. If I just randomly grab another Luger, that's the standard trigger trigger guard. So you can see some of these early features in the early 1900s. But what's really unique about this is the ideal grip. 

 

The ideal grip

Now this does not stay on, if you notice when I go like that, it doesn't stay on. So you think okay, well that doesn't work very effectively. You can just pop it on, it doesn't stay on until you extend this. I thought it was quite a contraption and didn't make any sense to me until I realized you extend this out, all you do is push this button down and it pulls out. And as it pulls out it pivots. Pivot! That's a stale joke. 

 

A claw pops out

If I do that again and push this button down and as this opens up, you'll see it. There's like a claw that pops in and as it opens up, the claw closes down around the metal insert. So basically there's a hook, or I called it a claw, so let's stick with that metaphor. It goes in like this. And then when I pull it back, it closes down. So pull it out and now it's solid. It doesn't move at all. You can't take this off when it's extended. It does have a clip here, a fairly large clip for your belt. And what's interesting is, this hooks on to this metal frame and you can hook it onto this side, or put it on this side. So it's a left or right handed, depending on how you'd like to carry it. And surprisingly, a lot of soldiers in that time or police in that time also carried a saber. So maybe they would put one on the left and the other on the right. And this just makes it interchangeable. 

 

This contraption was not a success

Now the ideal grip, although it's an interesting contraption, I keep calling it a contraption that probably doesn't do it justice. But I see very few of these because commercially, they were not a success. Pistols at that time, it was very popular to have a stock that the gun would fit into. The most popular, of course, is the broom handle, we all know about the wooden stock that would attach to the back but also served as a holster. And that was that's exactly what this does. To close it down by the way, you push these two buttons, and then it just pops back down again, and you can take it off. 

 

Takings the grips off

So let me go ahead and take the grips off and just show you the mechanism inside. Okay, so this is the metal insert does not come with most lugers. In fact, you can see the magazine, well through here. But on this one, this was sold as a unit, which would be the ideal extending stock, along with the metal. The grip would have been sold with the kit so that this would attach and then you could see here it uses a different kind of grip. So the grip that the gun is issued with would not work, you would put this together after it was imported into the United States. 

 

The inside mechanism

You can see this is what I call the claw and it doesn't really attach, it moves freely. But all we need to do is clamp that down a little bit and it'll be tight. So we'd pull this back, and it clamps it down. So now it's tight, it doesn't come off. So that's how the mechanism works. 

 

Phillips had this patented

Interestingly, Ross Phillips patented this also for the Smith and Wesson revolver and the Colt revolver. I don't think they were any more popular. They do work, but they never really were very popular. So he only produced these for a few years. I'm trying to take it off and it doesn't come off. But I realize first I have to close it, and then it pops right off. And it pops off. Now, I didn't show you the holster part of it. So you know it does work and it's an interesting idea. But one of the reasons it wasn't so popular, I don't know, I think doing the alterations, like putting that metal piece in there, doing these alterations that would bother me a little bit. And then this, obviously it fits. It actually fits very snugly. 

 

Yes, it's live TV

What's surprising is the way this grasps the gun. And what's surprising --  now it's going to not work on camera. I know why? Nevermind, I can show you why. Because the grip is not on there. So let's push pause here. And let me put the grip back on and I'll show you, it stays on tight and doesn't fall out. See, you can tell this is live TV. I see so few of these that it didn't occur to me. 

 

Nice and tight, no trickery

So again, that pops in there. Notice that this cut out fits in perfectly. And it is it does hold on tight. This little design here holds it pretty tight. And now the proof of the pudding, no trickery here, like with the balloon that does not come out. It's in there nice and tight. Again, no trickery. Nice and tight. Once I have both grips on, you pull out. 

 

Another uncomfortable feature

So the other thing that's uncomfortable about it, is obviously this open, that's what I like about the broom handle. The broom handle stock was a lot more popular because it closes and it has a smooth edge. But of course if you put this up against your shoulder, all it is is it's just a sharp piece of metal sticking in your shoulder. Most of the ones I see the leather is not holding up very well and that's certainly true in this case. 

 

Was it a brilliant idea?

So maybe it was a brilliant idea, but it never really took off. So this is the ideal grip with the 1900 American Eagle Luger. I'm going to go through the rest of these guns a lot more quickly but this is the first time we've ever ever done a video on this particular configuration. 

 

Running order for today's show

Okay, we're going through these Lugers again I'm going to go through them really quickly. There's some neat variations here but I'm going to start with World War I era, I think we have some that are between the wars of Weimar gun, I think this one actually is Weimar and then we're going to go into the World War II guns and just quickly show you what came in from Canada. 

 

First up!

The first one, this is a War War I era holster, tan. There's a maker code here and sometimes they're inside here. One of the reasons you can tell it's World War I, of course the back, this is World War I. World War II would have the extra stitching here and also the stitching here is different. But World War I there was no stitching across here. So immediately I know that's a World War I holster. 

 

This gun is in excellent condition

And when I look at the gun, this is just a stunning condition. I'd wipe it off because pieces of leather get on there, but this is from 1916 DWM, so military gun for World War II. There are the proof marks for the Imperial German army. Notice the straw how beautiful and the bluing is beautiful. The condition of this is almost nowhere, just a little bit of wear right there. The magazine is correct but not matching. Should be a beautiful nickeled with wood bottom. That's all correct. It does have the stock lug. So you could hook up a stock but in this case, the military used a wooden stock. They were very seldom used except on artilleries and navies. But you just see the condition of this gun is incredible. And it is all original finish. If you know halos, you can just barely see some halos here. But this is in extraordinary condition. Look at the grips again, and the magazine. Extraordinary condition, 1916, which was right about the middle of World War I. 

And what a shame to imagine that somebody would want to prohibit you from collecting something like this. Nobody's committing crimes with these beautiful works of art. 

 

Next up, 1916 Erfurt

All right, let's take the next one. And this one is 1917. But it's made by Erfurt. So again, during World War I Erfurt was making lugers just because they wanted to have one more than one source for lugers. And so DWM was the only source but during World War I in order to increase production they had Erfurt make some. Erfurt also made some artillery, 1914 artillery, but again, you can see Imperial proofs it was made for the army. And looks like it's all original, beautiful finish. And again, there are small halos around here, so this does indicate all original finish. Let's check the magazine. This is not the matching magazine but again, it's a correct magazine, nickel tube for the wood bottom. And just a beautiful example, beautiful piece of history. Let's save them. 

 

This is clearly Navy

Alright now this one is unusual right away the concentric circles, if you notice these just have a hollowed, almost like the dish toggle, it has a dish wooden bottom, but the concentric circles was uniquely Navy. So this is a navy magazine, they were numbered this way. If you're holding the gun like this, I guess this would be numbered vertically, whereas most of the time the military ones, not all the time but mostly numbered horizontally like that, that's standard. But the Navy was unique in their numbering, you notice the larger font and then it does have a crown M, very hard to see, very light. So this is clearly a Navy magazine. And if we look at the front strap, you see the O property mark for outsi 13:58, East C.

 

A reworked gun for the Weimar Era

So with the 1917 on top, but then you see the 1920 means it was reworked, that's a rework mark. Sometime after the war, the war is over, this is a navy Luger from 1917. It originally came with a longer barrel, but it was reworked for the Weimar era. Most of them were required to be reworked. If you look at the barrel it is matching. So they changed the barrel out, re-numbered it and then there's a navy marking there as well. So this is all matching except for the magazine, Navy marked, 1917 Luger that was reworked after the war and then reissued to the Navy. So this was issued twice to the German Navy. And this is a very rare configuration. It does come in 9mm, again thank you for saving this out of Canada. 

 

A 1911 Erfurt

Next, I have a 1911. So this is before World War I, it's very rare because there was very few guns ordered. 1910 was the earliest military and then 1911. Very few of these made, so this is a rare date. You see the Imperial proofs, meaning it went to the German army. This one is also Erfurt. And this police sear which means after the war was over, this was diverted to the police. A lot of these guns just like Canadian guns, the Treaty of Versailles said you either need to rework them, they weren't allowed to have them. They were only allowed to have a military -- I believe it was 150,000 men. So they didn't need a million lugers. They destroyed a lot of them and some were diverted back to the Navy like this one, and some were diverted to the police, which was perfectly legal. You could take a 9mm Luger, send it to the police and that's what happened to this one. The police added this sear safety. You'll notice on a military gun and a commercial gun there would be no sear safety right here. But the police required the sear safety, which just was an extra measure of safety. And so there's a 1911 Erfurt. I checked the magazine, I believe this one actually matches. Let's take a look.

 

A bad repair job, but it was worth it

It does have a crack here that somebody poorly repaired with glue, but it was worth repairing because this is a matching magazine. And it's numbered in the police style. So this was re-worked, and probably came with two matching magazines sometime after World War I.

 

Here's a 1910 with no lug stock

Let's move on to the next one. Here we go, here's a 1910. So we had in 1911, 1910, 16, 17. There's the military proofs, notice how beautiful the straw is. This one has no lug stock and actually the Erfurt had no lug stock because that early on they didn't do the lug stock until -- Well, they started in about 1911. But certainly 1915, 16, 17, they all have a lug stock and all World War II lugers will have a lot of stock. The earliest ones they didn't have the lug stock. 

 

The hold open

The other thing that they didn't have is a hold open. You can tell when they install the hold open because they drilled a hole right here on the last shot it's supposed to hold open. This never will because there is no hold open. It actually makes this a little more valuable because it was never altered. The hold open is a good idea and if you're shooting it just means the last round holds open. This one will work, watch this. This has no stock lug, no 1911, and it doesn't hold open. That's because there's no magazine. Alright, come on Tom, get it together. It holds open. And that's because right here, you can see they drilled a hole, and if I took this gun apart, you'd see a hold open was installed. Whereas this one no trickery, the magazine is in it, it does not hold open. So this is rare, all original configuration 1910. I'd say 99% of them they went back and added the hold open because it's a very popular feature, of course. 

 

World War II guns

Okay, now we're into World War II, I believe. Let's see what we got. Here's a very rare gun. I need to show it to you because it's just extremely rare. A Mauser banner 1938. It's the first -- and Mauser banners existed before 1938. 1936 and '37 they had Mauser banners, and they had police guns. See the sear safety; but this was the first time they used in this case, it's an eagle K. This was a police inspector stamp. There's only 300 of these made, probably less than 300, between 250 and 300. 1938, Mauser banner, Eagle K, only about 300 made. This one comes with two matching magazines. The two matching magazines are numbered one and two, and they both have the police Eagle K. Now this was done in the police Arsenal, not factory. Well, the way they numbered them is a little bit different. If you look at a factory magazine, they don't look like this. So this was done in the police arsenal. 

 

An Incredible Find, professionally restored

Very rare gun, however, I do believe it was professionally restored. It's just absolutely beautiful. You can see it's dark here on the muzzle and most times the muzzle is been polished. This is dark on the muzzle and there's a few other tells, but generally, it's an incredible find. And actually I think I did see on a very popular Luger site, somebody had one of these years ago and it sold for like $15,000. So again only 300 made, it makes it about as rare as a Krieghoff. 

 

This restoration was well done

Unfortunately it has been profession restored but it's okay. We're preserving history and keeping this from being destroyed. So we're glad to have it and I will be offering this I'm just not sure. Usually a restoration what does it do? It usually cuts the price in about half because it's not original. But if the restoration, like a turbo restoration on a colt, if the restoration is really well done, which this one is, it doesn't necessarily cut it in half. So this will be very popular, it might even have to stay with me for a while.

 

All original G-Date S42

Here's the next one. It's a G-date S42 which is just a Mauser code. This one is all original finish. You can see it has halos here. I believe it has a matching magazine and my memory says -- By the way, it still has a nickeled magazine. Later they went to a blued tube. Actually in 36, they started using the blued tube. This is G-code is 1935. And you can see it's got a gouge in it, but it is a matching magazine. So 1935 with a matching magazine, it went to the German army, right here is the German proofs. Front straps are worn, can see here and here. But it is all original condition and definitely worth saving. Hopefully, it'll go into a collector's rec room very soon. 

 

Try to stop me!

Next one, I have a '36. So this was the '35 and this is the '36. By '36, they stopped using a code and they just put the date on it because Hitler was in power and basically he gave the finger to the inspectors. Treaty of Versailles, they were watching out for making sure that they were not making any new ones, so they put a code on it to kind of fool the inspectors. But Hitler came along in '36 and said we're not going to do that anymore. Screw you! Try to stop me! And that's exactly what happened. 

 

All original and matching

This one is beautiful, near mint condition. I'd say like the finish is 99%. The straw has about 50% wear, you can see where it was handled. There's wear here, down here where it's handled. But up here in the crevice, it's still nice and -- I call straw small parts that actually is not made from straw. It's actually straw colored. So you can see it really here. You have your sweaty finger and you put it on the trigger, wears away some of that straw color. But up here at the top you can see how beautiful the straw is. This is a later magazine. I can tell because it's pinned and it is a blued tube but it is a later magazine. But everything else on this gun is original and matching. Somebody put the white in here but this is like a --  I don't know, that might have been done long ago and just has layers of grease on it. This was done more recently. There are the proof marks and there are very tiny halos on the bottom of the barrel which is what I look for. This would still be a rust blue, and therefore you should see halos. Anyway, that's just beautiful condition for a 1936. The only thing that could make this one better would be the matching magazine. 

 

A 1940 gun with a holster

Let's take one one last gun. And this comes with a holster. Here's the maker, here's the Waffen stamp and it is marked 1940. The holster is in great shape. Open up the flap, there is no luger tool. However, this is a 1940 gun. So this comes with a spare magazine by 1940. They were using the pin in the middle. Remember the earlier ones, the pin, by the way, quick education -- The pin would have been right here, that held the bottom on to the tube. There's the pin, but then later they pinned it in the middle. I assume that was an improvement. I don't know how it improved it but they pinned it in the middle. So by 1940, '41 and '42, the magazines are pinned. 

 

A G-block spare 

Now this one, the spare is in the G-block. And that's going to be important to note and I'll tell you why in a minute. Because this one is in the G-block. If you look at the serial number, I get 5914. And the magazine, notice it's blued too, pin bottom, and this is 5918. So it's just a few numbers off, in the G-block. 

 

Kreighoff Grips

What's important about the G-block are these reddish brown grips. Those are Kreighoff grips. If you look at a Kreighoff, here's a picture of a Kreighoff, most of the ones in the early -- well '36, '37 came with these. Actually '36, '37, '38, by 1940 they started switching over to black. But you can see the Krieghoff had these grips. And it's because Mauser was running out of wooden grips. They hadn't started making the black grips yet. So they wrote -- I don't know if they picked up the phone, but they wrote a letter to Kreighoff, said we need several thousand set of grips and Kreighoff said, sure. So for a very short period of time, they used Krieghoff grips on a 1940 Mauser luger. It does not mean they went to the Luftwaffe, there's no evidence that they went to the Luftwaffe, it's just that they ran out of wooden grips. So it's just an anomaly.

 

The Final Draft Copy

Now, we've been working on a book for last several months. And here it is. This is actually the final draft copy. And as of this morning, we called the publisher and said, we're ready to go to actually the first print copy of the book. So this is the book again, draft copy, it'll be in color. This is in black and white just to save some money on printing this out and editing. But you see here, this is 1940, they ordered about 100,000 lugares give the serial ranges. But also it says Mauser was low on wooden grips in 1940, so they purchased brownish red grips from Krieghoff. These are only used for a brief period of time I already said that. Now not every not every gun in this range had the Krieghoff grips. Certainly they had some wooden grips, but they were low on wooden grips. So there's only some in this range. And you do see y, d, g, h. So g is right in the middle of -- see when the book comes comes out, you want to get one because all kinds of really good information in here. And tons of full color pictures. Can see my edits, I put marks all over, looking forward to having that come out really soon. But this is an example of a gun from 1940 in the G block with the Kreighoff grips. 

 

Thanks for watching

Hey, thanks for watching. I hope you enjoyed that saving guns from Canada. I don't mean to disparage Canada at all. Love the Canadian people. Don't really like the politics right now. But it's important. Obey the law and do whatever you can, make sure you get out to vote. Do whatever you can to help make positive change.