Took the Luger plunge

mawkie · Mar 10, 2013

-I've steered clear from Lugers in the past as they can be a minefield of sorts. But I've always wanted one and when Poulin Auction released their huge March firearm auction catalog with approx. 75 Swiss Lugers I decided to educate myself on the subject so I could bid with confidence.
-First trip was to Jan Still's forum over on GB to find out what reference works were best. They recommended Fred Datig's The Swiss Variations as a starter work and Vittorio Bobba's Parabellum A technical History of Swiss Lugers. Found Datig's book on Evil Pay for $20 and got real lucky finding Bobba's here in the US for just under $100 (most folk have to import a copy from Bobba's native Italy, paying upwards of $150 for a copy).
-Forearmed with some knowledge I decided, after looking at market prices, to go with a Model 1906/29 as it fit my Ramen noodle budget better. Luger folk seem to put a premium on the original red canevasit grips as their a bit harder to find intact (easy to break, they were frequently replaced with the newer black or brown bakelite examples).
-There were approx. 8 nice examples of 1906/29s w. red canevasit grips in the auction yesterday, I went with one built in 1939 that still had the original finish w. minor wear to high points. A good, solid example.
-My thought process was that with 75 Swiss Lugers alone (they had a pile of German Lugers as well) prices would be depressed a bit, hovering around low pre-sale estimates. And I was correct. Got mine for $1250. With the buyers premium that comes to $1500. Exactly where I wanted to be as nice examples are currently fetching around $1750-2000 in today's market. The only down side to this example is that it doesn't have the canvevasit mag bottom. Will have to keep an eye out for one.
-Have a bid in on a nice, proper 1906/29 holster up on GB. Hopefully I'll have a complete rig soon!
-Auction catalog photos for now. More to come later when it arrives.

Walleyeco · Mar 10, 2013

Well done and congratulations. Looks like you really did your research and hopefully it will be as good as it looks... I recently bought a Ruger mini-14 at Cowan's auction using the same more = less philosophy.. It kills me to pay the ~18% buyers premium though.. I've been watching and waiting to buy a good, solid USGI M-1. I will really get serious when my C&R comes in.. Thanks for sharing.

h2u · Mar 10, 2013

I expect no less from you, sir

Congrats on a great Luger and another fine piece to the collection :thumbsup:

Jimbob2.0 · Mar 10, 2013

Mawkie,

You always go for the best, congratulations! That is a very nice gun, and a steal for a Swissy. Heck you cant even get a standard DWM 191X for less than $1500 these days hardly (felt lucky the last DWM 193X I scored for $800). Heck I even paid $1,000 for my mismatch (two small parts) but of course it came with a 1937 holster and an extra mag (both match).

Luger has become one of my favorite pistols, and something in terms of engineering I doubt we will see again. Eyeing up a nice .30 luger now.

todbiker · Mar 10, 2013

Is that metal piece on the back-strap a safety like on a 1911?

Regardless, Congrats! that's a great looking pistol

mawkie · Mar 10, 2013

todbiker said:
Is that metal piece on the back-strap a safety like on a 1911?

Regardless, Congrats! that's a great looking pistol

Yup, it's a grip safety. Every Swiss Luger produced had one from the first Model 1900 to the last 1906/29 built in 1947.
The Swiss were the first to adopt the Luger for their military and one of the last to give it up for the equally impressive SIG P210. In my eyes the early Swiss Model 1900 is nothing short of stunning, almost as much high art as engineering. The 1906/29 is a plain looking cousin in comparison as the Swiss re-engineered it to cut production costs.
And while I carried a derivative of the Colt 1911 as my personal sidearm, trusting my life to it, I have to admit that the Luger is one of my favorite handguns to shoot. Easily the most instinctive pointing pistol I've experienced. Yet that wonderful grip angle also makes it prone to feed failures (and try to load a Luger magazine w.o. a tool to help depress the stiff magazine spring!). Will have to comb the market to find some .30 Luger ammo and give it a go, it's too tempting not to.

mawkie · Mar 10, 2013

h2u said:
I expect no less from you, sir
Congrats on a great Luger and another fine piece to the collection

Thank you my friend!
When the last batch of Finn Lugers was imported back in 2005 I didn't take the plunge. Years later I regretted it (the story of my collecting life). So when this big batch of Swiss Lugers came up for auction I was determined not to let one go if at all possible.

mawkie · Mar 10, 2013

Walleyeco said:
Well done and congratulations. Looks like you really did your research and hopefully it will be as good as it looks... I recently bought a Ruger mini-14 at Cowan's auction using the same more = less philosophy.. It kills me to pay the ~18% buyers premium though.. I've been watching and waiting to buy a good, solid USGI M-1. I will really get serious when my C&R comes in.. Thanks for sharing.

-Glad to hear you got the Ruger you wanted! Cowans is a good house to deal with.
-Yeah, these high buyers premiums suck and just depress hammer prices as most are not willing to bid up to market and then throw an additional 18-20% at a lot. I always factor that in when bidding. Look at it this way, it could be worse. Alex Cooper in Towson charges 20% plus the MD sales tax for a whopping 26% bite. At the one and only auction of theirs that I attended old man Cooper himself was bitching that the lots weren't fetching the market level pre-auction estimates. Doh! Do ya think the 20% buyers premium might have had something to do with it?? That 1903 Springfield isn't any more valuable just because I bought it from your auction house! Clueless.

Pyramid · Mar 10, 2013

mawkie said:
Thank you my friend!
When the last batch of Finn Lugers was imported back in 2005 I didn't take the plunge. Years later I regretted it (the story of my collecting life). So when this big batch of Swiss Lugers came up for auction I was determined not to let one go if at all possible.

I want to pick one up sometime too. I keep kicking myself for not buying one when they were more available in the 80s.

todbiker · Mar 10, 2013

mawkie said:
In my eyes the early Swiss Model 1900 is nothing short of stunning, almost as much high art as engineering. The 1906/29 is a plain looking cousin in comparison as the Swiss re-engineered it to cut production costs.

From that combination of engineering/art you alluded, I would be inclined to call it a gentleman's weapon.

mawkie · Mar 10, 2013

todbiker said:
From that combination of engineering/art you alluded, I would be inclined to call it a gentleman's weapon.

That would be an excellent description.

Chaunsey · Mar 10, 2013

congrats from a fellow recent luger owner as well, you always get the nicest stuff, and yet you always get a great deal too!

thats a beauftiful luger, its a bit of a later relative to my portuguese 1906, yours being a slightly modified 1906 as well.

i too remember when AIM got these some years back, and they were going for about $950, i knew it was a good deal and really wanted one, but no matter how good a deal it was, $950 was just way more than i could afford at the time.

unfortunately you need to have pretty deep pockets to be a serious luger collector.

but man, i gotta start looking into some of these auctions, ive never bought from an auction myself.

lee2 · Mar 10, 2013

that is a beautiful piece!
i think i need a swiss model in my collection.

ma_deuce · Mar 10, 2013

Congrats, Mawkie. You got a deal even with the buyer's premium. I had another Luger on my list for 2013, but looks like I'll be getting another evil high-cap Hi-Power (or two) first.

mawkie · Mar 11, 2013

ma_deuce said:
Congrats, Mawkie. You got a deal even with the buyer's premium. I had another Luger on my list for 2013, but looks like I'll be getting another evil high-cap Hi-Power (or two) first.

Know where you're coming from! A German occupation Hi Power has been on my short list (even better if I could stumble across a Finn Hi Power!). Probably the only evil "high capacity" collectible I've been contemplating.

mawkie · May 26, 2019

Hard to believe it took me 6 years but I finally found my red bottomed canevasit magazine. I refused to pay $250 for the only other one I've seen in that time. Managed to snag this one on Evil Pay for the crazy cheap price of $66. The seller, FGS from Ohio, has been a good source for Luger parts over the years.
Always pushing patience to new levels!

WatTyler · May 26, 2019

A Luger is beautiful like a steam locomotive. So much of its insides are on the outside.

rseymorejr · May 26, 2019

Whenever I want to amaze myself I take a look at the action of an M1 Garand or a Luger P08. The imagination and mechanical ability the design and build those just boggles my mind.

somd_mustangs · May 26, 2019

Great snag on the mag !
the bases on those are so fragile it's hard to find nice ones.

mawkie · May 28, 2019

somd_mustangs said:
Great snag on the mag !
the bases on those are so fragile it's hard to find nice ones.

Add to the fact that the Swiss only used canevasit for a very brief period before going to bakelite, which proved to be more durable. So there weren't all that many mag bottoms done in canevasit. And when they broke they were replaced with bakelite. Thus my geeky excitement over a magazine bottom.

Took the Luger plunge

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