1942 dated P-08 for comment

[rickystl]

Hello all. New to this Forum. I'm a collector/shooter of earlier antique guns. So I'm more of a novice with Luger pistols. But I'm trying to help a friend who inherited this pistol. I'm attaching pics and description of what is known, and appears to be complete. But thought I would post it here on this Forum to see if any of you experts might be able to add any information not already shown in the description. Thanks for any help. Rick

[rickystl]

And here is the description page...........

[Lyn Islaub]

An honest byf 41 Luger with an armorers replacement (42 marked) magazine. Lots of surface finish wear from your photos, but maybe with less flashback from your camera it looks better.

[rickystl]

Hi Lyn

Thanks for your comments. You're right about the finish. I would say it retains about 50% of the original blueing which has turned into the typical dark blue-brown patina. Mechanically, it functions fine and the rifling still looks good. I guess you would say used but not abused. Thanks for the clip ID.
Another novice question: I was under the impression that during the WW11 the Walter P-38 replaced the P-08 as the standard German side arm. And one reason was the cost of the Luger. If so, which German units were issued the Luger versus the P-38 ?

Rick

[HerrKaiser]

Rick,

They were both standard issue during the war. It was a pretty big one and the Germans, and the allies too, desperately needed every gun they could lay their hands on. Handguns included. Pretty much any pistol in 9mm parabellum was good for front line service in the Wehrmacht. Smaller pistols or captured pistols with calibers outside the typical supply chains filled roles for rear units, MP's, occupation units, souvenirs, etc.

Plenty of P-08's were still in inventory, and produced, during the war. They would have been standard issue the whole war, but being increasingly less common to be issued later in the war as P-08 production wound down and eventually ceased as the P-38 supplanted it.

[rickystl]

Hi HerKaiser

Thanks for the mini history lesson. That makes sense. Even though I'm a collector/shooter of much earlier guns, I find the Luger a most interesting pistol with an even more interesting history. Thanks again for your help. Much appreciated.

I can remember around 1964/65 there was a regular running add on the back of the NRA magazine offering standard P-08's for $49.95, and P-38's for $39.95. LOL (serial numbers didn't match).

Rick

[Lyn Islaub]

For Wehrmacht purchases, official manufacturing stopped in December 1942 with S/N 149m. with a few assembled after that from left over small parts. An additional 1,000 went to Portugal and Bulgaria. Kreighoff manufactured between 10,000 and 12,000 P-08s from 1935 through up until 1945, but they were exclusive to a Luftwaffe contract. There were also Mauser Lugers manufactured for the Kriegsmarine and Luftwaffe, but they were not uniquely marked. Lugers stayed in use throughout the war, but the P-38 was the primary Wehrmacht issue pistol after December 1942. Is that confusing enough??
Lyn

[Zorba]

Because not everybody has access to the proprietary format used, here is a PDF of this gun's description, attached.

[rickystl]

Thanks Zorba. I didn't know how to convert to PDF.

I would like to thank all who replied. Much appreciated.

Rick