As the son of two German born parents I have long had an affinity for firearms from that country… but these two mean more to me than the others.


On top: The ‘Family Luger’:
Before I knew the story behind the P.08 I was asked a question about it by the young lady I was dating at the time.  She was moving out of an apartment into her own condo and her father thought she should have a gun for self protection.
She asked me if a Luger was a good choice for a novice gun owner.  While she had been deer hunting with her Dad, she was not a ‘handgun person’.  I opined that a 6-shot .38 revolver would be a better choice for her situation.  
Skip ahead to the two of us eloping to Reno to get married.  My new FIL was very happy that we saved him some big wedding costs that he gave me the Luger as a wedding gift.  41 years later my wife still calls it “the bribe”.
It turns out the gun was a WWII bring-back by his brother.  The brother died in Korea and the pistol went to my FIL.  So now I am keeper of the Family Luger.  BTW, it is a very fine shooter!

Lower: ‘The Gift:
A friend of 65 years and retired Green Beret gave me this P38 in 1979 for helping him sell off his gun collection before he moved to Germany. He had been stationed in Berlin during Vietnam and wanted to go back to his then girlfriend and live in Hamburg permanently. That never happened. He is still in Portland OR and has rearmed! The gun has all matching numbers, including the magazine, plus all Nazi markings are intact. It came with a hard shell holster marked ‘1941’ and ‘P38’ and has a name written on the inside of the top flap.

Both cost me $0 but are priceless. I hope my two grandsons will take good care of them.

Beautiful and great stories in how you acquired them.

A couple of VERY Fine looking weapons you have there, Sir!

Nice pair & story. Thank yo for sharing these. Cheers

Beautiful! I love how those early P.38s have the stamp on the hammer (and sometimes on other small parts).

Beautiful historic pair in such great condition. Nice addition to your collection.

Beautiful. BTW you probably already know but AC is the manufacturer code for "Walther" and 41 is obviously 1941. So yours was actually made in the Walther factory. I have an AC41 also.

Beautiful AC41

Lovely guns Z06. And they came to you in great circumstances.

Beautiful, both of them. Great stories attached as well.

That P38 in particular catches my eye. I also have an all-matching AC44 (save for the Spreewerk magazine), and there's myriad tiny differences. Neat to compare. Mine is not in as nice of shape as yours, and the machining is very rough. This thing was never polished at the factory, and every piece on yours clearly was - that's a beautiful finish. Being late war, this is not a surprise, but it is nice to see what the earlier examples look like. Thanks for posting!

Thanks all. Since the grandsons are currently 14 and 9 these two guns may hopefully have a long run in the family.

Z06 thanks for posting the excellent photo of your Luger and P38 along with the story of how you acquired both pistols, very interesting. I'v been watching a youtube channel Legacy Collectables that features both pistols in their weekly episodes. Lots of good info.

You need a PP series pistol.

You need a P5C !

Nice!

Those sure are purty!

Beautiful pistols.I have an all matching(except for the mag)AC 41 also. The P38 was one of the first DA/SA sidearms issued. The DA trigger pull is horrendous, but the SA is nice. It obviously replace the Luger. I have a DWM 1916 Luger also. It's all matching except for the mag which is an aluminum bottomed WW2 issue. Who manufactured your Luger?????

I've owned multiple P38s, but never a Luger. Always wanted one, but never enough to pony up the cash. I handled a Mauser example once (BYF) and was amazed at the quality and precision fit of the parts.

MMSIG229 the Luger is a typical late war factory (?) refurb mixed parts gun. It has several serial #s on various parts. The toggle is marked byf and 42. The Germans were getting as many small arms back in service but they still put together a very complete and reliable gun. Except for the 'mix-master' markings it's a great gun.