Found a Luger in the ceiling.

gerrycaruso

gerrycaruso

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A friend found a Luger pistol in the ceiling,during renovation of a house he just bought. It was in the oiginal holster with 1 magazine. It was made by Mauser (S/42) in 1937. It looks like a typical 4" military model except for the finish. It looks like it's chrome plated. Unfortunately,it's heavily corroded. Does anybody know if the army or possibly the navy ever produced this model with a chrome or nickel finish? It really was found by a friend,not by me and he brought it to the police station before I found out about it.
 
MassMark said:
Your friend is a dumbass...

Just kidding - I would have just hung onto it....Does he have his LTC? I'm not aware of chromed Lugers, but someone else might be. Will be a shame if it gets chopped up...
Click to expand...

Yeah right, some cop will take it home with them... assuming the cop was smart.
 
A friend of mine's father brought back a P38, and for some reason prior to bringing it back it was chrome plated in Germany - maybe they were doing that routinely for awhile?

Nice find, too bad it got turned in.
 
Is there any way that you or someone else with an LTC that he knows get it from the police? Or can they hold on to it while he gets his LTC?
 
If it was turned into the PD, it was sent for destruction. That is the rules in MA!

TTBOMK, Lugers were not chromed by the factory in that vintage. So unless it was done special for Hitler or one of his top SS brass, that significantly detracted from its historical value as a collector's item.
 
What a dumb $hit and you can tell him that everyone over at NES thinks so!

And yes, back in the day, after the second big one. GI's had their war "momentous" chromed quite often. Too bad because it took away from the value, but heck! It sure was shiny!

Did I mention dumb ass?

[crying]
 
nothing like giving away a several thousand dollar piece of history to the PD who will have it destroyed or locked away in evidence till the cows come home ... I think someone already used the word dumbass a few times... :eek: )
 
A few years ago I read about an old army barracks being torn down. When the demolition people started ripping out the pipes and intereior or the building they came across a Colt Single Action wrapped in original oil skin and tucked away between the floor joists. Apparently, it was still in pristine shape so the person who discovered it took it home and called the Colt factory to see what they could tell him. Turns out that it was issued to a Cavalry unit that was stationed at that base/fort. After doing some more research it was discovered that it was reported missing by a cavalry trooper during one of the Indian battles.
It seems that this trooper decided he wanted the revolver even after his discharge but never managed to retrieve it. It had been sitting there all those years waiting to be found.
It was a really great story to read and got me thinking about all the buildings on Ft. Devens. Especially where I live within a couple of miles of it. I have always wanted to take a metal detector over there to see what I could find.
 
LenS said:
If it was turned into the PD, it was sent for destruction. That is the rules in MA!

TTBOMK, Lugers were not chromed by the factory in that vintage. So unless it was done special for Hitler or one of his top SS brass, that significantly detracted from its historical value as a collector's item.
Click to expand...


Destruction is the way it is _supposed_ to work...
 
Thanks for the help with the chrome plating.I suspected it wasn't original but don't know anything about lugers. My father-in-law gave me a P38 he took from a german soldier.I'm glad he didn't have it chromed.He also had an MP40 but didn't send it home. He bent the barrel and threw it in the river right after a bunch of GI's almost shot the sh*t out of him when they heard it firing. I'll be happy to pass along the many,many,many dumb ass remarks
 
Cross-X said:
Destruction is the way it is _supposed_ to work...
Click to expand...

Agreed, that's why I said it was the "rules" in MA. Of course if anyone does take it home and later gets caught, kiss the job, pension and your home sweet home goodbye . . . he's likely to see jail time over that in this anti-gun Commiewealth.
 
gerrycaruso said:
A friend found a Luger pistol in the ceiling,during renovation of a house he just bought. It was in the oiginal holster with 1 magazine. It was made by Mauser (S/42) in 1937. It looks like a typical 4" military model except for the finish. It looks like it's chrome plated. Unfortunately,it's heavily corroded. Does anybody know if the army or possibly the navy ever produced this model with a chrome or nickel finish? It really was found by a friend,not by me and he brought it to the police station before I found out about it.
Click to expand...

The blurb from the "Standard Catalog of Military Firearms":

Dated Chamber S/42
4", 9mm caliber. The chamber area is dated 1936-1940, and there is a stock lug. The extractor and safety are marked. In 1937 the rust blue process was eliminated entirely, and all subsequent pistols were salt blued. There were many thousands manufactured with one- to five-digit serial numbers--- some with a letter suffix.

Value
Exc: 1600
VG 1200
Good 850
Fair 500
Poor 400
 
Forget it. Everywhere I link to redirects away from the file. If you watched the 70s show, you know what I was linking too.
 
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Everybody keeps saying "What a dumbass!"

What we are really seeing here is just how succesfull society can be in PROGRAMING it's members via constant repetition through the schools, the media, etc.

Guns are dangerous. You need the government's permission to have one. If you find one and you keep it, you will be in a lot of trouble, maybe go to jail, maybe lose your job.

The average sheeple really believes this now.

Regards
John
 
RickG said:
A few years ago I read about an old army barracks being torn down. When the demolition people started ripping out the pipes and intereior or the building they came across a Colt Single Action wrapped in original oil skin and tucked away between the floor joists. Apparently, it was still in pristine shape so the person who discovered it took it home and called the Colt factory to see what they could tell him. Turns out that it was issued to a Cavalry unit that was stationed at that base/fort. After doing some more research it was discovered that it was reported missing by a cavalry trooper during one of the Indian battles.
It seems that this trooper decided he wanted the revolver even after his discharge but never managed to retrieve it. It had been sitting there all those years waiting to be found.
It was a really great story to read and got me thinking about all the buildings on Ft. Devens. Especially where I live within a couple of miles of it. I have always wanted to take a metal detector over there to see what I could find.
Click to expand...


I have been working at Devens during a lot of demo and rehab. Haven't seen or heard of anyone finding any kind of old gun, but there is no shortage of metal in the buildings and in much of the surrounding soil, only problem is that it is all lead and not of the spent ammunition type. Plenty of asbestos too
 
A few years ago (2-3?) some construction workers building the hotel over on Devens found a case of grenades dating to WW2.
There is also a pill box that over looks the old POW camp, now it covers the Budweiser warehouse.
I also had the chance to explore the Edelweis mirror building that used to be a Hospital during WW1. Now that was cool. That building is loaded with hidden rooms and compartments. It is also said to be haunted with some of the many Doeboys from WWI.
What really interests me are the really old parts of the base and what may have been dropped or buried around the buildings.
 
Actually, here's the skinny on Chrome Plated Lugers. I did some research on it when co-worked told me he still had his dad's chrome plated Luger that he brought home from the war. He had been cherishing it, and hadn't even touched it in decades.

NO (I repeat NO!) Lugers were chrome plated by the Germans. They all had standard black oxidized coatings.

Some soldiers, returning home from the war, thought it would help preserve their prizes from rusting if they chrome plated them. Several chrome plating companies seemed to specialize in handling this. Some of the chrome plating jobs were so botched that the parts were all chrome "welded" together. The platers didn't take those guns apart, and plate the individual parts, they chromed the entire gun assembly. Just a solid glob of chrome. I know, welding isn't the right term. Just wanted to give you the visual.

Typically, the chrome plating did little more than make a lot of parts very fragile. Springs, extractors, and the like. Often, the inside of barrels got chromed also, making the lands and grooves very inaccurate.

The collectible value of the chromed guns is most often less than the value of the nazi leather holsters that came with them. A Luger in good original (oxide finish) these days is about $550 to $1200. A chromed one is barely worth $200.

I convinced my co-worker that his dad's Luger was a shooter, not a collectible. A few parts broke right away, most likely because of the embrittlement from the chrome plating. Fortunately, there are replacement parts aplenty for these guns.

He now shoots it regularly, and is taking up reloading 9mm Luger (the round that we 9mm shooters use is STILL usable in the old Lugers. ) to support his new found joy. He leaves the leather holster in his safe, and carries the chrome plated Luger in a plastic carry case to the range.
 
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I'm sorry to do this, but I just can't help myself.


This is the only thing I've ever found in a ceiling:

ceiling.jpg
 

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