1916 DWM Luger with Black Widow Grips

[sheepdog]

My dad bought this 1916 DWM Luger in 1960 along with a nice Quist made m40 helmet, 1937 holster, tool, three boxes of 1944 ammo and an armband for $100. Yes the good old days. The Luger is numbers matching except for two Waa 655 aluminum based magazines. Most of the bluing is quite good, some slight discoloration on the side plate and front of the grip, some holster wear but no pitting, a little strawing left. It came with original Black Widow grips when my dad bought it. I know they are original cause I posted it on the Luger forum and was flooded with inquiries about selling the grips and these folks were offering some serious money.

I've always wondered how these grips wound up on this Luger. Did Mauser Oberndorf rebuild Lugers and replace the cracked originals or did some GI just swap them out with his buddy? We will never know.

We used to shoot this one all of the time back in the 60s. I got it when my father died in 1992 and swore I'd shoot it when I retired. Well I retired in Dec. 2016 and a few days later after a good cleaning and some oiling I took it to the range. One magazine worked flawlessly and the pistol proved to be quite accurate.

 

[mrfarb]

Nice. I’d say the black grips were supplied to the depot system, and probably put on as replacements. The magazines are depot spares too if they aren’t numbered.


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[Bigdibbs88]

Show some more pics of you can. I don’t see an HzA stamp on the RR so you will have a hard time proving anything was done at a depot, could have been though. Are either of the mags unnumbered?

 

[mrfarb]

Grips were in the small parts box used by small Waffenwerkstatte, but agree you could never prove it.


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[sheepdog]

Both magazines are numbered. I've heard every story imaginable about the grips, from bubba to rework. I like the rework story better. I have several sets of Luger grips, none fit real good, the Black Widow grips fit perfectly. From what I was offered for them I can't help but think they don't hurt the value much if at all. Never the less it was left to me by my dad and I doubt I'd ever sell it.


Perhaps a certain member at the other site just happens to know everything about reworked Lugers on the front lines by armorer's helpers and their small workbox,

 

[mrfarb]

Well, it’s like having an unnumbered depot stock on a 98k, it is what it is. It doesn’t increase the value over the value of the sum of the parts. Those guys want the grips so they can make a black widow Luger out of a late 41-42 pistol with mismatched grips.


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