Well crap - didn't even see this forum here. I also have this over on the C&R forum, but I figure this would be a good place for it as well.

My grandfather on my mom's side was an artillery Captain in the 3rd Army during WWII in Germany and France. There's not much of a story to this gun other than he brought it back with him. He was killed in Korea in 1950. The only sort of documentation we have for the gun is when my step-grandfather (grandma remarried in 1952) registered it with the IRS on Form 4467 during the 1968 NFA amnesty (pre ATF, long before these were exempted from the NFA). My mom died in 2003, so the gun went to my aunt. My aunt's not doing so good these days, so she has passed it along to me.

My quick & dirty research puts it as a prewar commercial model, but it has the NS-marked hammer and a safety with a through-hole which conflicts with some of the info I'm finding, so I'm assuming it had some updates done. It has all matching numbers (including one I missed until after I took the pics), and it has little finish wear save for the barrel. The magazine spring snapped at the floor plate years ago, courtesy of a young boy who had not yet been introduced to stripper clips. The leather is marked 1916. There is a handwritten name of "Sergt. Gobbel" along with some other letters & numbers which I assume relate to his unit. There is a blacked-out area which could have been a previous owner, and if you hold the holster in the light just right, you can see the faint remnants of a name that appears to have been written on the leather at one point.

I'll let the pics tell the rest of the story.

WOW WOW WOW

Very nice .......

I would advise against storing it in the stock, or inserting/removing it often though.......it does no favors to the condition of the gun/finish.....

If I might suggest...take these pics and post them on the Jan C Still Luger and Axis Pistols Discussion Board. Those guys will tell you exactly what you have and will probably include it in a registry that some of the members are trying to compile regarding all these types of pistols. I have a 1916 Red Nine C96 that has turned to have some somewhat rare police issue stampings according to an author that hangs around on that forum.

to all of those wondering why the sights go out so far, two words.

Volley fire.

Damm, now that is a nice one. Only gun I ever really wanted. Had a chance to get one about 15 years ago and no where in as good a shape as that one. Should have bit the bullet back then and didn't.

That pistol probably rightfully belongs to me. My last name is Goebel (could be the Americanized version of Gobbel).

It's interesting that leather is marked with Sergt Gobbel because the rank of Sergeant did not exist in German military in either war. Instead they had Unteroffizier and Feldwebel ranks for NCO's.