Saw a Luger this morning.  Know family.  Legit WW2 bring back from ETO by grandpa.  Possibly/probably screwed with by grandpa.  No recognition as to type or era.

-9mm
-Script DWM on toggle
-a few crown/Ns here and there
-five digit serial number ONLY on two places at frame/barrel junction. 49xxx.
-NO last two digits anywhere on small parts
-German last name and I.R. 74 cut into front strap
-trigger, safety, takedown still muted straw colors
-rest of gun medium dark blue, but almost certainly re-blued. Minimal prep.  Sharp corners etc.  Too smooth and shinny.  Barrel screwed up bluing like cold blue wiped on unevenly and then not oiled before tarnished margin of fluid.
-wood grip panels.
-shinny safety covering sear when safety on.
-Glieshnt, German word for safety on frame
-shinny bore

Seemed too sterile, devoid of markings, but not polished to death to remove them.

.?? A commercial gun??  Not marked as WW1 or WW2 with years etc on receiver/barrel.

Unit markings were on the grip straps in ww1.

Curious what name is on there.

IR. Posssibly Infantry Regiment rack number 74

@P08

Op you might cross post this in the C&R forum for more eyeballs.

OK.  I don’t see that in ar15.com?

Found. Signed on.  A waste.  “(You have insufficient privileges to post here.)”

Is it a .30 Luger or 9mm? They did press commercial guns into service which that one started out to be as military guns will be 1-4 numbers and a letter suffix after the 9999'th gun. Any pics? But it sounds like a commercial gun.

It is arfcom

Armory then sub forum Curio and Relic.   But probably the best arfcom subject expert is here now.

Edit.  VHAT IS DIE NAMEN?   VE HAVE VAYS OF MAKING YOU TALK.

The name might not be a soldier’s name maybe but a Regiment?   I am speculating wildly but some Regiments went by other than a regiment number.   I have no idea if it would have been used on a pistol marking.   Like the Hoenzolleran (sp?).   Not that they would put all that lettering on.

Other things like Jaeger, a light infantry regiment type, but that would be just a J for Jaeger.  As my novice level understanding knows it.

J for jaeger
I for Infantry
MG for machine gun
Etc

Years ago I came across a site, might have been the Luger site, that had pictures of grip markings.   I was mildly fascinated.   Wish I could link it for you.

To identify it you need to specify the features that matter:

1) Blank or dated chamber and other marks above the chamber on the barrel
2) the toggle marks
3) Early (dished) or late (flat, checkered) toggle style
4) stock lug or no stock lug
5) Grip safety or no Grip safety
6) "safe" with the safety in the up or down position
7) Safety lever marking (polished bright, blued, marked GESICHERT, RUST or SAFE
8) barrel length (4 3/4", 6", 8" or 11 3/4"
9) describe all the proof marks or acceptance marks (crown N, 3 crowns, army, navy, police, etc)
10) any date marks

Provide that information and I can narrow what you have down to a a single or at worst a few variants.

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Front strap marking:

WWI era unit markings were done as such on the front strap.  Example 51 .K.6.49  where the 51 denotes the 51st regiment, theK denotes a cavalry regiment, the 6th indicates the 6th company and the 49 is the weapon number in the company. For Landwehr unit marking abbreviations, an "I" would be an abbreviation for Ingolstadt and "R" is the abbreviation for Regensburg.  However for Unit Type marking abbreviations, an I is for infantry and an R is for Infantry Regiment - but you would not see both an I and an R under this system.

Where you'd see an I.R. is during the Weimar era, where an I.R. 74 would denote the 74th Infantry Regiment.

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Serial number placement:

Both contract and commercial model Lugers used a single sequence, as did the Krieghoff commercial and Luftwaffe Lugers.  For commercial lugers, each model started at 1, so there is a 1900 model with "1",  a 1902 with "1", a 1904 with "1", a 1906 with "1", a 1908 with "1", etc.  Contract pistols all started at 1 for each contract.

Military serials went from 1-10000, then added an "a" prefix and rinsed and repeated for the entire calendar year, then started over at 1.  However, you will also encounter some post war commercial Lugers with military serials as they were constructed on surplus military frames in 1920, as well as some Mauser made commercial lugers with military serials in the v and w blocks.

On a commercial pistol there will be a serial on the front of the frame and immediately above it on the barrel, and on the left side of the frame.  There will also be 2 digit numbers on the lower left side of the breechblock, the bottom of the front toggle link, the back of the rear toggle link, the bottom edge of the side plate, the bottom of the takedown lever, the top left of the trigger, the grip safety under the grip (if present), and the inside surface of the grips.  Inn other words, on the commercial pistols the last two digits of the serial number are on the small parts but hidden as much as possible so as to not detract from the fine polish of the pistol.

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Proof mark:

The crown N proof mark was the standard nitrocellulose powder proof mark from 1906 to 1940, so that doesn't tell you much

Actually it does. It tells you that the gun was a commercial model of which some were pressed into service.