[woodguru]

When I was in the Air Force I had a supervisor that was a Master Seargeant that had brought home some very very nice pistols. I had over a dozen guns on base in the armory because I lived in the baracks. I was allowed to take off at noon if we had no pressing work to practice shooting at the range off base in Shreveport.

My supervisor knew I was a gun nut and asked if I wanted to buy some of the guns he got in Germany. The first set he brought to me was a consecutive serial numbers Sauer (not Colt/Sauer) Colt Peacemaker replica set, they were chambered in .357. He paid $125 for the pair and told me he wanted $250, I was all over them and he let me pay for them over three or four months. He sold me a very nice Luger for a hundred bucks (1973 remember). He had said that guys were absolutely not supposed to take Lugers, the Germans had an attitude about american soldiers having Lugers on them and it was a death sentence to get caught with one. He also said that the guys would occassionally get shaken down by their own officers looking for war souvenirs.

He then brought in the single most incredible firearm I have ever seen in my life, I think about it to this day and always will. It was a long barreled Luger in the fanciest Circasian Walnut presentaion case you could imagine. It had a stock in fancy figured walnut, and all the accessories like magazines and things. The pistol itself was the highly polished officer's with gold and silver inlays and engraving. We did not know what the initials at the time were but it was George Luger presenting it to Himmler.

Sgt. Wright wanted $2500 for this thing. I asked him if I could have it checked out by a large dealer there in Shreveport I knew and he let me take it. This was a huge dealer in town that carried all the highest end type firearms including english hand made stuff. I was offered $25k right then and there. Don't think it didn't occur to me I could take it and hand my boss his $2500 and everybody would be happy. I didn't, I told him that there was a $25k offer on the table but it was probably worth way more. Bottom line is he took the money and bought a house.

Roll forward to about the early 80's, I got all of the mainstrean gun and hunting magazines. I think it was Guns and Ammo had this pistol in all of it's professionally photographed glory on the back cover as an advertisement for a Christie's Auction it was going up on. There was quite a description and they had the initials researched and it's place as a gift from the founder of Luger to Hitler's second or third in command.

I would love to have or see that picture again, it's probably the most incredible thing I've ever had in my hands. It is undoubtedly the most historically and intrinsically valuable Luger ever made. I contacted Guns and Ammo but couldn't get a response as to whether they could find out what month or if they did that ad, I figured if I could find that out I could locate and purchase that edition or get it off of an electronic archive.

Any suggestions as to how to find that reference? I would love to be able to show friends that picture.