The LOC pistol. An example of Nazi chicanery.

[ccdjg]

This LOC pistol is an interesting pop-out pistol rarity that appears to be an exact copy of the German JGA Dolla Mark II, except that it has a ‘LOC’ medallion set into the grip, and it is impressed on the base of the grip with “Made in Japan”.








It is very rare and was only available in the USA in about 1938-1939. There has been much debate about the truth of the “Made in Japan” mark, and there are two schools of thought. Firstly, the statement could be true, and the pistol is a Japanese copy of the Dolla Mark II, or secondly it was a German-made Dolla MK II with fake markings, intended to deceive the US Customs at a time when Nazi German imports were banned. If the markings are true, then that would make it the only the second spring air pistol known to have been made in Japan. The pros and cons of these two schools of thought are discussed in detail in the Vintage Airguns Gallery here :

https://forum.vintageairgunsgallery....ols/#post-4077


Although the weight of evidence tended to favour the second theory, the alternative interpretation could still not be completely discounted. Now, a new piece of evidence has now come to light, thanks to the sharp eye of forum member Bruce (Buck25), which more or less clinches the ‘fake Nazi marking’ theory. An example of the LOC pistol has been found, which, despite being marked ‘Made in Japan’, has small stampings of the Nazi Eagle, in stylized form, on the cylinder, trigger guard, trigger and grip.









This Nazi eagle was used extensively on guns, both for secret coding and as proof marks. Here are some examples:





The question now is, why this particular gun stamped in this way, when all the others reported to date were not?

[Garvin]

The cheeky bleeders! Would the eagle motif not tip of the US Customs though? Or were they not looking very hard...?

[MDriskill]

VERY interesting!

I guess the next debate is whether our customs guys were Nazi sympathizers, or merely hugely incompetent...

[Faerie]

I'm somewhat suspicious about the rather crude nazi eagle being stamped in various places, and nowhere near as neatly as I'd expect on a German gun, however cheap.

As a subscriber to Ian McCollum's "Forgotten Weapons" channel I've seen a lot of disassembled or field stripped German guns, and the Germans seem to have been keen to put the serial number of guns on all the major parts/assemblies in the manner that this mystery pistol has the eagle stamp. It makes sense to serial those parts on a firearm but not on an extremely cheap air pistol, and even less sense to stamp those parts with a mark that means almost nothing. Somehow it just doesn't ring true, if you see what I mean ?

[ccdjg]

I'm somewhat suspicious about the rather crude nazi eagle being stamped in various places, and nowhere near as neatly as I'd expect on a German gun, however cheap.

As a subscriber to Ian McCollum's "Forgotten Weapons" channel I've seen a lot of disassembled or field stripped German guns, and the Germans seem to have been keen to put the serial number of guns on all the major parts/assemblies in the manner that this mystery pistol has the eagle stamp. It makes sense to serial those parts on a firearm but not on an extremely cheap air pistol, and even less sense to stamp those parts with a mark that means almost nothing. Somehow it just doesn't ring true, if you see what I mean ?

I suppose the marks could be fakes, but you would have to ask why would anyone bother? I could understand such faking on iconic firearms like luger and mauser, as the Nazi connection would increase value, but not on a humble air pistol that 99.999% of collectors would never have heard of.

If these pistols were first shipped out to Japan in large batches, either complete or as parts for assembly in Japan, perhaps one example per batch was marked to satisfy the German export controls. I just don't know.

[ogilkes]

Its an intriguing possibility. But I am a mite bit suspicious of he 'eagle' stamp on an airpistol. Why do that if the intent is to fool US customs? Given that stamping anything with an eagle or a swastika (look at the vast amounts of so-called Burghof silver and table linen now on sale to collectors of such stuff) until more evidence emerges needs to be treated with a very large grain of salt.

[nishijin]

Once upon a time, there was a very lucrative fakes market coming from the Soviet block, modifying both genuine Leica and Zorki/Fed to look like the very rare Nazi-emblazened Leica cameras of the era. Even in the 2000's and 2010's you would find people buying awful knockoffs thinking they were buying the genuine articles.

My money would be on something like that. The stamping looks too hooky.

[ccdjg]

Well, if the stampings are fake, they would have had to be done in the last 3-4 years, as the LOC controversy was not discussed until 2019. Prior to that the LOC was unknown, outside the Encyclopedia of Spring Air Pistols, 1st edition. Only an airgun nut who visited the Vintage Airgun Gallery or the AVA would have known about the LOC controversy and potential Nazi involvement.

Admittedly the seller of this pistol on the American Fleabay did know about the controversy, so you have to draw your own conclusions. In his favour, he does not seem to make much of the markings as a selling point.

[slow_runner]

This LOC pistol is an interesting pop-out pistol rarity that appears to be an exact copy of the German JGA Dolla Mark II, except that it has a ‘LOC’ medallion set into the grip, and it is impressed on the base of the grip with “Made in Japan”..

The question now is, why this particular gun stamped in this way, when all the others reported to date were not?

Perhaps it is the original sampler offered while the effort to fool the USA border was planned and agreed?

[Mr Pusk]

A right puzzle. Aren't Waffenamt marks usually accompanied by a code or two?

There's a huge list of marks here: https://militariatoday.com/militaria...arkings-codes/

I agree that the stampings look a bit untidy, but the one on the P38 used to illustrate the above isn't perfectly lined up either. On the other hand the sheer number of marks on the subject seems rather OTT for something that isn't exactly a front line weapon. Why would one of the German services want an issue air pistol? Were Waffenamt stamps usually found on air pistols of that period? On the trigger? If they weren't, I'd wonder why there was one here.

I'd be inclined to think that the marks were to pass it off as a Nazi piece for a post-war market, but against that I would have thought someone doing that would choose one of the designs with a swastika to make it more appealing to that market. That would be expensive to do though. This is a very stylised and simplified eagle of the style (I may well be wrong) more associated with the late war period.

Could it be that LOC added some "German" markings when it was made to give it a bit of desirability in the domestic market, ie to give the impression of it being a high quality import from Germany?

Either way it may have predated any "LOC controversy".

The only other possibility I can think of is that it is not a Waffenamt stamp of a stylised eagle but a stylised Condor and an import mark of an Andean country. Bolivia, for instance, uses Germanic imagery - I was once there during a public holiday when all the local organisations were parading through town. Very odd to see bands wearing Pickelhaubes and Imperial German military style jackets. I haven't found anything on a very cursory look though.

[nishijin]

This is bothering me and I'm going down a rabbit hole...

The marking looks very much like 46.

46 & 47. Mauser military proofs. S/42, 42, and BYF coded Lugers. Left and right proofs appear on barrel, right proof on breechblock.

https://www.lugerforum.com/lugermarkings/proof-4.html

Yobuff:

Waffenamts were issued to individual inspectors and groups and they were assigned to different plants at different times and thus waffenamts were known to change on different model guns. As example speaking only about the military on the Mauser HSC, they started out with the E/655, then went to an E/135 in large and small variation and then went to the E/WaA135 marking. ..... My suggestion, is get a nice reference book such as Jan Still's Axis Pistols..... As was already pointed out there are known examples of faked waffenamts being used and they are different based on who was doing the faking and on what gun. Such as the fake marks that were used on the Beretta's are different than the fake ones that show up on the Star B's.....

https://www.lugerforums.com/threads/...estion.122857/


A previous thread of yours on-here, stating effectively the LOC _is_ a JGA:

http://www.airgunbbs.com/showthread....azi-subterfuge


So then, a short thread indicating the stamp on your LOC could be WaAD20, widely forged:

https://www.gunboards.com/threads/wa...ystery.252676/


Finally, if you feel like making your own, €50 will buy you a stamp punch:

https://www.waffenamt-shop.com/en/6-...eriod-to-1945-

[ccdjg]

So then, a short thread indicating the stamp on your LOC could be WaAD20, widely forged:

https://www.gunboards.com/threads/wa...ystery.252676/

I was fascinated by the Gunboards thread cited above, and after reading it, at first I thought "Great, now we have two LOC pistols with Nazi marks, so the chance of faking is significantly reduced." Then I looked very closely at the pictures on this thread and compared them with the ones on American Fleabay, and lo and behold, they were the same gun! So back to square one.

Then I realised something not obvious from the Fleabay pictures, but clear on the Gunboards thread pictures, , this pistol does not have the "Made in Japan" stamped on the heel of the grip!


So this is the first known example of a LOC pistol not marked thus, and IMO proves once and for all that the LOC was a German-made rebadged version of the Anschutz JGA/Dolla Mk II pistol, and was not something that ever originated from Japan.


Irrespective of whether or not the Nazi markings are fake, the puzzle of why something intended to dupe the US Customs would have had give-away Nazi stampings on it now disappears. This particular pistol was never intended for deceptive export to the USA. It is so rare that I doubt it was ever sold in Germany. The labelling on the pistol box is in English, so it was not intended for the German market. The gun was available only in 1938-1939, so would not have been intended for the UK market, which leaves only the USA. The simplest explanation is that this particular example was one of the first to be exported to the USA, just before Anschutz was forced to resort to fake "Made in Japan" labelling to get the gun past US customs.

As to the possible faking of the marks, the comment made on the Gunboards Forum by the OP: "I just wonder why somebody would go in to trouble of reproducing this stamp just to mark this little air pistol?" echoes my own thoughts.

This little pistol still holds a lot of secrets.

[nishijin]

Indeed! Well, my exhaustive search over coffee this morning only helped (hindered) so much!

[ptdunk]

Fascinating stuff John,
I thought the story behind these pistols would always be speculation, but the the lack of ‘made in Japan’ as well as the LOC markings is the clincher for me for the Sneaky Germans idea.

Nice work.

Cheers,
Matt

[silva]

It is a fantasy peice. There is a whole cottage industry of spurious nazi makings on firearms and kit in the states and eastern europe. Often ruining perfectly authentic and interesting items. There are reproduction stamps of all different makers available. There are no nazi stamped Dolla pistols.