Question about safety of WW II pistols

[wrbtrader]

I am curious if any of the gun experts here have any thoughts on shooting a couple of pistols I inherited from my Dad when he passed away. One is a German Luger, and the other is a Walther, and obviously they are roughly 80 years old at this point. I have shot each a couple times a few years ago, but then got worried if with age maybe they should be checked out. I put them away, but got them out this last weekend. I called a couple of local gunsmiths and got different opinions. One said should definitely do a metalurgical structure check, and the other said he would clean them up and verify they are in shooting order, but shouldn't worry about any degradation due to age.
Anyone here with knowledge on these kind of antiques and whether a simple check over is good, or would it much wiser to go and have a full metalurgical check on the guns? I am inclined toward the full metalurgical check, but figured I would see what people here might throw out.

Have you had the Walther appraised ???

• Today it may be worth about 40k - 50k dollars.

I asked because those that were made are engraved with the recipient's name because it was typically given as a ceremonial gift.

Thus, American's that had one was due to it being taken off a dead German officer. My grandfather had one (damaged) and it was taken off of the German officer that his tank killed in a tank battle.

My mom now owns it plus additional WWII guns as the caretaker of them after they were handed down to her...all now locked up in a gun safe.

wrbtrader

 

[tango29]

Have you had the Walther appraised ???

• Today it may be worth about 40k - 50k dollars.

I asked because those that were made are engraved with the recipient's name because it was typically given as a ceremonial gift.

Thus, American's that had one was due to it being taken off a dead German officer. My grandfather had one (damaged) and it was taken off of the German officer that his tank killed in a tank battle.

My mom now owns it plus additional WWII guns as the caretaker of them after they were handed down to her...all now locked up in a gun safe.

wrbtrader

I will take a closer look in that case! As I mentioned the gun guy at Cabellas said roughly $1500 each at the time, but he didn't do a thorough examination since I said I wasn't going to sell, just wondering whether I needed to insure them extra on the homeowners policy.