The John Eckert Collection

John Eckert

John Eckert was born and raised in southern Indiana, where he developed a love of guns at a very early age. His older cousin described the first time he saw a gun, probably around the age of 4 or 5, when he was allowed to handle his uncle’s (unloaded) service revolver. Young John carried it around all day and did not even want to part with it to go to bed.

He grew up participating in shooting competitions and hunting squirrels in the woods near his home in the small town of Osgood. In college he enrolled in ROTC at the University of New Mexico, and went on to become a Naval aviator, piloting C-130 and Super Constellation airplanes in Spain and later in Guam during the Viet Nam War. His travels also took him to Germany, where he attended language school and became proficient in German. He went on to earn a master’s degree in comparative literature and an MBA. He eventually parted from the military and went on to a successful career with the US Forest Service as a lead plane pilot, flying over forest fires throughout the southwestern US. Eventually he retired in Albuquerque, NM, and devoted a significant portion of the next 30 years to collecting and displaying German Luger Pistols.

John discovered a fondness and fascination with the Luger pistol as a young man, and purchased his first one at the age of 19, on March 26, 1959. Over the decades since, he established the world-class collection of Lugers we presently bring to auction. His painstaking research on and presentation of these guns earned him innumerable awards and accolades. In his trophy room are doublet, triplet and quadruplet “Best of Show” awards spanning 50 years of displaying at venues such as Phoenix, AZ., Greeley, CO., Sioux Falls, SD. Denton, TX., Columbus, OH., Albuquerque, NM., and more. His firearm collecting affiliations included The Texas Gun Collectors Assn, Ohio Gun Collectors Assn, Colorado Gun Collectors Assn, The NRA, a lifelong subscriber to American Rifleman, and a lifelong member of the Amateur Trapshooting Association.

Found in the front pocket of his trap shooting vest after his passing in November 2025, was a pristine copy of the ATA rule booklet, copyright 1958. This finding sums up all that he kept. He was a meticulous archiver, collector, and caretaker; whether it was his 1974 BMW 2002, his Lugers, or even a 1982 Sharp carousel microwave, still in excellent working condition 44 years later. His mantra on purchasing durable goods was “Buy the very best you can afford, and take care of it”. His Luger ensemble expresses the 3 pillars of collecting: “Desirable when new, uncommon now, and in good condition.”

Between gun shows, John stayed busy visiting family and friends all over the country and abroad, going on yearly backpacking fishing trips with children and grandchildren in the Weminuche Wilderness in Colorado. He also went on multiple fishing trips to Alaska, traveled to Egypt, Australia and England, and spent as much time as possible “generally goofing off.” If you asked him how retirement was, it was always met with a smile, smugly remarking, “Beats working.”

Poulin Auctions has the distinct honor to bring John’s extraordinary collection to the market. This opportunity presents Luger collectors around the world the ability to examine firsthand and acquire one of the many extremely fine & rare examples that his collection was comprised of.