Museum's inventory: Luger P08

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dauph197

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Here is one of our almost a dozen Lugers.

This one has a long barrel. Who were the user of this long barrel version? I found it was mostly an artillery pistol and also heard about a Navy version. Anyone specialist of the Luger pistol here?

Martin













 
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Years ago I was visiting a friend who was the curator of an army museum in San Francisco.
Customs had just confiscated 6 MINT Swiss Artillery lugers from someone who had tried sneaking them in.
As a government museum, we had first call on stuff like that. When we picked them up, the idiot at customs offered to WELD THEM UP. (but he would only do it on one side) Needless to say the offer was declined.
Unfortunately, the Smithsonian museum in Washington had more clout, so they took the guns from us.
The interesting bit is the guy had removed the magazine springs and stuffed the magazines with more parts. Anyway, the Smithsonian got the guns, but we kept the spare parts.:)
 
It's a very nice artillery Luger.

These Luger's was in use by machine guns squad member, because these soldiers use a machine gun, but no rifle.

They have these pistols for close range defence. Normaly, they come with a 32 rounds snail drum magazine.

Look, I think you have a machine gun unit number on the front of the grip. With this number, for history, you can made some researh.
 
Hey Guys,

I changed the title to be just about Luger. Here another Luger from the collection and I wonder if the German Eagle is a fake one or a real one. The Luger is marked 1916 and the German Eagle is well after this period. So, a fake or a real one... your opinion?













 
I would think it would be a Third Reich-period rebarrel for Government use. The Eagle with Swastika was the National Ownership symbol of the period.

"Artillery" model had 8-inch barrel, also saw heavy use among machine-gunners. Model seems to have made its debut in 1914.

"Navy" Lugers had 6-inch barrels and a distinctive adjustable rear sight mounted on the rear toggle link. They are encountered in 2 different lengths of frame/receiver.

Note that COMMERCIALS also exist for all of these. Several years ago I was asked to identify an 'unusual' Luger. It was a Commercial Navy Luger, all matching, in 99% condition, pre-War serial number. I was SURE that it wanted to come home with me and meet Hugo and Fritz and Dietrich, but I was a few grand short at the time. The horrible part is that I had to GIVE IT BACK!!!

BE VERY CAREFUL buying a Luger CARBINE, especially if you are out on the West Coast. I knew a guy who MADE half a dozen of the things, each and every one the Kaiser's personal hunting pistol. Here's the thing: a GENUINE Carbine will always be a COMMERCIAL and they were UNDATED and serialled in a SPECIAL RANGE. His guns were DATED and had MILITARY SERIALS. People bought them, anyway and it's about time for some to be hitting the market again after spending 48 years in the safe. None of us getting any younger. Still, if you really want a Luger with a 12-inch or 16-inch tube.....

Hope this helps.
 
john@ said:
Maybe it was an old gun that was proofed during WW2?
Click to expand...

Let me add a couple of pointers for you about the 1918-dated DWM P08 in Post #7 above.

1. It SHOULD have ALL-matching numbers, including the last two digits on each component, as you can see on the P08 [Lange]. Check that this is the case. If not, you have a 'bitza'. Please show us the right-hand side as well as the underneath of the barrel where it meets the frame. It should have the calibre in the form of something like 8,89 or similar - this is the actual bore designation in millimetres. Germany uses/ed the comma as a period in decimal numbering. It might, as smellie notes, be a replacement barrel, although this is unusual unless it had a calibre change from 7.65 Luger to 9mm Parabellum. That serial number on the frame, devoid of the usual letter suffix, is giving me the doubts, TBH.

2. The alloy-base magazine is a post-1936 replacement for the original wooden-based issue, that was serial numbered to match the pistol. The grips should also be numbered to the gun, but look astonishingly good. Removing them is NOT straighforward, after taking off the grip screw, slide the plate VERY carefully backwards at the top to disengage it from a small lip on the frame. If you don't, then you WILL chip off the top left corner of the grip. In Luger circles we call this the 25% chip - this is because it devalues the gun by an average of 25% of its value - and I am NOT kidding you.

3. The 'gold'-coloured trigger, take-down latch and safety catch [?] are typical of the earlier models of P08 up to 1936-ish, when Mauser took over production. Thereafter all were blued, and later phosphated until production ended in 1942 and it was replaced by the Walther P38. This 'gold' colour is not a coating, but a heat treatment called 'strawing'.

4. The original proof was still acceptable - the nazi eagle stamp is that of the Heereswaffenampt - the overseeing organisation that contracted, tested and accepted every single item that went bang, flash, KA-boom or illuminate used by the Wehrmacht during the war period.

As for the P08 [Lange], it was also issue to submarine and to Zeppelin airship crews.

tac, formerly of Lugerforum.com
 
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Martin,

As weimajack suggested you might want to find out more about the unit marking on the grip strap of the Artillery Luger.
If you take photos of the markings I might be able to find out for you.

David

122 FÜSILIER REGIMENT (4.WURTTEMBERG) (122.R.4.6.)

122.R.4.6.: 122. FÜSILIER-REGIMENT (4. WURTTEMBERG), 4. KOMPAGNIE, WAFFEN NR. 6.










A matching magazine.





Snail drum magazine and loader for the Artillery Lugers.
The TM08 (snail drum magazine) was introduced into action in 1917.



From Jan Still's Luger Forum.

NOTE; LP08s are Artillery Lugers.

Of 888 reported unit marked Imperial Lugers 102 are LP08's. Of these 102, 76 were issued to infantry regiments, 11 to infantry regiment machine gun companies, 11 to infantry regiment minenwerfer companies, 8 to artillery regiments and 6 to various other units.
By far most unit marked LP08's, 75, are dated 1917. Of these 75 1917 dated LP08's, 64 are marked to Infantry Regiments, 6 to Infantry Regiment Machine Gun Companies, 8 to Minenwerfer Companies and 3 to other units. These unit marked 1917 dated LP08's mostly went to the assault troops

1917 LP08 DWM: predominantly infantry regiment (85 percent) Lugers were marked and issued. Some infantry regiment machine gun and minenwerfer Lugers were also marked and issued.
The number of LP08's marked to infantry regiments during 1917, 64, is very large when compared to infantry regiment marked P08's . This very large number of infantry regiment marked LP08's is related to the issue of LP08's to assault troops on the Western Front during 1917.



 
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dauph197 said:
Hey Guys,

I changed the title to be just about Luger. Here another Luger from the collection and I wonder if the German Eagle is a fake one or a real one. The Luger is marked 1916 and the German Eagle is well after this period. So, a fake or a real one... your opinion?













Click to expand...

This is an interesting one, I would like to see more pics of all stampings. It appears to be a comercial Luger. It should have a serial number where the eagle is stamped unless the serial was ground off. Are there numbers on the front of the takedown lever or under the takedown lever?
 
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