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The Luger Pistol
Type:
Single Action
Chamber: 9x19mm Luger/Para
Weight unloaded: 2 1/2 lbs
Over all length: 9"
Barrel length: 4"
Capacity: 8 rounds
Click Here for animation of the Luger
In 1908 the Luger Pistol was accepted into the German Military as the "Parabellum Luger 08" made by Georg Luger. Luger's Design came from the Borchard pistol. He basically took the bulky and cumbersome design of the Borchard design and made it into a beautiful and sleek pistol. The pistols first service was seen by Switzerland when they adopted it in 1900. But this version was different than the one that would be produced for Germany 8yr later. This one had a much smaller cartridge, a 7.65mm round. In 1904 the German Navy wanted Lugers for its ships and U-boat men to carry, but they made one requirement, that the Round be made larger. So Georg sat down and designed the most popular round in use today, the 9mm cartridge. The German navy accepted this pistol into service, and 4yr later so would the rest of the German Military. It now had its place in History.
In the early 1900's the American army also tested this weapon when it was still using the 7.65mm round. Most Military men complained that it was Too complicated for most men, Too expensive, Too small of a caliber, and was prone to jamming. The Luger pistol was eventually turned down in favor of the 1911 colt auto pistol. In all of my time in owning a Luger, I have not once had this pistol jammed on me, but in battlefield conditions I can see how it would. The spaces are much too tight to let dirt get into this pistol, and if this were to happen feeding problems would occur. Also the complaint about it being too Complicated is not really all that true, it took me about 5min to learn how to disassemble and reassemble my Luger, and surprisingly it's very simple, as long as you know how to do it. But this pistol was very complicated to Manufacture, and also very expensive. Even with these draw backs one thing about this pistol could not be over looked, the accuracy of it. The reason for the accuracy it mainly because of the wonderful design of the grip. It allows the perfect balance in the weapon, allowing wonderful accuracy to be achieved.
In WWI it preformed very well as long as the Officer or man using it cleaned it regularly. But with all of the mud a dirt getting into the Luger, it would often jam. Many men chose to use the Mauser C96 instead of the pistol because of this reason, and I don't blame them at all, I personally would not want to use this in the trenches, because if it jammed, you were most likely dead. But in spite of all of this it was still produced and issued in high quantities.
20yr later with the rise of Adolf Hitler this weapon again, began production. This pistol was used in I wouldn't say limited numbers, but you didn't see it too often, mainly because it had been replaced in 1938 but the Walther P.38 pistol. Even though it had been replaced it was still produced during WWII, I personally believe because of the mystique that the Luger carried with it, when most people look at a Luger, including me, you cannot help but think of Germany, and I think that is one reason it was still in production in WWII. Today the Luger is highly sought after by collectors because of the simple beauty and mystique behind this weapon.