Luger Heaven

[Tango3]

I've always been intrigued by the Luger (more properly, a Parabellum). Finally, I finally got my hands on one and the wait was worth it. Boy, was it worth it!

Picked up an Interarms Mauser 9mm Parabellum (Luger), Swiss pattern. It was built between March and October, 1971, the first and last batch of Lugers built since the conclusion of WWII. It's LNIB, never shot ('till I shot it), hot blued, capable of holding 8+1 rounds of 9 mm.

I had no idea what to expect from the weapon in terms of precision, reliability, the trigger, the sights, recoil, and fun factor. After 600 rounds of various brands of 115 gr jacketed round nose I discovered: it's been the most out of the box precise weapon I've ever shot, no failures whatsoever in 600 rounds, sweet trigger...short take up, break and reset with no stacking or creep with a subjective pull of 4-4.5 lbs., old style iron sights (fixed narrow V'd rear peep sight and thin inverted dovetailed V'd front sight that were surprisingly easy to pick up and use (and incidental POA=POI), small felt recoil, and non stop grins to shoot. This baby is sweet!!

1737

1738

1739

Eric

[MajO]

Sounds like a keeper. Congratulations. nanner

[Tango3]

Sounds like a keeper. Congratulations. nanner

Thanks, Joe. It is a keeper!

Rick

[jmlutz]

Congratulations, enjoy it.

[Tango3]

Thank you, Mike. I can't stop myself from taking her to the range. Yahoo!

Rick

[Sheepdog]

Sweet!

[Riverpigusmc]

good for you :)

[AFJuvat]

Nice score. The P08 is a classic.

[Lonestar grips.]

nice!

I shot a friends Nazi era Luger a while back and it was fun to shoot and surprisingly accurate.

[Pirate]

It's amazing to see the ergonomics of how hand guns have changed over the years.

[skosh69]

Congrats Rick, beauty of a pistol.

[Caleb]

Nice pick up! Glad it shoots great for ya also. Enjoy that piece of history .

[Tango3]

Thanks one and all. Great shooter. Amazing how bank vault tight she is, reminding me of the tightest of custom fit 1911s. I experienced no break in period, however. It sure is strange to shoot a semi auto that has its barrel showing without a slide moving back and forth. And there's no doubt when the mag's empty with the toggle assembly standing up as it does. Note: this is one center fire your DON'T dry fire much the same as not dry firing .22lr 1911s. Field stripping is a breeze but detail stripping is anything but. The greater grip angle is very nice feeling and in no way odd after so long with 1911s.

I haven't run any defensive ammo through her and don't plan on it either given that it's my first and only handgun that I don't plan on EDCing. She's also my first striker-fired weapon...wow, who'd of ever thought I'd be saying that.

It'd be nice if the Luger guns would experience a price crash, however. With no new ones being built, they are pricey. For instance, the last owner of my Parabellum must have at least taken the grips off once and managed to bugger up the slotted screws slot. There's one screw on each grip at the very base of the grip just acting like a blocking ridge, keeping the grips from sliding down and off the bottom with the top edge of each grip having a ledge that goes under a lip in the frame. So the screws don't need to be tight to hold the grips on in the way they are in the 1911. Soooo, how does one bugger up a screw slot since they don't need to be really snugged down. Oh, by the way, no grip bushings on a Luger to deal with. Well, I need to replace two plan 'old blued screws, no big deal, except two measly screws cost $50 a pair. Color me surprised! Brownells does not carry them!

I'm a real custom grip maven as some of you know. With the Luger that's a good news/bad news thing. Good news...I won't be spending lots of bucks on custom Luger grips because there's not much (any?) going on there since I haven't found any custom grip makers to speak of. Originality is the word with this class of guns it seems, so grips are reluctantly replaced if badly damaged with similar, hopefully, period grips where good pairs seem to be going for a couple hundred bucks a set and often more. Matching numbers is a big deal with the Parabellum where most parts in the weapon are numbered with the last two digits of the serial number including the grips and the loss of even one matching number part can severely affect the worth of the weapon. Bad news...I won't be purchasing lots of really cool custom grips.

Custom finishes are also a real no-go in Parabellum World. Non-matching parts, bad abuse, severe wear, and refinishing rapidly makes a Luger a non-collectible and relegates it to my kind of Luger...the shooter. Fortunately my income and desires make that a good thing...I don't have to be worried about getting ripped off purchasing a high end collectible and I couldn't help but shooting all the handguns I own. Now, don't get me wrong, all Lugers are shootable, even the high enders. The danger in shooting the collectibles lies in the matching parts number thing...break and replace one little part and there goes thousands of dollars. Why, even the firing pin and plunger are numbered, so ya gots to ask yurself, what if the next shot is the dreaded "one" if ya gets my drift.

So much new stuff to get acclimated to...

Hi Ell, long time no communication. I'll give you a ring or you can too. Let's make that happen.

Rick

[Gatorade]

I had no idea Lugers were made in 1971. My grandfather has a bring back from Germany and another he bought in the US after the war with some accessories. I am in the will for the US bought one. I plan on hand loading some reduced power loads because I really want to shoot it as well, just not that often!

[Tango3]

I had no idea Lugers were made in 1971. My grandfather has a bring back from Germany and another he bought in the US after the war with some accessories. I am in the will for the US bought one. I plan on hand loading some reduced power loads because I really want to shoot it as well, just not that often!

In all fairness, Mitchell Arms (Texas?) made/had someone make Luger style pistols in stainless steel in what I believe were the mid-eighties to the early/mid-nineties and I believe Krieghoff (a German arms maker) currently or recently offers new Lugers on a very limited basis. With the Krieghoff you're getting a real Luger in that Krieghoff was tasked in the 1930s to 1945 in making Lugers for Hermann Goring's German Luftwaffe (Air Force) pilots. They are very pricey, though, running I believe in the $15,000-$20,000 range.

I recommend not loading reduced power loads for your grandfather's Lugers. The reason being is that they would likely not have the power to cycle the weapon making it a jam-o-matic mightmare. Most Lugers seem to be happy as ducks in water firing 115gr Winchester White Box rounds and I'd suggest using reloads similar to these in power. Since you reload, I would suggest additionally that you take a look at the historical 9mm rounds used in the 1900-1945 period in that the OAL of those rounds are a smidgin longer than today's and can feed(?)/shoot(?) "better" than what's available today. I'm sure this info could be found either at the LugerForum.com or the Luger.gunboards.com sites. By all means stay away from +P or +P+ rounds as the gun is not set up for these. Remember, no dry firing the weapon. If it is cocked, you can uncock it by pulling the toggle back about half an inch (you'll feel it change its motion) an then, while holding onto the toggles and not letting go, pull the trigger and slowly ride the toggle foreword while holding the trigger down. You might want to use new Mec-Gar Luger magazines instead of the older ones that came with the pistol. Two reasons being that the older ones are, well, older and age issues might cause feeding issues and older, good condition mags tend to be pricey (by pricey I mean selling for up to hundreds of dollars) so breaking one could cost you some bucks for the mag itself plus, if its matching numbers with the gun, could take a good percentage off the gun's value. The Mec-Gars can be found on EBay for under $30 including shipping and work swimmingly.

Rick

[pitor]

Nice Luger Rick, glad you like it ( love it?). Enjoy and take good care of it.

[Tango3]

Thanks, Pitor. I'll do my best!

Rick

[BeerHunter]

Nice addition to your collection. Enjoy!

[Tango3]

Thanks, Beerhunter!