LUGER PISTOL PARABELLUM 08

The Luger pistol, designed by Mr. Georg Luger, an engineer associated with Deutsche Waffen und Munitions (DWM), after the turn of the century, is one of the most famous handguns of all time. It is one of the very first auto-loading pistol designs put into mass-production for unlimited military service, beginning with the German and Swiss armies and later followed by other European armies shortly before WW1. It was made in a several calibers, 9mmX19 being the most common.
Since these early days, the technology and philosophy of 'combat handgun' manufacture has evolved tremendously, and the Luger is now considered hopelessly obsolete in this modern age where technologies such as advanced polymers and vast assembly lines have heavily supplanted the labor of skilled craftsmen so evident in the Luger design. Most (if not all) of the new handguns on the market today are of much lower quality manufacture in many aspects. Even though the Luger pistol exhibits the overengineering and overcomplication typical of German manufacture, the toggle action is pure quality, both in construction, fit and in materials. The overall tolerances are obviously very tight, the level of skill required for this is very impressive; the service weapons of this time were made to last 1000 years. These close tolerances are actually not such a good idea in a service pistol; sure it works perfectly when very clean and with perfect ammunition, but in the field, this is seldom the case, and a drop in the mud will certainly foul the mechanism. Therefore, in the field, the Luger holster must keep out as much dust and dirt as possible basically functioning as a totally enclosed pistol carrying case worn on the belt. Odd as it may seem, a little 'slop' in the tolerances of a handgun can be a very good thing in dirty conditions, as the dirt has some space to escape rather than going where it will cause a jam. Georg Luger also developed the 9 x 19 mm NATO cartridge from the bottle-necked.30 cal. automatic cartridge as a stopgap solution to pressures to up-power the weak .30 auto cartridge for which the Luger was originally designed; the 9mmX19 was simply the largest round that could be adapted to the existing .30 cal. cartridge and frame without having to re-tool the factory. It is ironic how what was to become the most common pistol cartridge in the world is fundamentally a 'band-aid".

As Germany was heading into World War II, they realized that the Luger was difficult to manufacture. It required close tolerances and hand fitting. In 1935, Germany began a serious search for a replacement. Walther's P.38 was adopted by the Army in 1938. But Mauser played a major role in the manufacture of this pistol during World War II. Between 1942 and 1946, Mauser produced some 380,000 pistols. Walther produced some 580,000 between 1940 and 1945.

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