Eugene Golubtsov, aka LugerMan, is manufacturing reproduction .45ACP caliber Luger pistols, based on the original blueprints of the 1907 pattern US Army trials guns. When he offered to send me one to try out, how could I say no?
I have had some rather unimpressive experiences trying to shoot similar reproductions made by other people, and my expectations for this one were pretty low. Well, I have no problem saying that I was entirely wrong. This pistol is magnificent – it ran great, shot dead on point of aim, and was everything I could have asked, right down to the correct 55.5 degree grip angle found only on the US trials Lugers.
In addition to the trials pattern, Eugene is also making a wide variety of other patterns, include .45ACP “baby” Lugers, long barreled target models, stocked carbines, 10mm Auto versions, and more. They are not cheap, but in my opinion they are worth the cost if you can afford them.
Finally someone got the right answer! It all comes down to good crafting and especially good engineering with respect to dynamic physics and material properties…
“10mm Auto versions”
Interesting, this spawn question of elasticity of Parabellum automatic pistol in regard to cartridge, to how big cartridge it can be resized to remain feasible to handle?
“They are not cheap”
It should be remembered that after all it is late 19th century design (firstly adopted in 1900 by Switzerland), so then understanding of cost-effective production was different.
34mm for sure 🙂 (Swiss 34 mm Flab. Kan. 38 AA gun)
According to my data that weapon use Kniegelenkverschluss System Furrer which is something different from Luger, however I am not sure if they (System Furrer and Luger) are mutually exclusive or one is subset of another.
After some time I got enlightenment: Luger is adoption of Maxim system, which proved to be very elastic and proved to be useful with a lot of various rifle cartridges and it was also upscaled for 40 mm caliber: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QF_2-pounder_naval_gun
Question still remain how big cartridge it can accept remaining handgun.
Lugers forever.
I bet that even if someone invented blaster guns thousands of years in the future the old style Luger and the Browning pistol family will still come out on top when everything goes into the trenches! Blasters can short out, cartridge guns do not!
“Slugthrowers. I hate ’em. But they’re easy to maintain. Day or two in the jungle and your blaster’ll never fire again. A good slug rifle, keep ’em wiped and oiled, they last forever.”
According to Star Wars, you’re right!
The old myth of the Luger was that it was “environmentally sensitive”, unlike the Sacred 1911.
Actually, in the trenches of WW1, both the Luger and the Colt showed that they would keep working when even revolvers were jammed up by mud or etc. When they were fired, the mud and water got thrown out along with the empty cartridge cases.
The really “environmentally sensitive” one? The supposedly indestructible Webley top break revolver. Once gunk got into its lockwork, it stayed there and rapidly solidified, requiring the services of an armorer to get it up and running again. Most later revolvers had similar problems.
The most “mud proof” revolver? The old Colt Peacemaker.
Incidentally, a recent historical study showed the in the wars of the 20th Century the Luger killed more men than any other pistol. The Colt 1911 and Peacemaker tied for second place.
cheers
eon
I would love to see the data on that assertion. Being as most of the numbers on anything I’ve ever seen vis-a-vis what killed who are highly suspect in all regards, I really don’t think that tidbit of data can be either corroborated or verified.
Hell, truth be told, I’d be willing to bet that the single deadliest pistol of the WWII era was probably the Walther model that Vasili Blokhin favored… We know he managed at least 7,000 kills at Katyn with his set.
There was a bunch of pocket pistols in .32 ACP
What about volume distributed vs reliability ?
CG: Sorry for the late post but Blokhin used .25 ACP pistols for his execution of 5000 Prisoners..
I’ll bet Karl is on the waiting list already. Looks beautiful!
S&W Triple Locks are not boring
Not a bad price at all considering what you get. Makes me almost wish I had worked a couple of more years. Much less than a Webley Fosbery or a Mars and just as exotic.
I seem to have read someplace, about the Trials Lugers, they were shipped out to various units for testing, and then *mailed* back to the trials board along with user comments. And several of the trials guns *disappeared* in the mails.
By the way…
“based on the original blueprints”
…where can we find reliable sources of proper (dimensions, tolerances, materials) and/or original technical drawings of old guns?
I don’t know where we can find any original drawings, since most were likely lost to old age.
The trials model paperwork was likely not lost, since the us govt would have needed to be licensed to produce them domestically.