When was it made?
 

Any information is appreciated

Manowar3 -

The serial number places it in 1923 and the Swiss made 2,370 of them that year.

Mauser720 - Ron

Thanks a lot for looking it up!

"Waffen" welcome to the forum!

It is apprecaited if you at least have a real name and location (state / country) in your profile.


ADMIN

Fixed it. Sorry about that.

Daniel, thank you. I've never made it to Switzerland; although my wives plane was diverted and she saw the airport ;)


Ed

Ed! Your "wives" plane? ... surely you meant your Wife's plane, eh? :D

Daniel,

I was fortunate enough to have visited both Zurich and Geneva back in the 1970's on government business... what a beautiful country... and very friendly people... except for the KGB type (we nick-named him Boris) who followed us around for two days reading a newspaper until we sent a waiter over to his table with a glass of vodka... He promptly departed and within an hour was replaced by someone else who followed us around until we went to the airport to leave. Fun times during the Cold War...

I remember a "British" style pub (Sorry TAC!) , not far from the U.S. Mission in Geneva... Had a great evening there on my first night, before having to go to WORK the next day... :)

06 Waffenfabrik Bern - The Pictures
 

Very nice.

Nice to meet you all. I live close to Zurich (in the lake Zug area). Spent three years in the U.S. where I met my wife and always love to go back to visit.

manowar3

Manowar3,
could you please take a picture of the underside of your 06-Bern. I would like to see the number on the sideplate and on the takedown-lever if there is a number.
Thanks, Armin.

Hi Armin,

the last two digits of the serial number are on the side plate. No number on the take-down lever.

manowar3

Manowar3,
thank you very much for the requested picture. This is one of the numerous swiss parabellum pistols with the take down lever not numbered and the side plate number head long. I have never heard a good explanation for this phenomenon.
Regards, Armin.

Shoots great

Hi,

The ammunition is being made today by Fiocchi, amongst others.
The swiss army stuff is generally speaking a steel jacketed round with a copperwashed surface. I'd be a bit careful shooting too much of the Swiss stuff on a regular basis.

The Fiocchi ammo costs 80 cents (88 Rappen) per round in Switzerland. That's a bit steep to shoot regulary...

Hi Manowar
I live arround Lausanne and I have a 06/24 Waffenfabrik and 2 pcs 06/29Swiss. I was at the range last week and I had no problem to purchase Swiss Fed Ammunition 7.65. You should may be go to another Schiessverein arround Z�¼rich. Best regards from another Swiss Luger collector

That's good to hear, Fredo.

Manowar and Fredo, welcome to this Forum. It's always good to hear from Swiss collectors from the "source" country. We not too long ago were able to buy from a large supply of surplus Lapua 30 Luger imported by Sportmans Guide here in the USA. I'm sure these are sold out now. Notice my avatar, which is a 1902 "Swiss re-work" pistol. This may be an example of a rejected Swiss military 9mm trial pistol. As you know the Swiss never accepted the 9mm over the 7.65 mm. This luger was arsenal restored and re-proofed with Geneva crosses, even in the frame well (overstamped the 1902 triangle in circle). The bore is well worn, indicating that your earlier military coutrymen really gave it a good trial!

I'm not surprised, with those Swiss loads you'd expect the bore not to last very long. Steel on steel is not quite without friction.

But, hey, if there's a good supply of steel cased ammo and a good supply of barrels and gunsmiths available....

Guess what, all Swiss Parabellums have had nothing but steel jacketed rounds shot through them when they were in service in Switzerland.

hi
I heard a lot of stories about steel case and cupper case, but most of the time the steel case were considered has better because they were not making metal deposit in the bore. Of course, this depends strongly how much shoot you're accepting before getting a loss of accuracy. For exemple, the new STGW 90 which equips our troops his considered by sharp shooter has not accurate enough after 5000 rounds. When you think about 900 Swiss francs for a new barrel!!!! . I was a gunsmith in the swiss army and for us, the most important things was not shoot to strong amunition in order to avoid mechanical damages. But The Luger were made to shoot a 50 meters range, so it still need a sharp and strong cartridge

Best regards from the Country of the Swiss'ones

Well, you may consider the idea that since no metal deposits are left in the barrel, it is sort of confirming that steel jacketed ammunition actually takes steel from the barrel instead?

The fact that deposits of lead and brass are left behind is simply the fact that the softer metal is damaged during the launch, and not the harder barrel material itself, which will create a need for regular cleaning. And one thing most soldiers have more than enough time for, especially those in countries that never go to war, is cleaning.

Anyway, this may be interesting from an army point of view, where the standards set and maintained for fire arms are aimed at a different set of goals as opposed to the average sports/recreational/historic shooter who just wants to enjoy his gun with as little damage as possible for as long a time as possible. This is why I still stand by my advice not to shoot steel jacketed ammunition in collectible/historic firearms.

I handle the SIG PE90 regularly and I must say that I can confirm that it can't take the beating a 20 year older Colt AR15 used by the same people, with the same ammunition, under the same conditions can (and does). Rapidly declining accuracy, parts breakage, and general down time are relatively high.

A thought: After WW2, and lots of steel jacketed 9mm, what was the single most part that was replaced on the average P08 by the DDR who refurbished many? Yep: The barrel...

I'm new to the forum but have been working with and shooting machineguns for many years. I can say from experience that the copper "plated" or copper "washed" bullets have essentially the same effect on barrel wear that copper jacketed or gilding metal jackets do. The plating acts as a lube and despite the steel there is no more wear. In most firearms the principal cause of wear is from the erosion in the throat area because of the hot powder gasses. The throat wear will decrease the accuracy more than wear in the rest of the bore. The other factor in wear is heat and most pistol barrels will never get to the level where heat is a real factor in wear. Submachineguns rarely get to that level of temperature either and will fire many more rounds in a shorter time. I'd say that your lugers will be safe to shoot with the copper washed steel jacketed bullets.

Reinhardt

Gentlemen -

Were mercuric (corrosive) primers ever a problem with the 9mm ammunition which some countires may have used?

Mauser720 - Ron