Stainless luger
 

A friend of mine just told me that he had a Luger made of stainless steel. He went on to say it was made in Texas. Of course I know it is not an actual Luger but I have no idea what it is either. He said it in 9MM. He said it was made in 1992. He sent me pictures but they didn't come through. Does anyone know what it might be?

Mitchell

Manufactured by "Aimco" in Houston, Texas for a number of different brand labels including Mitchell, Stoeger, Aimco. Magazines are not compatible with German or Swiss Lugers.

If you're considering buying one, be sure to do some deep research before making any expensive decisions.

Marc

Glen,

To me stainless Lugers fall into two basic types; Mitchell and later.

The Mitchell seems to be a direct copy of the original, abeit the basic materials, stainless was new in handguns in that time period and most companies went thru difficulties in using stainless. A lot of vintage parts can be used in these stainless Mitchells.

The magazines for Mitchells that I have seen look like vintage Luger magazines to me.

The later stainless Lugers had some updates for various reasons of the day, one was in the magazine. A newer magazine was made up, thicker in girth than the Mitchell types. So one can insert a Mitchell type in a later, but the vice versa is not true.

Vintage parts as replacement parts for the later stainless Lugers is smallish in scope, stainless parts have always been shy; but some vintage parts like extractors will be ok.

My shooter Luger is basically vintage in frame and receiver, the barrel is custom(14") and the toggle train is all stainless. So some(not all) commonality is there between vintage and stainless, just gotta be familiar enough to get there.

As mentioned, these stainless Lugers were on the beginning of using stainless in auto pistols. Problems surfaced such as gauling of some moving parts. One sees some of these stainless Lugers almost beat to death with using extremely hot loads.

The left side of the later stainless receiver has a weakness in my opinion of a hole for the sear bar, some of these have cracked over the years; mostly due to right hot loads and lots of them.

A Luger in general is not always friendly to the new user, especially those new to shooting in general. Takes a little time to get to know the pistol and the loads that will work ok. Hot loads in any Luger, vintage or otherwise; are kinda hard on them FWIW. You will read on the net that stainless Lugers are more fussy about ammo than the vintage ones; but in truth; both can be fussy.

The stainless variant is one that we may never see again. With that said, I never thought I would see the 45acp Luger on board or much less a new stainless Automag in 44amp. With todays machinery($$$$) and expertise, anything is possible.

You will see a lot of nay on the stainless Lugers. Some of that is environment sorta speak; some is not. I have shot a stainless 6" for a long, long time.........it is still together and I still enjoy it; but I try to treat it good, or the best I can.

I suspect that I will never get another one, and tis not the fault of the stainless Luger itself.

I sincerely hope that you get to see it in person.

I admit to lusting profusely over "Lugerman" stainless .45 1907 pistols, actually even fantasizing about how to secretly finance one and get in line. As they appear to be machined from prehardened 420 they should be a world apart from the Aimco cast stainless guns.

I remember seeing the Mitchell’s for sale new (or who ever was making them) in the 70’s or 80’s (?) and wanted one. Then picked up a shooter Luger. But I wouldn’t mind getting one, just because. Great info above.

And do a search on the forum for other threads about them.

Eugene has some excellent payment options, and at least one back-door clandestine method of payment. No one need ever know! :evilgrin:

I have been tempted to do so myself, but alas, I don't think I'll be alive long enough to actually take delivery of one of his creations. :crying:

(I'm only in my 60's. Got a nice long life ahead. Big plans.) :p

A stainless steel gun is like a mackerel in the moonlight. Its shiny, and it stinks.

Thanks Rick. It is unlikely that I will see the stainless Luger. My friend lives 120 miles away. I wouldn't drive that far to see someone walk on the water. In the Lugers I have owned and shot, the only loads that worked the action were hot ones.

I have a couple.

The overtly stainless one is branded OFM Corp., no chamber date, and only the eagle from the center of the Great Seal stamped there. 9 mm P.08. When it arrived, it was fairly easy to address the upset material above the breech that had probably been pushed up by the breech block on return to battery. The ramps of the toggle ears were spalled a bit from toggle knob strikes, so I filed the protruding material inside and outside of the upper there. Luckily, raw stainless is easy to restore the polish or grain.

The extractor this one sports has no side"ears," but an original might fit if it were modified. The ejector on this one had been ground too thin at the factory, and it was bent near the tip. In this case, an original I scored from Lugerdoc fit and works fine, although it's not quite as wide as the former stainless part.

Galling is caused by slamming materials together that are too similar, in alloy or hardness. The phenomenon occurs when molecules on each surface actually weld themselves together via the violent impact. Keep working at it, and big gobs of material will be created by the stainless as it is crammed against itself. As many can attest, it's what happens with nuts and bolts are assembled without clean enough threads- if one doesn't retreat immediately, the pair will be locked together fairly permanently. If the bolt can be muscled off thereafter without snapping it, one can see that the threads have been torn off and mushed together.

There are lubes specifically for this type of situation, stainless on stainless, so keeping it from getting started at all is the best bet for minimizing galling. It won't necessarily prevent spalling, upsetting, or peening because they're more of a hardness issute...but there ya go.

The other is stainless, too, but Cerokoted black. I guess we call it the 1900/2000 because it's one of the 100 year commemorative series branded Aimco, and has both dates that accompany the eagle stamped above the chamber. I think it may be the last batch of Lugers to have been made in Houston. I'm surprised that parts for, and info about guns made so relatively recently so often exceed the mysteries provided by the original Parabellum/P.08. I've run a couple of mags of .30 Luger through it, and it cycles OK, but the mag that came with it is a replacement, I think, because it took a strip of masking tape applied to the spine and one side to get it to work. I tried one of the stainless, flat-sided, larger style mags, one with the eagles molded into the mag bottom. It sorta worked, but since it's basically the only strictly collectible pistol I own, I haven't shot it since.

Stainless
 

I have a Stoeger American Eagle 9mm. In a move, i lost the factory magazine, and I've used "generic" Luger magazines with no problem. I'm not certain what may or may not be different between these and German/Swiss magazines. But mags are available. I'm probably going to put this up for sale on GunBroker/Guns America, since i've had this since 1996 and have run maybe 2 boxes of ammo through it. Shoots really nice, but I just don't use it (got a Glock, and thats my regular shooting brand). Other than missing the factory mag (which does diminish the value) Because of that it would probably be classified as Excellent by NRA Condition standards, as it is perfect in every other respect.

You can start a for sale here on the forum - no charge - the stoeger should go for around $800-900 - I'd offer it for less unless you guarantee it shoots. (that and you used the G word :) )

Ed

Stoeger
 

I guarantee that it shoots. I shot it on Sunday since it has been quite a while since I had shot it.. Yes I used the G word, but considering I run about 1000 rounds a month through my 9mm's (i wont even talk about how much rimfire I run through), i'd rather use the G, than abuse the luger (which is a better gun).

I may just initiate a for sale thread. I just need to find time to take pictures and really decide if i do want to sell it or not (I'm starting a gunsmithing business and having a few bucks extra on hand would not be a bad thing).

This AIMCO is at Collector's in Houston ($1895):

One of our members has pics of his, in his album -

album

http://forum.lugerforum.com/album.php?albumid=491

He sold it here, and now it never sees the light of day... :crying:

Great Pictures! TKS Eric~

I owned one with the 6” barrel in 9mm for a few years and it was later sold.
I ordered an extra extractor for mine for a just I case it broke but still have the extra stainless extractor in my Luger parts bin. I had heard that some stainless Lugers had interchangeable parts with originals but the one I had seemed to be a bit larger than my original Luger and none of the parts were interchangeable.
I was very disappointed in the quality of my version of the stainless Luger.

Dry your eyes boyz ... this one has been up at gunsinternational for awhile.

"AimCo American Eagle Luger 9MM (PR53147)" for sale
https://www.gunsinternational.com/gu...n_id=101615541

5" barrel with stainless finish. Comes with box and 2 extra magazines. In excellent condition.

Price: $1,895.00

Not my cuppa tea but hey ... each to their own. :)

Does your spare extractor have the "ears" on the side like originals, or is it the version that looks more like one on a M1900? At least these two versions seem to have been made for the various stainless Houston Lugers.

I had one for a while, standard P.08 config. I had to replace its ejector, and fortunately an original part fit and functioned. The original was soft, and bent where it had been sanded too thin.

Whoever listed this doesn't know how to measure a barrel. :rolleyes: