.45 luger
 

a freinds father took a luger from a german soldier in ww2, he says it is a .45 cal. was such a gun made?

Re: .45 luger
 

The only .45 cal Lugers made by DWM were hand build under the direct supervision of Georg Luger. It is widely thought that only 3 or 4 of the pistols were ever built, and at least three of them were sent to the US. The odds of a German soldier having one of these pistols would be in the 1 in 1,000,000 range. I guess nothing is impossible, but if your friend has the pistol he can retire on the proceeds from the sale of the pistol.

Re: .45 luger
 

Which brings to mind a good question. How many .45 pistols were actually built? I had heard someplace that there were five of them built by Georg Luger. One of them is in private hands now. Another was given to Teddy Roosevelt as a gift and is in the Smithsonian. And the final three were shot out during testing and sent to the Philipeans. How does this compare with what others have heard or know?

Big Norm

Re: .45 luger
 

in the story he told, that he got the luger.45 from a german soldier. how could he got the pistol??? i mean, that all .45 were delivered into the states. dieter

Re: .45 luger
 

There are no records of how many of the .45 Lugers were eventually built. According to records Springfield Armory received two and one of them is known today. It is a fact that two of the pistols including one of the Springfield pistols still exist, but only conjecture as to whether others exist also. There are rumors of others, but so far none have surfaced.

For those new to the forum, one of the pistols is on public display at the Norton Gallery in Shreveport, Louisiana.

Re: .45 luger
 

Thanks Johnny. I have always wondered about those guns. I sure would like to see one just to see how big and heavy they are in comparison to a regular Luger. I always thought that a certian style and grace would be lost in accomodating the larger cartridges. But, what good is life without a few dreams and pleasant mysteries.

Big Norm