Swedish Lahti
 

Yeas ago I picked up a Swedish Lahti complete with holster belt etc. Lately, I have seen it referred to as a Swedish Lahti Luger. Why the Luger reference?
Charlie

My Grandad had two of them, one he kept loaded in his desk at his General Store. Everybody back then called them Swedish Lugers. I had never heard the word Lahti until I was well into my 20's.

It's primarily due to the resemblence to Luger configuration, and the caliber which is "9mm Luger", in everyday parlence.

http://www.gotavapen.se/gota/m40/pist40_1.htm


I thought this was a good website on the Lahti;


Ed

Lahti and Lugers are somewhat similar, the barrel extension, the grip angle, etc. Lahtis have that accellerator spring to make them close good in cold weather and are a BEAR to put back together from just separate parts, one of my gun books say they are almost impossible to put back together without special jigs. They are a pleasure to shoot as they are heavier than a Luger and recoil is light. Look at the thickness of the trigger guard! Here is a side to side comparison of the Lahti and Luger frame/barrel
http://members.rennlist.org/lugerman/Lahti1.jpg
http://members.rennlist.org/lugerman/Lahti2.jpg

Thanks for the information that you have sent regarding my Lahti. Are they fairly common? Should I keep it or sell it. I don't need to sell just thinking of downsizing. I ask because I have never seen another here in SW Oregon. I know gunbroker has listed them and has parts for them.
Charlie

Thor,

Thanks very much for the comparison pictures, very interesting and revealing. The Swedes did away with the Finnish accellerator.

Charlie,

They are fairly common. The Swedish army used 9mm submachine gun ammunition in them, which is quite a bit more powerful than the standard 9x19mm Parabellum. This proved to be excessively hard on the pistols, and one of the reasons they were phased out of service was for physical breakage failures.

--Dwight

Ruger MK II
 

Isn't the Lathi the grand dad of the Ruger MK II ?

Some tidbits from a former GI in the Swedish Marine Forces:

The guns that are sold in the US as "Lahtis" are actually two slightly different pistols. The original version is the Finnish Valmet L-35, which after some design changes was adopted by the Swedish army as the Pistol M/40. The article Edward Tinker linked to will tell you more about the differences between these two pistols. They are not even close to the Luger design, other than the obvious similarities in appearance.

The submachine gun ammo (M/39B, commonly used in the M/45B or "Swedish K" submachine gun I used to carry) is not really more powerful than any other 9mm, but the jacket is quite a bit heavier than other 9mm varieties. This leads to higher pressures and extensive barrel wear in weapons that are not designed to use this kind of ammo. The Swedish Army soon realized that the M/39B put too much stress on the M/40, and banned the use of it in this pistol. The only manufacturer claiming that the M/39B is ok to shoot in a handgun is Glock, which probably led to the adoption of Glock 17 as the current Swedish GI issue Pistol 88. The octagon rifling in this is said to compensate for the heavy jacket, without causing excessive chamber pressure.

According to some sources, the M/39B qualifies ar an armor piercing round (jacket weight vs core weight) due to the heavy jacket, even if it was never intended for that purpose. Still, I have seen people selling it as AP and "Cop Killers" at gun shows.

Thanks for all the information especially the side by side comparisons. Decided I'd keep mine and store it with all my artillery model Lugers. Just two. <vbg>
Charlie

Nambu/Ruger Pistols
 

Hi:

No, Bill Ruger used the Japanese T-14 as his guide in building his famous .22 caliber pistol.

He even went as far as building an exact copy of the Japanese Baby Nambu, but it never went to market.

Sieger

It was a great gun
 

The MK II was my first pistol back in the 80's, I really loved this gun.
Well, I've bought it because of it's nice "luger-style" appearance and the price was right, too. Still nowadays a nice starter pistol or great just for fun.