What Was The Last Documentated
 

luger from any of the major luger manufacturers. There had to to be a first so there had to be a last. There has to be a highest serial number!

Well, what do you call a major manufacturer?

Anything over 20 thousand made? Then that knocks out Kreighoff...

But seriously, Krieghoff made some 1945 lugers that were dated.

After the war, some lugers were made up in the mauser and the krieghoff factory for GI's.

The french made up less than 3,000 if memory serves me right of left over parts from the mauser factory

The East Germans (DDR) made up and refurbed parts for lugers in the 1950's and in fact made about 2-3,000 of them mostly from new parts.


Ed

I have in my collection what it is considered to be, until now, the last Mauser Parabellum reported.

The Mauser Company in Oberndorf in 1945 - 1946 made a few P08 and LP08 for the French Forces (and also for private sale) that occupied the Württemberg area.

My LP08 serial number is 3334 is the highest number today reported.

Before this Parabellum, that resurfaced in 2008 in France in the Limousin region, the highest serial number was 3330 (a P08) discovered in Paris in 1990.

Quite a long and interesting discussion about the last Mauser production is available in the book Gerben and I wrote: "The Parabellum is Back! 1945 - 2000".

Cheers,
Mauro

Attachment 19347

Mauro, very cool!

The last Parabellum pistol made by one of the original manufacturers is the Krieghoff Parabellum. That project started in 2007.

Mauser also had a number of wartime P08's refurbished and sold them in 1997-1998, but that doesn't really count as 'manufacturing'.

I'm curious what these sold for from their factories.

The 1997-1998 Mausers retailed over here for about 1300 Euros, haven't seen list prices from Mauser themselves yet. That rather steep asking price for what is basically a refurbed VoPo or Russian capture pistol is probably the reason why they weren't big sellers :)

I hope to pick up an example next week, although it had some mishaps during it's short refurbished career.

I hope by refurbished you don't mean restored, because that hits a nerve with a LOT of posters.

Harry

Yes, he does mean "restored" although when done by an official entity involved in Luger history, it is fair to call them "refurbished"..

I love your spin. George Fortier decided we are not restoring Lugers, we are preserving them for future generations to enjoy.........:p

Harry

Well, they were not really 'restored' as such. They were engraved with the Mauser company name and finished with the typical post war Mauser high gloss finish (Brünox) and strawed small parts. So they are easily recognizable as such.

The choice whether or not to restore is always a hard one. This 1998 Mauser will need some minor restoration work and it will improve as a result.

These pistols pop up on eGun.de now and then. I paid about 700 € for mine, currently in the export pipeline with my agent. If you bide your time, you can get one for under 600 €. I disagree with disparagement of refurbished guns, given the precedent of several well-respected gunmakers turning military surplus into costly commemorative issues.