DWM P08 Commercial 1920
 

A local gunshop has recently acquired several DWM P.08 "commercial" 1920 10 cm barrel, 7,65 Para. like the one in the photo that is one of them; they are more or less all in a very good condition, I searched for more information about this sort of Luger, but while I already found a lot about 1900/06 commercial pistols, so far I've not read much about these P.08 DWM Commercials, apart from reading that they were called "sneek luger" as they were not marked Germany or Made in Germany for export, instead these guns were hidden to equip a new german army, but I'm not sure about this...

Somewhere else I found: quote: " ... Luger pistol that was manufactured by DWM during WWI and subsequently reworked and sold as a Model 1920 Commercial Luger. Following Germany's defeat in WWI, the Treaty of Versailles strictly limited the number of handguns the German military could retain. In order to generate revenue, thousands of WWI surplus Luger pistols were reworked and resold into the commercial market. .. " unquote

I wonder if among our Luger friends there is somebody particularly expert about these P.08 that could give me some advice.

not an expert but..Ill throw you a bone
the gun pictured is an alphabet commercial made 1919 to 1929ish for commercial export in 7.65 because of treaty. most mass produced model made. least desirable. they did rework alot of guns for export/commercial sales in the 20;s. They commercially sold alot of models in the 20's artys carbines navys...sneaks are foggy for me I know I read someone explain it but I think sneaks are a certain time period and they dont have manufacture logos on the toggle ?? you have an early luger with an ideal stock why do you care for these?:)

I think Skye has it right...

Except for the cracked left grip, this one looks to be in good condition.

If interested, you should look it over carefully to determine if it's in original finish. Look for halos on any barrel serial number. Top inside the frame in the white and the toggle axle retaining pin in the white.

These are not particularly highly valued (as are the military Lugers). I bought one in great shape with original magazine a few years ago for $675. Today, perhaps $750 or so.

The .30 Luger round is great to shoot, but more expensive than the more common 9mm Luger.

Realizing that you are in Italy, there was probably no Italian requirement to import mark them at that time.

Marc