Threaded Barrel Luger DWM 1911 - Need Help
 

Hello all,

We recently purchased a pair of Lugers from a customer of ours and one is a standard Luger that we have pinned down and sold already, but the other one is a bit odd to us. It is a DWM 1911 in relatively good shape with what we believe to be aftermarket grips, but we aren't 100% sure on that. The thing that really bugs us though, is the barrel is threaded on the inside. We can't find any information on a threaded barrel Luger. I'll try to post some pics below. Any information you have is appreciated. The serial on this piece is 8598.

Dances:
Well, I've got to hand it to you. This is a new one! I can explain away threads on the outside as a suppressor attachment tool, but the inside simply would not leave enough wall space for the threaded cylinder to avoid being "shot"on firiing.
I have seen the muzzles on military arms drilled out in an effort to save a barrel with worn rifling at the tip, but threading the hole is not necessary in that case.
A blank firing device for theater or re-enactment?
Does the gun seem functional in all other ways?
Let's see what the others have to say.
Interesting find, and maybe someone on the forum has an award, something like "stump the chumps"...
dju

Yeah, this one baffled us as well. The gun does seem 100% functional. Comes with normal magazine and all other parts seem original except what we believe to be aftermarket grips.

The barrel does appear to us to be original, wear/tear and bluing on the barrel seems to match that of the rest of the gun.

Do you know what the thread is??? [Like 1/2" x 28tpi or maybe 12mm x 1.5mm]... :confused:

My WAG would be for a restrictor plug with a small aperture...To fire blanks, but still spill out smoke & sparks...It was probably removed so you wouldn't blow your hand off with 9mm...TV or movie prop maybe...Or just a re-enactor... :rolleyes:

How about one of them their red pugs that they all want now.

Almost certainly for a silencer. The pistol appears to have been completely reworked. Answers to Sheepherder's question might be as a clue as to where.

You most certainly have aftermarket grips on that Luger. The barrel treatment is a new one on me. It looks to still have a sear safety intact.

George is probably right in this case, as there seems to be enough wall left to fit a silencer coupling without obstructing the bore along with a very crisp and defined "shoulder" for the can to index and align on. Without these features I would have guessed blank firing adapter.

I've seen this before, as mentioned above, to install a restrictor plug to provide enough back pressure to cycle the toggle using movie blanks. TH

Now that makes sense.
dju

It is possible, but 99% of the BFA work I have seen consist of simply threading the bore for a hexagonal plug that is screwed in and adjusted back and forth until reliability is achieved. This is a much finer piece of work and the finely machined shoulder would disallow fine tuning via depth, requiring either multiple inserts of different aperture or different plugs altogether. The fact that the bore has been carefully preserved brings me back to a suppressor adaptation.

It would have to be an amateur adaptation...There's no breech lock. That leaks combustion noise from the chamber as well as an ejected case. Neither what your professional assassin would want... :rolleyes:

I did see a movie where the assassin put a large baggie around his shooting hand (holding the gun) and rubber-banded it at the wrist... :D

I vote for the BFA....someone is going to suppress a Luger and require a thread configuration that's never seen on suppressors ?

Unfortunately, we don't know what dimensions the threads are. However there are only 3 rings on the threads, we thought if by some odd chance it was a silencer they would have wanted more than 3 rings.

Well, here's a really far out guess...This may have been an initiator for a scuttling charge... :eek:

Screw the gun into a spigot attached to a 55 gallon drum of blasting powder, on board a ship...Use an incendiary round...Shoot it into the drum full of powder to destroy your U-boat before it can fall into enemy hands... :thumbup:

Hey, that's as reasonable as some of the BS I read on GB... :rolleyes:

(Feel free to use this explanation in your sales description)... :D

Actually, that strengthens the Suppressor argument. Those puny threads would blow a BFA right out the front with a blank powerful enough to cycle the Luger action. Silencers don't need a lot of thread purchase, (look at the typical MAC10 threads, for example).

But a blank adapter would let most of the pressure out, using just enough to push the toggle back. So a lot of threads would not be necessary.
Does the mainspring seem as strong as other Lugers or does this one cycle easier?
Any supressor that I have ever seen would be way too much load on those threads due to length and weight, and that combined with the thin-ness required of the tubing walls, to me, at least, makes a supressor application unlikely.
The MAC10 and 11 uses maybe a half inch of very deep and course threads, and they feel very adequate.
I still vote "blank adapter", but in truth it was probably the mindless and purposeless work of a couple of youngsters in dad's shop many years ago.
dju

Sorry to disagree, but the amount of pressure exerted with even a minimal barrel restriction is exponencial to that of a completely free barrel. I have seen barrels literally split from as little as drops of water in them, (and no, the bullet doesn't simply push the water out). I've seen BFA plugs fly through multiple layers of plywood when testing a new installation for function.

I've blanked dozens of guns for re enactors., so I know a little about what I speak. The wall of a supressor coupling does not have to be that thick, since the counter bored hole that we are discussing would partially support the junction. Relatively modern suppressors are made of alumunum, Inconel and other substances that make them quite light.

Again, this whole affair is WAY over engineered for a simple BFA , which would be simply cut right into the barrel rifling.

Thanks for the info guys, we really do appreciate it. It's quite an odd find and pretty interesting. Any idea what this threaded barrel will do to the asking price?

I would say that the modification will drop the overall value by quite a bit.
Clearly a shooter IF it functions and prints well.
dju