Long barrel uses
 

I see lots of posts about lugers, but really none about the
use of different barrel lengths. Why would someone
have a 12 barrel issued to him? It looked like you could
beat him to death with your shoe , before he got it out
of the holster. Then the long barreled one with the big
sights. Did they shoot off of navy boats and needed the
range? Seems like they would have standardized the
barrel length to around 4'' and been good.

Any barrels in excess of eight inches (except carbines), were added post war. Many were added to 1920 commercials and also some bring-backs by companies such as Stoeger and Pacific Arms.

So the ones with the long barrels and the long distance sights were not
an issued piece?

Correct.

George,

You may wish to point out to him that longer barreled military Lugers were a phenomenon of the WWI Era and by the WWII Era, they had indeed standardized on the 4 inch barrel for all services and all uses, i.e. no more Artilleries and no more longer barreled Navies.

Commercials were something else.

John

See now this was informative. I have looked at lots of posts
and never seen that explained. Thanks
Wonder where they got all the long barrels, and who's idea it was
to put them on guns? So basically anything with a long barrel is not
a matching piece?

Generally, no, not everything. But sometimes. Post WWI, longer barrelled pistols could be factory made--but for export, not for German military. Abercormbe and Fitch installed longer barrels on some of their imports. I believe they would do this to order in the U.S. You'll see an 8" barrel (or longer) without the Artillery style rear tangent sight leaf.

Keep reading the FAQ... The basic books will also give you an overview, and though not strictly up to date about some details, they'll reveal the basics about all this.

There are lots of luger long barreled pistols - called carbines.
these are commercial pieces and matching and very expensive.

German military pistols were all 4", with exceptions for the 6" Navy version and 8" artillery version.

After all - why is 4" "good", even the venerable 1911 has a 5.5" barrel?

Paul,

As I said, Commercials were different from issued military.

Every industry has manufacturers and then after market providers. Barrels are like anything else. They can be made by anyone who has the necessary tooling.

Then there are distributors who provide services to their customers and may even go so far as to import the tooling to actually fit those parts to anyone's gun. Stoeger was one of those vendors. Here is a page from their 1930-31 Winter catalogue that describes how they can make a long barrel Luger or send you the parts so you can do it.

Also here is Peter von Franztius of Chicago 1927 catalogue which had a similar approach.

Hope this helps. BTW, look at the prices.

John

Wow wish those prices were still in effect.
Thanks for the downloads, will study them.

Here's a couple of pages from the 1922 Pacific Arms Corp catalogue.

Guess they figured you needed something to go deer hunting with.

The 1911 has a way bigger bullet and way lower max. pressure so work takes a little longer ;-)
A 45 ACP flings a 230gr bullet wich is almost twice the original 9mm (123gr) and it's max. pressure is a measly 19kpsi compared to the 9mm at 34kpsi.

4" is not "good" it is enough for the intended use wich is wounding.

The 45 ACP was desiged to kill cattle and is "overkill". A vounded takes a lot of effort a dead can wait for tomorrow.

http://www.sightm1911.com/lib/history/background.htm

I'm not sure what this mis-information and opinion has to do with anything about a luger, but for sure the .45 acp was NOT designed to kill "cattle", nor is it over kill-
:confused: