month of manufacture
 

Hi folks,

Is it possible to estimate the exact (or aprox.) month of a Luger was made? A friend asked me when his DWM 1918 (serial number 51xx k) was made, but in my few books I do not have any clue. <img border="0" alt="[crying]" title="" src="graemlins/crying.gif" />

Can anybody help me? <img border="0" alt="[jumper]" title="" src="graemlins/jumper.gif" />

Regards,

Douglas. <img border="0" alt="[burnout]" title="" src="graemlins/burnout.gif" />

Hi Douglas! Your 1918 DWM, 51xx K-Block was made toward the end of World War 1. I would estimate September 1918. It's pretty difficult to say for sure, but Jan Still's book on Imperial Lugers states there were about 118,000 made in 1918. The war ended on Nov.11 1918, so we can pretty well assume the production was approximately 10,000 or so per month. Mr. Still also reports there were no F, H or L Block Lugers of significance. And DWM didn't use the J-Block for any production year.

NS-Block Jan, A-Block Feb, B-Block Mar, C-Block Apr, D-Block May, E-Block Jun, G-Block Jul, I-Block Aug, K-Block Sep.

This is close, but give the month a tolerance of at least +/- one month. So, August to October would be a fair guess.

Hope this helps!!

Hi Frank,

Thanks for you kind (and fast <img border="0" alt="[burnout]" title="" src="graemlins/burnout.gif" /> ) answer. I miss a lot Still�´s books, but I�´ll get them someday. :rolleyes:

Be sure that your info will be very useful! <img border="0" title="" alt="[Wink]" src="wink.gif" />

Thanks again, amigo!

Douglas <img border="0" alt="[bigbye]" title="" src="graemlins/xyxwave.gif" />