[Sieger]

Hi:

Though an excellent statement of historical fact, I believe that Mauser failed to improve on the original design of the Parabellum's grips.


Here are some of my additional thoughts for a good hardy laugh:


"Although the Mauser grips are indeed much thicker than the original P08 grips, there was a very good reason to do so.


The originals are not all that bad, when they are properly oiled and cured, annually. They may have wished to "fix" the original design, but instead, they destroyed it, as the original design was made to fit in the human hand and give one of the most natural pointability characteristics ever devised.


"Normal grips will shrink and develop some lateral play when mounted on the gun. Also, the old style grips are prone to damage, developing tears and chips (the 'million dollar chip') around the edges.


The "million dollar chip" is usually caused by that little area being put under an unusual amount of stress, usually because the original grips were not properly fitted to the particular pistol to begin with. Luger grips, like most other parts of the pistol, are a precision execution.


"The first attempt used small brass pins, inset in the grip edges, so they would catch behind the frame edges. The drawback of this construction was that there had to be enough material along the edges in order to get a decent working surface. This created the rather thick grips.


To my German friends I say that the young Mauser Engineers were "like pigs looking into a watch". A child could have come up with a better system. Hell, they could have just glued them to the frame!


"Their second attempt worked better and provided smoother grips, more along the line of the old grip shape. They introduced a small metal spiked pin in the middle of the frame. The grips, when pushed (or 'impaled') onto this little spike would be unable to move and would not need the additional wood around the edges.


Perhaps an actual adult made this attempt, sad as it is. Mauser Parabellum grips are substandard compared to the originals in precision execution, so another quick fix was attempted. It also failed, but not so noticeably as the first.


"So I wouldn't say the Mauser engineers 'lost the art'. They just tried different methods to improve on a rather poor original design.


They failed, and suffered the consequences of their failure in that the public never really accepted these Parabellums, back in the 1970s, when they were not considered collectors items.

"Personally, I would have ditched the wooden grips and switched to plastic, though. In my opinion, on a technical point of view, the best luger grips ever are still the East German VoPo grips. Light, strong, efficient, comfortable and designed in such a way that there is enough free space between the grips and the frame/magazine follower."


Wood isn't a 21st century material for a pistol grip, but then again, is the Luger a 21st century pistol? A nice set of wood grips, properly fitted to a Luger is a beautiful thing to behold!!!


Sieger