Thread: 1900 test guns
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Unread 04-18-2010, 09:07 PM   #5
Ron Wood
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Depends on how you want to count ‘em.

As Ed said, for the longest time the serial number range of the Test guns was considered to be 6100-7100, but that isn’t accurate. To be dead certain that a Luger is a Test piece it would have to be one of the 772 pieces that Bannerman purchased in 1910. Of that lot, 243 known pieces have turned up so far.

If you want to stick with the 6100-7100 range, then 313 known guns are recorded.
If you want to consider all Lugers with Test characteristics (Model 1900, American Eagle, no proof marks, no Germany stamp) then there are an additional 20 known guns in the 5978-6099 range and 106 guns in the 7108-7990 range that are recorded. (No guns between 7100 and 7108 have turned up yet).

In all categories, a grand total of 439 guns are tallied.

So the bottom line, regardless of how you count them, there are considerably more than 100 survivors.
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