Quote:
Originally Posted by postino
It's been fired! Not as much wear as I would have thought, for a Test Trials pistol...
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This gun was not used in the Test Trials, in fact neither of the two existing guns (the Norton and the Aberman) were part of the trials.
In the 1959 revised edition of "Luger Variations" by Harry Jones there is a color frontpiece of this gun. Under the illustration Harry wrote this caption:
"It is in fine condition; "GL" monogramed and has no serial number. Will it operate? In 1960, Norman Lee, Harry and Anne Jones fired this Luger 150 times; it functioned perfectly! Another .45 Caliber Luger is illustrated on page 108 [
my (Ron) note: the Aberman gun]; contrary to constantly fabricated stories, there are only two known examples of thie impressive, over-sized Model."
Quote:
Originally Posted by postino
How did the 45 Luger perform in the testing??? I've never read any report on it/them...
Did Luger (or DWM, whoever) ever comment on why the 45 Luger was never offered commercially???
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In all, nine .45 caliber handguns were submitted for the U.S. Test Trials: 6 semiautomatic pistols (Colt, Luger, Savage, Knoble, Bergmann and White-Merrill); and 3 revolvers (Colt, Smith & Wesson and Webley-Fosberry Automatic Revolver). A full account of the performance of each firearm was written up in the "Report of Board on Tests of Revolvers and Automatic Pistols" by the Chief of Ordnance and published by the Government Printing Office in 1907.
A total of 1022 rounds were fired through the Luger. Oddly, only 959 rounds were fired through the Colt and in many respects the Luger outperformed the Colt! However, the strength and simplicity (and no doubt the US manufacture!) of the Colt prevailed.
I know of no written account of why DWM did not pursue continued production of the .45 Luger. A combination of factors no doubt was involved. The .45 semi-auto cartridge was a new development, only beginning to be adopted in the U.S. and not likely to find world-wide use for some time. Also, DWM had just landed a huge contract with Germany for the P08 which more than occupied their full production capability. Shortly thereafter WWI certainly would have stifled any further consideration of .45 production.