John & Ron,
Your responses are probably correct and I may have misunderstood the timing of events relating to how additional pistols could have slipped in during or after the tests. I agree with you that each Luger which came off the production line was a fine piece of hand fitted machinery and it is highly unlikely that there were rejects in the first two shipments considering DWM's high quality control.
Probably my misunderstanding of Mr. Kenyon's explanation could have been connected with the unserviceable pieces that were returned to Springfield Armory in 1904, and maybe DWM proposed to send replacements accounting for those Lugers which fall outside the 6100-7100 serial range showing suttle differences, such as the placement of the serial number on the take-down lever. Nevertheless, I agree with Ron that DWM probably did not ship additional pistols by reason of the fact that they originally intented as test pistols and sending replacements would serve no benefical purpose, only revealing that the Luger could not survive an abusive beating.
Unfortunately, we will never know if additional Lugers were shipped from DWM exceeding the original 1,000 pieces. I understand that this period around 1904 is a 'fuzzball' which might still leave questions open pertaining to those pistols which fall outside the upper limit.
Thank you gentlemen for your good comments.
Albert
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