LugerForum Discussion Forums - View Single Post - 1914 Erfurt dilemma--SOLVED!

Doubs · 08-24-2002, 01:41 PM

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Johnny Peppers:
"Doubs, The military either manufacturers at government arsenals or pays someone to manufacture spare parts to maintain their then current weapon inventory."

I agree.

Johnny: "Domestic production of commercially manufactured weapons depends entirely upon demand and sales. Winchester never intended to have left over inventory sitting around as in the case of the Model 1873, as unsold inventory is capital that is tied up."

Again, I agree. But the fact remains that Winchester and other manufacturers did accumulate inventory of spare parts that sometimes sat for years. The initial buttplate screws used on the Model 52 Winchester were manufactured for the 1873 Winchester rifles you speak of. (FWIW, I have pages 11 - 202 of an original Winchester catalog from the late 'teens or early 1920's that belonged to my father. The 1873 is being offered at prices from $17.50 - $37.50 but my father had annotated in writing that the 1873 is no longer being produced. Sadly, I can't establish the exact year the catalog was published because the covers are missing.)

Johnny: Winchester also manufactured the M1 Rifle and M1 Carbine during WWII, but they did not keep any unsold parts of these weapons sitting around. They were in the business of manufacturing the weapons under contract at a specified price, and hoped to turn a profit. Merchandise sitting on shelves it not profit."

No argument with that. However, any contract parts produced would have been shipped to the government as they were paid for. The receiving arsenal or warehouse would have stored the items for later use or disposition. The parts were not simply destroyed in most cases and were in inventory somewhere. The CMP is, I believe, still using M1 Garand parts that were produced many years ago to repair Garands for sales to members.

LP08 explains, perhaps better than I did, the manufacturing process and how parts management wasn't as sophistocated a century ago as now. Why is it such a leap of faith to think that the Erfurt Arsenal may have had parts available long after manufacture? Once made, they wouldn't have simply dumped them.

There has yet to be a solid explaination for the Erfurt Arsenal to not produce Lugers in 1915. It's conjecture, of course, but suppose an emergency or even immediate directive was issued in late 1914 to cease Luger production "right now" and convert the assembly line to making GEW98's ASAP? Wouldn't there possibly be unused 1914 receivers still available? Put them on the shelf for later use and press on. I'm not saying it happened that way.... only that it's another distinct possibility. There has to be a reason why Luger production by Erfurt in 1915 didn't happen. Considering that LP-08 production only goes to the "b" block in 1914 by Erfurt and standard Luger production also stops at the "b" block, it's unlikely that 1915 was used to produce Lugers dated 1914.

08-24-2002, 01:41 PM	#22
Doubs User Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: Byron, Georgia Posts: 1,735 Thanks: 819 Thanked 1,767 Times in 584 Posts	[QUOTE]Originally posted by Johnny Peppers: "Doubs, The military either manufacturers at government arsenals or pays someone to manufacture spare parts to maintain their then current weapon inventory." I agree. Johnny: "Domestic production of commercially manufactured weapons depends entirely upon demand and sales. Winchester never intended to have left over inventory sitting around as in the case of the Model 1873, as unsold inventory is capital that is tied up." Again, I agree. But the fact remains that Winchester and other manufacturers did accumulate inventory of spare parts that sometimes sat for years. The initial buttplate screws used on the Model 52 Winchester were manufactured for the 1873 Winchester rifles you speak of. (FWIW, I have pages 11 - 202 of an original Winchester catalog from the late 'teens or early 1920's that belonged to my father. The 1873 is being offered at prices from $17.50 - $37.50 but my father had annotated in writing that the 1873 is no longer being produced. Sadly, I can't establish the exact year the catalog was published because the covers are missing.) Johnny: Winchester also manufactured the M1 Rifle and M1 Carbine during WWII, but they did not keep any unsold parts of these weapons sitting around. They were in the business of manufacturing the weapons under contract at a specified price, and hoped to turn a profit. Merchandise sitting on shelves it not profit." No argument with that. However, any contract parts produced would have been shipped to the government as they were paid for. The receiving arsenal or warehouse would have stored the items for later use or disposition. The parts were not simply destroyed in most cases and were in inventory somewhere. The CMP is, I believe, still using M1 Garand parts that were produced many years ago to repair Garands for sales to members. LP08 explains, perhaps better than I did, the manufacturing process and how parts management wasn't as sophistocated a century ago as now. Why is it such a leap of faith to think that the Erfurt Arsenal may have had parts available long after manufacture? Once made, they wouldn't have simply dumped them. There has yet to be a solid explaination for the Erfurt Arsenal to not produce Lugers in 1915. It's conjecture, of course, but suppose an emergency or even immediate directive was issued in late 1914 to cease Luger production "right now" and convert the assembly line to making GEW98's ASAP? Wouldn't there possibly be unused 1914 receivers still available? Put them on the shelf for later use and press on. I'm not saying it happened that way.... only that it's another distinct possibility. There has to be a reason why Luger production by Erfurt in 1915 didn't happen. Considering that LP-08 production only goes to the "b" block in 1914 by Erfurt and standard Luger production also stops at the "b" block, it's unlikely that 1915 was used to produce Lugers dated 1914.