John Walter in his seminal book ' LUGER', 1977 (my first book purchase about them) on page 64 writes about the 'M1903' subject of the US patent 851,538 mentioned previously by others shows the toggle grips mounted on the front link...he goes to say that 'No gun incorporating this unusual toggle mechanism is now known to exist, although it is probable that at least one prototype was developed in order to test the idea'. Perhaps the receiver/toggle train # 56 in this composite pistol is the remains of that to date unique prototype and part of the so called 'missing link' of what was to follow?
Walter hypothesises that 'Luger apparently believed that the change in position would lead to an easier cocking stroke, but there is no evidence that the desired improvement was ever achieved...' others assert that it was an attempt to stall Browning 'borrowing' and developing the idea - we shall never know for certain but given the wide range of detailed features in surviving 10000B serial range pistols this suggests that Luger was working to refine and develop and prepared to test and try as many permutations as possible before producing the embryonic Marine-Modell 04? Luger was also the 'master salesman' and protecting his invention would probably have been foremost in his mind in an era that was remarkable for its inventiveness of self-loading pistols that spawned the principles of the modern SLP...?
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