Thread: Finnish Lugers
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Unread 12-26-2004, 05:19 PM   #2
Dwight Gruber
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Thomas,

There is not much in print regarding Finnish Lugers, best references are Still's "Axis Pistols" and Walters's "The Luger Story" and "The Luger Book".

In short, Finland made small orders of 9mm Lugers (Finnish designation M-23) between 1923 and 1930, totalling about 9,500 guns--8,000 from DWM, 1,500 from Mauser. These came from Commercial stock (Alphabet Commercials), proofed with an upright crown/N, and are found with m, n, p, r, u, and no-suffixes. Some are found with Mauser Banners.

The Finnish property mark is SA inside a rectangular cartouche, stamped on the left receiver and bottom of their wood-based magazine. A quarter-sized brass disc was inletted into the right grip and stamped with unit mark information. About 1940 these discs were removed to maintain military security.

Finnish Lugers were used hard and reworked often. They are commonly found with mismatched parts, refinished in a matte, 'Parkerized' manner. Grips were often replaced. Front sights were often replaced with very angular, square profile sights, and the rear sights filed to match. Very often the barrels were replaced by Tikkakoski, marked with T inside a triangle, sometimes inside a circle.

One of my Luger regrets is not buying a Finnish Luger when I was offered one at a very good price (I didn't know the information above and thought I was being offered a junker, I studied up after my near miss)--good luck with yours, be sure to post photos and all pertinent information once you buy it.

--Dwight
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