Quote:
Originally Posted by Dwight Gruber
. . .
The end of Old Model production can most likely be dated to late 1904. Sturgess asserts the French transitional and the navy P04 carry trials pistols (both Old Model frame types) to be concurrent production; the navy pistols were ready for trials by August, 1904.
The highest Old Model serial numbers reported are a carbine sn 25032 and a French transitional sn 25035. The first delivery of the new model production navy P04 was March 1906; New Model commercial production could not have occurred before that, and commercial production carried on with the earliest reported sn 25056.
. . .
--Dwight
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I'm sure this is accurate for the most part, and I genuinely appreciate Dwight's deep knowledge of production serial numbers and delivery dates. We all benefit when Dwight shares his knowledge and research.
But let's not forget the last short run of carbines in the 50000 to 50100 s/n block. These were produced/assembled at a much later date than 1904. As such, they are the very last production run of old models, and they bear the highest serial numbers. I know these are outliers, but they exist.
I'm bold enough to say that my carbine (the carbine of which I now am the custodian), s/n 50100, is nominally the last carbine, but also nominally the last old model Parabellum produced.
http://forum.lugerforum.com/showthread.php?t=38690
Fascinating facts. That's why they hold the interest of collectors.
Curl
P.S. My carbine is a Swiss, so it's very much at home in the Swiss Lugers forum!
