Pure Speculation.......45 Lugers

G.T. · 02-06-2002, 09:30 AM

Hi to all! THE FOLLOWING IS PURE SPECULATION! A lot has been written about the DWM .45's, on this forum and elsewhere. As it seems that only two of the original pistols now exsist, one can only speculate om how many were produced originally! I have read reports that list the possibility of up to six! Lets take a look at how many a manufacture would make today, if they were going into a head to head compitition with the best in the world! A lot of pride would have been at stake, with the contract as a juicy prize for the victor! First, you would have a prototype, this may be a crude example, but it would certainly have to exsist! Second, you would have to have a unit for parts commonality and interchangability (drafting & design), this again could be an unmarked or unserialed pistol, but would be dimensionally perfect! Third, in house test piece, this could be one or several, function and/or failure tests, balistics, proof limit testing (tool room guns)...this could amount to five or six units even before the test pieces...there could even be more departments that I am unaware of? Ammunition procurement? they certainly would need the unit to devolope a special .45 cartridge as has been documented....That brings us to the Test pieces themselves...do you think they would do all the work that it takes to tool up and build luger parts for just two or three pistols? I don't think so, I would have to believe they had an eye to the future, and would have built some dedicated tooling and fixtures for a possible contract or commecerial market! Remember, they didnt have the German army contract as of yet...so, if you build the dies to forge frames, your going to stamp out more then three! Same for the toggle, receiver, etc....I don't believe the pistols were made one at a time, out of a solid block of steel, if you had any hope at all of winning the contract, you would be devoloping parallel tooling program along with the pistols....So, either you spent one hell of a lot of time and money for two or three finished units, or, you stamped out a few more to cover your bases, maybe six to ten units for the tests! All that would be left, is spare parts, of which, I'm sure there were many. A few pistols could have been thrown together from parts. Now we have to also realize that they probably had a limit to their program, and if the returns on their effort proved to be to little, they would stop....I would speculate for a project of this type, they cold have produced, or had the ability to assemble, a total of 20 to 30 units! When your producing parts in a semi production prototype mode...10 to 20 is not too bad, a hundred is like a life sentence! After losing the competition, did they destroy all the remaining inventory? Is there .45 Lugers in some collections in Europe? What would their serial no.'s be? Is there a box of .45 Luger parts setting in the forgotten corner of some old dusty gun shop? Stranger things have happened! This brings to mind one of my rules of life, " Rare and elusive, but ever present!" Ok Guys! Fire away!! till....later...G.T.

02-06-2002, 09:30 AM	#1
G.T. Lifer Lifetime Forum Patron Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: Chandler Arizona Posts: 3,528 Thanks: 1,334 Thanked 3,711 Times in 1,014 Posts	Pure Speculation.......45 Lugers Hi to all! THE FOLLOWING IS PURE SPECULATION! A lot has been written about the DWM .45's, on this forum and elsewhere. As it seems that only two of the original pistols now exsist, one can only speculate om how many were produced originally! I have read reports that list the possibility of up to six! Lets take a look at how many a manufacture would make today, if they were going into a head to head compitition with the best in the world! A lot of pride would have been at stake, with the contract as a juicy prize for the victor! First, you would have a prototype, this may be a crude example, but it would certainly have to exsist! Second, you would have to have a unit for parts commonality and interchangability (drafting & design), this again could be an unmarked or unserialed pistol, but would be dimensionally perfect! Third, in house test piece, this could be one or several, function and/or failure tests, balistics, proof limit testing (tool room guns)...this could amount to five or six units even before the test pieces...there could even be more departments that I am unaware of? Ammunition procurement? they certainly would need the unit to devolope a special .45 cartridge as has been documented....That brings us to the Test pieces themselves...do you think they would do all the work that it takes to tool up and build luger parts for just two or three pistols? I don't think so, I would have to believe they had an eye to the future, and would have built some dedicated tooling and fixtures for a possible contract or commecerial market! Remember, they didnt have the German army contract as of yet...so, if you build the dies to forge frames, your going to stamp out more then three! Same for the toggle, receiver, etc....I don't believe the pistols were made one at a time, out of a solid block of steel, if you had any hope at all of winning the contract, you would be devoloping parallel tooling program along with the pistols....So, either you spent one hell of a lot of time and money for two or three finished units, or, you stamped out a few more to cover your bases, maybe six to ten units for the tests! All that would be left, is spare parts, of which, I'm sure there were many. A few pistols could have been thrown together from parts. Now we have to also realize that they probably had a limit to their program, and if the returns on their effort proved to be to little, they would stop....I would speculate for a project of this type, they cold have produced, or had the ability to assemble, a total of 20 to 30 units! When your producing parts in a semi production prototype mode...10 to 20 is not too bad, a hundred is like a life sentence! After losing the competition, did they destroy all the remaining inventory? Is there .45 Lugers in some collections in Europe? What would their serial no.'s be? Is there a box of .45 Luger parts setting in the forgotten corner of some old dusty gun shop? Stranger things have happened! This brings to mind one of my rules of life, " Rare and elusive, but ever present!" Ok Guys! Fire away!! till....later...G.T.