Original Luger Cartridge

I remember reading someplace that the original chambering for the luger was a 124 grain bullet pushed at something like 2,500 feet per second. Someplace else I read that a 115 grain bullet was used and there was no mention of the velocity. Can anybody here furnish accurate information as to the actual bullet weight and ballistics? Any references would be much appreciated

In J. David McFarland's booklet "The P-08 Parabellum Luger automatic pistol" (Desert Publications) that is in part an adaptation of the original, pre-World War I DWM manual, the loads indicated for ammo are as follow:

Cal. 7,65: weight of ball (hard lead core with full or half case of sheet steel coppered & nickel plated): 92.6 grs; velocity of projectile in fps: 1150 (350 m); working effect in foot pounds: 271. This was for 4.73" barrel lenght.

Cal. 9mm: weight of ball (as above): 123.4 grs; velocity of projectile in fps: 1020 (310 m); working effect in foot pounds: 283. This was for 4.02" barrel lenght. Range, penetration, spread, etc. are also given for both calibers.


Don't know if the above numbers were the very first, original ones (they appear very inferior to what is expected)but they were nonetheless advertised (and used) by DWM when this company was competing to sell the P-08 across the world in the early years of the Luger.

[Lonnie Zimmerman]

I wrote to Lapua in Finland about some VPT 44 ammo of their"s that was made in August, 1944. They stated it was made especially for the P-08, had a 123 gr bullet with 1045 fps. Sound low to me, but works the toggle fine.


Lonnie