Shooting a Luger...In An IDPA Match!

[JonS/42]

Greetings to the forum-it's been awhile since I've posted. Some basic history: Back in 1997, I acquired a matching number 1938 S/42 WWII Russian capture piece, which was stored with several thousand others in a Ukranian depot. Subsequent to the departure of the Soviet military, and the Ukranian independance, the depot was discovered, and at least one major arms importer was invited to view the arms and select; of the approximately 5,000 Lugers, about 1,400 were selected for export and import into the US by Lew Horton. I had an interesting discussion of the entire process with the then president of Miltex (back in the late 1990's after I acquired the gun), which I believe was one of Lew Horton's subsidiaries, through which the guns were marketed.

My gun (and all of the others from this collection that I saw imported) had been dip reblued, and I had my doubts as to the originality of the grips-the grips appeared to be original, but not necessarily those originally with the guns-shades of US M1911 arsenel rebuilds.

While mine had all matching parts (save the magazine, which was a stamped Type II Army), there was the issue of the dip reblueing and the importer marks, which essentially eradicated any true collector value to the gun. Additionally, there was a dent in the left side of the receiver, the grips were battered, chipped, and generally filthy, and although fully functional, the gun was hardly seamlessly reliable...

So-I put in a call to John Martz. I explained to John what I had, and what I desired was to have a pristine, fully functional and totally restored gun that I would use recreationally, primarily in local league steel plate matches. John, as many of you know, is a consummate gentleman, and a pleasure to work with. We decided to have fun with the gun-in addition to its total mecanical restoration, instead of the historically accurate salt-blue finish, we decided to apply a deep rust-blueing, with the applicable small parts either strawed or fire-blued, and the grips replaced with a set of English presentation walnut grips, with in the 1898/1899 Borchardt/Luger Transitional pistol pattern-that is, checkered with a smooth border on the edges of the grips. John did the mechanical and action work (including TIG welding to remove the dent {a romantic would see battle-damage; the former Major Stein saw "PFC with a crowbar"}), Charles Danner in Tennessee performed the blueing and strawing, and George Sarkissian back in California did the grips. John put everything together, performed an action job, and hand-tuned the original Type II magazine and provided two additional extruded FXO magazines (I later found a third FXO magazine)...and Voila! One absolutely superb, impeccibly reliable, unique historical firearm-one that wasn't trying to pass itself off as an "original" 1938 S/42, someting it wasn't, due to the previous Russian dip-blueing and our reconstruction (with its twists). Subsequently, I had El Paso Saddlery make a 1902 pattern US flap holster, similar to those made by Rock Island Armory for the US Test Trial Lugers (for the IDPA match, I used and Uncle Mikes appropriately sized and fitting nylon IWB holster, and a Matt DelFatti double magazine holder), and Jerry Burney in Arizona provided me with one of his reproduction lanyards. Ralph Shattuck provided an authentic period magazine loading tool, and I trudged off to have a splendid time shooting the gun in steel plate matches from time-to-time for several years (getting an illicit amount of pleasure both from operating the gun, and in triumphing over much more modern, often much more expensive guns and their users).

Fast forward to two weeks ago. I've recently been active in IDPA, and qualified in the Stock Service Pistol category. While I've been predominantly concentrating on my Glocks, both for competition and carry, June would be a "fun match" for me, as my next Glock competition wasn't until August...so I decided to deploy the 1938 S/42.

I had an absolute blast. Despite the miniscule sights, the gun was certainly competitive, due to its inherent pointability and accuracy. I used Winchester Wal-Mart Range Target 115gr Value Pack ammunition, and lubed the critical metal-on-metal frictive parts with TW25B, and used FP10 as a general lubricant. Everyone in my squad was 1)initially flabbergasted, 2)incredulous, 3)skeptical, and 4)impressed (not necessarily by MY shooting). The Luger performed absolutely flawlessly, through six tactical scenarios, incorporating much movement and reloading (the relatively lower powered ammunition performed nicely, but had insufficient "oomph" to activate the toggle hold-open device and the end of each magazine, but that was of no real operational consequence).

I had a great time, and it was a bit of an eye-opener for some of my fellow shooters to see how a classic (sounds better than "antique") WWII era gun could perform, and perform well with and against much more modern guns, with their improvements (and especially their better sighting systems)-and it was a tribute to John Martz and his team's efforts, patience, and meticulous craftsmanship. I just spoke with John earlier today, sharing with him my pleasure in his craftsmanship and the fun that I'd had in the match. John is well; he told me that he'd slowed down a bit, and has significantly cut down on his custom work, but he continues to be active in the repair arena. It was great to touch bases with him, and he enjoyed hearing that the gun was used successfully, much as it was originally intended...I just sent off to him a selection of "action pictures" that the club photographer took of me shooting the Luger during the match-I hope that John derives some pleasure from seeing his handiwork in action, and not just in a collection display (not that there's anything wrong with that, but mine was made to be used).

Best, Jon