Pure Speculation.......45 Lugers

[Johnny Peppers]

Remember that only two of the .45 Lugers were originally sent to the US Ordnance Department for preliminary tests. After the preliminary tests, the Ordnance Dept. recommended that 200 of the .45 Cal Lugers be purchased for field tests along with the .45 Colt and the.45 Savage . Preliminary negotiations were proceeding when DWM decided not to accept the order for the 200 pistols.

There is no evidence that DWM tooled up to make the .45 Luger, and the fact that they declined the order for 200 pistols further enforces this. The pistols had the initials of Georg Luger on the back of the toggle, which seems to indicate that the pistols were hand built specimens. DWM probably felt that the deck was stacked against them in having to compete with a US company like Colt, the Model 1900 had not been well received by the troops in the field, and also DWM had large contracts for the Model 1906. Additionally, they may have already known that the German army was about to adopt the 9mm pistol. It would be understandeable that they would not want to tool up to make a completely different pistol they were fairly well certain they would never get a contract for.

Should you ever have the chance to see the .45 Luger in the Norton Gallery, it is worth your time to see it. Once you see it there is no doubt that it is of DWM manufacture and absolutely original.