Want to buy this Luger

[Michael Zeleny]

Ron, what I said was that starting in 1902, some Lugers were meant by their various makers to chamber some 9mm rounds. I stand by that statement, which nowise implies the existence of multiple Luger makers in 1902.

The Borchardt-Luger toggle action design employs a push feed cycle from a detachable magazine. Both its original embodiment, and the axial bolt push-feed action realized by the Mauser C96 around a dimensionally and ballistically similar cartridge, feed them over a short gap, out of a more or less vertical magazine. Luger's successor design feeds a significantly shortened version of these cartridges over a longer gap, out of a steeply angled magazine that makes a bullet of a larger caliber much more likely to be deflected from the proper feeding trajectory, and a straight-walled case with a wider mouth, much more likely to hang up during ejection. I have nothing but affection for Luger's finest accomplishment, the 9x19mm Parabellum round, but trust that there will be no argument over its better fitness to less steeply angled magazines and controlled feed actions, and less precise headspacing compared to its bottleneck predecessor.