Need Help - Imperial Research Project

[Luke]

This project has been posted on the other Luger Forum with good results, and I am hoping to gain additional data from members here who are not involved with the other board.

Military DWM Lugers were initially marked in the COMMERCIAL style with the last two digits on the undersides or bottoms of the side (trigger) plate and takedown lever. Furthermore, these digits were either missing or not showing on the extractor and middle toggle link.

At some point in the production of the Military Imperials the serial number placement was changed to the MILITARY style with the last two digits on the sides of the takedown lever and the side (trigger) plate and on the tops of the extractor and the middle toggle link.

Some published information suggests that the transition from COMMERCIAL to MILITARY serial number placement took place in 1912, but all of the data I have collected so far indicates that it took place in late 1911 production.

Thus far I have data from sixteen 1911 DWMs and from nine 1912 DWMs.

The 1911s have COMMERCIAL SN placement on 12 units ranging from 81xx-d to 88xx-e. The last 4 samples of these 1911s have MILITARY placement and range from serial numbers 93xx-e to 98xx-e.

All of the 1912s have MILITARY placement and range from #7xx to #78xx.

This leads to the hypothesis that the transition took place in 1911 between 88xx-e and 93xx-e with a 497 unit uncertainty range.

Would very much appreciate additional data from owners of 1911 DWMs and 1912 DWMs. I will not disclose to anyone the last 2 digits of serial numbers provided, and I will not identify the owner of any sample in my database.

Please respond here or by private email at
lugesm@charter.net.

Thanks for any help you can provide.

Luke