Original Luger Cartridge

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.