Want to buy this Luger

[Ron Wood]

Michael,
As much as I admire your knowledge, command of the English language and debating skills, I do have to take you to task on your position that “Lugers…were never meant to chamber anything over 8mm”. You have made the unfortunate, but all too often encountered, mistake of taking a statement out of context. I took the trouble to dig out my copy of Walter and found the following:

“When the Borchardt-Luger was being tested by the Swiss army in 1899, Georg Luger had stated that – changing nothing but the barrel and extractor – the pistol would chamber any cartridge of suitable length, as long as the caliber lay between 7.15mm and 8mm” (bold and italics mine).

Kindly note that Georg did not state that the Luger was “never meant to chamber anything over 8mm”, he merely pointed out that it [in its current configuration] would chamber any cartridge of that dimension by changing nothing but the barrel and extractor. That is a far cry from your statement.

Obviously when Georg created the more powerful, and no less reliable, 9mm adaptation of the Luger, he changed out not only the barrel but also the mainspring (changing the extractor was not necessary since he artfully employed the same cartridge base as the 7.65mm round). Consequently, the Luger was then meant to chamber something over 8mm.

Yours respectfully,
Ron