Custom Target Lugers

[Michael Zeleny]

Originally Posted by Jasta2

I read someone won a world championship with a custom Luger many years back.

As discussed here, Heinrich Keller of Frauenfeld, Switzerland, aged 40, represented his country with a specially constructed 170mm-barreled 1906/29 7.65mm Luger in his first international event, the 1949 ISSF competition in Buenos Aires. As shown above, his gun, albeit arsenal-built with a longer, 170mm barrel, otherwise differs little from a standard Swiss 1929 military issue Luger. It should be noted that all Swiss Lugers received trigger tuning with the aid of a special tool. Such tools can still be found in Swiss gun auctions.

The original target of Keller’s fourth pass in the ISSF championship shows a perfect score of 100. It caused a sensation during that event, for no other shooter had managed such a result thus far. His overall performance in competition resulted in 10-shot targets that scored 96, 88, 95, 100, 88, and 92 points, adding up to the same 559 points that he had scored in preliminary training, achieving in each instance the best result of any shooter. Keller’s skill earned his 1949 ISSF title of World Champion in the 25m center-fire pistol event. In summary, not much work is needed to compete in a bullseye event with a Luger. The shooter, not the gun, will be the limiting factor.