Borchardt-Luger Controversy

[Kyrie]

Hi Gene!

Excellent post, and spot on :-)

We also need to remember that Borchardt had a hand in designing a number of different firearms, including the Sharps/Borchardt rifle that was fairly successful here in the US. Hugo Borchardt was (at least in my opinion) quite the mechanical genius and made significant contributions to advancing firearms technology. His largest failing was an inability to retain ownership of his inventions - and not any lack of quality in the inventions themselves.

Warm regards,

Kyrie
[quote]Originally posted by Gene:
<strong>Wes,

Possibly, your comment on the Borchardt might suggest to many that it was immediately considered unacceptable and rejected by the US Army: "He had presented his design in the USA and was shown the door."

In E.Scott Meadows' excellent book on US military automatic pistols, there is a detailed account of the Army's testing of the Borchardt for anyone who's interested. Suffice it to say that after the initial tests were quite successfully completed, the Army recommended that additional Borchardts be acquired for further testing. For whatever reason, no one followed up on that recommendation.

Years later, in the US Army tests of the M1900 Luger, an almost identical recommendation was made after the initial tests. But, this time, someone did follow up and purchase the 1,000 US test Lugers for testing in the field - before it was rejected.

Regards,
Gene</strong><hr></blockquote>