"New" Luger P08 from LKCI

[ithacaartist]

Originally Posted by Doubs

Wow, I have no idea but if they did, I'd surely buy one. I'm sure the quality would be excellent.

Mauser almost did it. Quality was sufficient, but just like the originals, manufacturing costs were very high. IIRC, the selling price in the 70s was around $700, which seems great today, but was a helluva lot for any pistol back then. I remember seeing a couple of originals at a gun shop in the $350 range.

Houston guns made a splash for several years, but even reverse engineering a gun takes a lot of resources. Without a customer base to meet price points on a scale large enough to make a profit, they also faded away for this same reason.

Our buddy Eugene Golubstov has invested immense time and effort to make his facsimilie of the .45 1907 Luger, and what he charges is more than fair for what he's produced. We should note that after an initial rush to order them, I think enough to justify a couple or runs of 50, Lugers in the original variation he made are on sale for about 20% off ~ $4k.

Even with cheap foreign labor, I suspect any manufacture of new Lugers of any sort, of any quality, simply isn't particularly attractive to industry for, again, the same reasons of high cost to develop and make, and insufficient customer base.