Pre-production Lugers & The Respective Trials

[Imperial Arms]

This post is also submitted on the Jan Still Forum in response to a discussion started by Herb (drbuster).

Hello Doc,

If your pistol #10 does not have a double firing pin retainer spring, forget about it being any type of pre-production Luger. Unfortunately, I do not mean to disappoint you (again), but your Luger #10 sounds like a dog with fleas. I have read information about your Luger #10 after you acquired it from the RIA, but do not expect it to be anything special no matter how many seasoned collectors have or will examine it. This Luger has been identified as a bad pistol and so will it be.

Without going into a long discussion on the subject of the pre-production Lugers, I can briefly explain my theory on the evolution of these pistols:

1898 Swiss Trials 1 - Serial block #1-#10 which includes pistols serial #5 and #6. Pistol #6 returns to DWM for modification and to be reduced in weight to approximately 900g (without the magazine);

1898 Swiss Trials 2 - Pistol #6 is evaluated again, but further reduction of the pistol is demanded as well as improvement on the the safety and the trigger;

1899 Swiss Trials - 20 pistols weighing approximately 820g-850g (V1-V7, which includes pistol #19 with a 'GL') are delivered to Switzerland with the improvements as well as maintaining the square toggle link;

1899 Dutch Trials - These pistols are probably in the serial range #30-#40 with square toggle links. One of these pistols is in the Doug Smith collection;

1900 Swiss Commission Gift Pistols - When the Swiss Commission accepted to purchase a contract of the M1900 Luger pistol, approximately 20 pistols (square toggle links and hallmarked 'GL') were given as gifts to each of the members. I own pistol serial #13 (with arsenal modifications from the period) which is shown on my web site. This pistol has the square toggle link, a firing pin which is 1 mm longer than a standard M1900 firing pin as well as a double firing pin retainer spring;

1900 British Trails - During the various trials mentioned above, DWM realized the flaws with the pre-production pistols and made some improvements on the M1900 pistols (namely the round toggle link) of which a small batch (approximately six pistols) were delivered to the UK (in early 1901) for trials by the British. These pistols still have some of the earlier external features of the pre-production Lugers, but without 'GL' hallmarks.

There is one collector in England (and maybe some of this affilates) who claim that the DWM factory had to 'beg' the Swiss Commission for six pistols from the 1899 trials in order to deliver them to the British for their trials. Do you believe that the Swiss Commission would handed over pistols which they previously PURCHASED because DWM was incapable of producing a small batch of pistols for the British trials? They just happened to use inventory/parts which they had onhand to assemble a small quantity of pistols, and the use of a upper receive with a Swiss cross was probably a marketing strategy to show the British that the M1900 was already accepted by the Swiss. Furthermore, do you realize that DWM and Mauser was owned by the Loewe family empire, and they had no reason to obtain pistols which were previously SOLD to Switzerland, modify them and deliver them to another country - it would be to expensive! If I was alive in 1898 and a member on the Swiss Pistol Commission, I would have refused to return pistols (and ammunition) which my country had purchased, so they can be used for trials in another country.

It is possible that my (brief) theory may have some minor mistakes because we do not know all the facts, however, I can say that my theory provides some logic/sense unlike the theories made by other collectors which are riddled with holes as large as Swiss cheese.

Albert