help with an American Eagle LP08

[mdrumbore]

I've never come across an American eagle in this configuration and am totally clueless on this one . It is a DWM manufactured commercial Luger with the American Eagle crest on the chamber and has the 8 inch LP08 barrel. The serial number is 8 with no suffix and it is chambered in .30 Luger. None of the small parts are numbered with the serial number only appearing on the front of the frame, the barrel and the rear toggle link, I was unable to disassemble to check the internal parts. The leaf sight base and and adjustment slide appear to have the number 1 stamped on them as well, it is also marked Germany on the underside of the barrel. I would rate the finish at 95% or better, I don't believe it to have been refinished but if it was it was done very well in my opinion. Pictures to follow shortly. Thanks.

[mdrumbore]

first set

[mdrumbore]

next 3

[mdrumbore]

last ones

[sheepherder]

I would love a 30 cal LP-08. Definitely cool!

Did you buy it???

[mdrumbore]

It definitely was cool, I would have liked to have bought it. But I wasn't comfortable buying it unless I had some more info on it first. Haha

[Edward Tinker]

Michael, depending on price, it would be cool, just as something to talk about.

How much were they asking?

I am unsure about an American Eagle this late, and with a real artillery sight?

Ed

[mdrumbore]

Probably too much, no price tag on it. I had my doubts on authenticity when I saw it but this is out of my area of knowledge.

[George Anderson]

I've had two AE artilleries both built in Germany during the 1920-30 period. The only thing about the item presented that gives me pause is the lack of an artillery rear sight notch in the receiver.

[sheepherder]

The slider for the sight leaf is on backwards. It is also not engaged with the 'rails' in the base. It's riding on top of them. The chamfer on the slider is facing rearwards instead of to the front...

Is this a different construction artillery tangent sight???

[Dwight Gruber]

The pictures are suggestive, although they are not sufficient to make definitive statements.

The left frame rail has the characteristics of Alphabet Commercial production.

The left receiver has the characteristics of removal of markings.

The frame front looks as though original markings have been removed, and the single digit 8 serial number bears no relationship to any recognized serial number sequence.

GERMANY stamped on the barrel suggests that the barrel itself was a separate import into the United States. This means that it would be a later replacement for the original barrel.

--Dwight

[mdrumbore]

I agree with George, that was one thing that I did question myself when I saw this. As well as I approach anything I'm not knowledgeable on with a bit of caution until I've done some homework.

Originally Posted by sheepherder

The slider for the sight leaf is on backwards. It is also not engaged with the 'rails' in the base. It's riding on top of them. The chamfer on the slider is facing rearwards instead of to the front...

Is this a different construction artillery tangent sight???

I did notice that the sight did not slide as easily as I would expect from the other LP08s I've looked at previous to this. But I didn't take note of that until you mentioned it. haha

[sheepherder]

Originally Posted by mdrumbore

I did notice that the sight did not slide as easily as I would expect from the other LP08s I've looked at previous to this. But I didn't take note of that until you mentioned it. haha

It may have been modified...I notice that the slider 'feet' that contact the 'rails' are missing. It could probably be used by removing the leaf pivot pin and reversing the slider.

[ithacaartist]

Originally Posted by sheepherder

The slider for the sight leaf is on backwards. It is also not engaged with the 'rails' in the base. It's riding on top of them. The chamfer on the slider is facing rearwards instead of to the front...

Is this a different construction artillery tangent sight???

Mine is at the back of the safe, otherwise I'd check to make certain. I notice in the pic that there is a radius scooped from the bottom rear of the sight leaf. Is this the alternative to notching the top front of the barrel extension?

[sheepherder]

Originally Posted by ithacaartist

Mine is at the back of the safe, otherwise I'd check to make certain.

Nah, don't do that...You open the safe and your wife will say "As long as you have it open..."

Here's my DWM artillery rear sight, fully functional although well worn, and a Sarco repro...Hopefully, you can see how the 'feet' latch onto the 'rails' and how the whole leaf/slider is supposed to operate...

[sheepherder]

OMG!!!...Am I wrong???

I have noticed differences in artillery rear sights, and am opening a thread in the Artillery Luger forum to question these differences.

Edit: OK, I'm told that Patrice in the other thread has the correct answer -

Originally Posted by LU1900

You can see on your last pic , the millings are on both side and the original cursor is reassembled in reverse
It's very common that the teeth break : so the miling on other side is the soluce

When the teeth break, the elevator slides back & forth freely, so the shooter turns the elevator around to get some 'grip' on the rails. It won't hold under shooting [there are no indices on that side of the blade], but it has some friction to hold it in place.

Check the teeth on the blade and see if any are missing.

I don't know if there is a 'fix' for this problem (restoring the correct placement of parts & restoring the teeth) but I'm interested enough to check it out...

[Lugerdoc]

Mike, I have seen a few of these unusual "reversed push button" rear sights from the 1920s on other long barrelled lugers from that period. Both Stoeger and Pacific arms corp. offered long tangent sight barrels, as add-ons to their imported lugers from 8" to 24 inches. TH PS: Due to signal digit serial and lack of noticed receiver, I expect that this pistol has had this barrel added in the 1920s or later and renumbered and refinished.