January 4th, 2021
6minute read
Certain names are indelibly burned into the foundations of the modern gun world.
And you might have heard of a certain fellow namedJohn Moses Browning.
But we must not forget about Georg Luger.
He was trained as an accountant.
Luger volunteered for military service in 1867 and found that he had a knack for marksmanship.
This awakened a latent gift for firearms design.
Using the C-93 Borchardt as a starting point, Luger crafted the improvedParabellum pistolthat he successfully patented in 1898.
While Herr Luger was working on his Parabellum pistol he also designed the9x19mm cartridgeit typically fired.
This modest rimless round ultimately became the most produced handgun cartridge in human history.
Not bad for a guy trained in accounting.
Switzerland was the first military customer for Lugers radical Parabellum pistol in 1900.
The Kaisers Navy bought the gun in 1903.
The German Army followed suit in 1908.
The Parabellum pistol briefly had a shot at becoming the standard U.S. Army combat handgun.
Luger eventually pulled his guns, andthe 1911 obviously won the day.
That first .45 ACP Luger was purportedly destroyed during testing.
The second is supposedly in private hands today and is potentially the most valuable collectible handgun on the planet.
The new design effort was spearheaded by a German Army officer named CPT Adolf Fischer.
The world came to know the LP08 as the Artillery Luger.
The Artillery Luger was an amazing piece of work.
The Artillery Luger draws its name from its intended mission.
The Artillery Luger came equipped with a complicated 32-round snail drum called theTrommelmagazinthat substantially enhanced the guns onboard firepower.
Artillery Lugers were typically issued along with a wooden storage box called a P-Kasten.
This case carried five drum magazines as well as the magazine loader and twelve boxes of ammunition.
Complete versions of this kit are rarer than honest politicians these days.
The resulting nifty little carbine caught the eye of lots of folks other than artillerymen.
Waffen SS troops even used the Artillery Luger in a limited fashion during the Second World War as well.
The action was inspired by the mechanics of the human knee.
This movement unlocks the guns bolt and allows it to cycle backwards to extract and eject a spent case.
A coil spring in the butt shoves everything forward again to repeat the sequence.
The safety is a thumb lever on the left.
Magazines do not typically drop free but do include a dimpled wooden floorplate to aid their extraction.
The LP08 Artillery Luger is indeed a First World War icon.
Special thanks towww.worldwarsupply.comfor the cool replica gear used in our photographs.
