Tag Archives: artillery luger

Why looky there…

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I spent the week at the Guns.com Vault in Minnesota filming podcasts with guests and friends, so you know I had to go poring through the thousands of firearms in “the stacks” of the warehouse.

I give you a 1916-marked lP08 “Lange” Luger made by DWM (Deutsche Waffen und Munitionsfabriken). The 8-inch barreled lP08 was adopted in 1913 to replace the thoroughly obsolete Reichsrevolver in use by the German field artillery.

Widely thought of as rare, they aren’t really that hard to find, as something approaching 200,000 examples were made during the Great War (~175,000 by DWM, 23,000 by the Royal Arsenal at Erfurt).

A prized trophy that was often retrieved at the last minute from piles of munitions headed to the scrap yard, I wouldn’t doubt most are still floating around out there, somewhere.

The guys in the warehouse say they see three or four a year pass through there.

And if you wish hard enough and your heart is pure, one will surely find you.

Why the Lange Face, Luger edition

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I’ve seen hundreds of Lugers come through the Guns.com Vault in the past few years, ranging from Swiss-made Berns to American Eagles, Naval Lugers, Black Widows, and 1980s commemoratives, but the “Artillery Luger” is more of a unicorn.

Officially dubbed the Lange Pistole 1908, or LP.08, while the rest of the Imperial German Army was using the regular 9mm P08, it was decided the cannon cockers of the field and fortress artillery, in 1913, were to be issued a lengthened (lange= long) version with a 7.87-inch barrel and a graduated tangent leaf rear sight marked to a wildly optimistic 800m.

The LP.08 would take the place of both the short carbine and the revolver for the artillery, making it something of a Ragtime-era PDW.

And it is just so friggen cool looking…

More in my column at Guns.com. 

100 years ago today: Second-hand Artillery Luger

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“167th Infantry, 2nd Battalion, Co. F. –Cpl Howard Thompson holding pistol of German whom Sgt James W. White killed in No Man’s Land with the butt of his pistol. A patrol of 5 men met 10 Germans in No Man’s Land on March 7, 1918. Cpl. Thompson went into No Man’s Land in the daytime and found the pistol of the dead German, Ancerville France”

U.S. Army Signal Corps photo 7748-H via NARA #55176278

An Alabama National Guard Unit, the 167th Infantry Rgt was part of the 42nd “Rainbow” Division during the Great War after being involved in the expedition to chase Pancho Villa across Chihuahua and Sonora in 1916. During WWII, the 167th again served, as part of the 31st “Dixie” Division in the Pacific.

Tracing its origin to the old 4th Alabama of Civil War fame, 1-167th INF today is still part of the Alabama Guard and has deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan several times in recent years, where their soldiers are no doubt still eagerly on the lookout for trophies in No Man’s Land.

So how many weird Luger variants have you see in one place?

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Rock Island Auctions has over 100 Lugers at their upcoming Premier Auction in May including carbines and artillery models and rare pistols meant for Persian, American, Argentine, Mexican, Swiss and Russian markets. They got em in 7.65 blank, 7.65×21mm Parabellum (which almost became U.S. Army issue!), and good ole 9mm parabellum.

DWM Model 1900 7.65mm “Ejercito Mexicano” marked commercial pistol made in hopes of gaining contracts with the Mexican military. Only one other example has ever been documented.

A rare DWM-made Model 1906 9mm para made for the Tsarist Russia contract. One of just 1,000 made, it includes Cyrillic safety markings and crossed Mosin Nagant rifle engravings (Photos: RIA)

For more detail, head on over to my column at Guns.com.

Dinklebergs!

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“Why don’t you try shooting something besides bird shot, you Asshole!”, says Hunter S. Thompson using an Artillery Luger while having a shootout with his neighbor.

Don’t try this at home, kids.

Oh yeah, and Happy April 15th!