Anyone have any experience with the Stoeger Luger .22 pistol?

A

aarondhgraham

New member
The Evil Pawn Shop Guy has one in his case,,,
He's only asking $289.00 for the pistol.

The reason I say "only" is because,,,
A quick perusal of gunbroker and other auctions,,,
Show the gun going for over $400.00 in almost every listing.

The gun looks to be in fairly nice condition,,,
The only thing bad about the gun are the wood grips,,,
Someone carved/burned a set of US Army insignia stripes on it.

Anyways, since I like oddball pistols,,,
I'm considering a Christmas gift to myself,,,
I just wanted to see if anyone has one and what they think of it.

BTW, I did find a .pdf file of the original instruction manual,,,
I'll attach it to this post in case anyone could use a copy.

Interestingly enough the last page has a statement,,,
"Born in America - Now made in America"

According to the manual the Luger was designed by an American,,,
Hugo Borchardt then sold the idea to George Luger.

That's probably common knowledge to Luger aficionados,,,
But it was news to me.

Anyways, any info would be very helpful.

Aarond

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Attachments

What I've heard of them hasn't been positive.

Finicky and unreliable seem to be popular words, then again I've never actually seen one in person. So take it with a grain of salt.

Still how cool is a Luger in .22 right? :D
 
Have two, one is the standard 6" model and another 6" Target version w/adjustable rear sights. Both are excellent shooters, take any and all ammo without a problem. Bought my first one new back around 1974 for $75.

Stoeger has/had owned the exclusive "Luger" licensing and naming rights to include manufacturing and importation for the US market.

Stoeger1.jpg

Stoeger2.jpg

Stoeger3.jpg

Stoeger5.jpg
 
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I like them.
Had one in the 70's.
Bought another a couple of years ago.

Mine is a little picky, but no more so than my Ruger MkII. It's 99% unless you try to feed it Remington.

Who can't use a cheap Luger?
 
According to the manual the Luger was designed by an American,,,
Hugo Borchardt then sold the idea to George Luger.
Click to expand...

Um... Hugo Borchardt was German (born in Magdeburg, Germany, died in Charlottenburg, Germany).

He did live and work in the United States for a long time, but he designed the C-93 Borchardt semi-automatic pistol (on which the toggle-link action of the Luger is loosely based) while employed by Ludwig Loewe & Company of Berlin.
 
The point just became dead,,,

I went in to talk to the Evil Pawn Shop Guy about the gun,,,
Someone had purchased it about an hour after I saw it.

But I did get a point of confusion cleared up.

There was another old codger in there shooting the bull,,,
He told me that there were two 22 Lugers,,,
One was the Stoeger which is full size,,,
And the Erma which is smaller.

I had been wondering if my memory was faulty,,,
The one my friend had when I was a kid really was an Erma,,,
I thought I had the name correct but was still confusing it with the Stoeger.

I didn't know they were two distinctly different makes,,,
I thought it was the same pistol with two different importers.

Anyways,,,
It's gone away.

Aarond

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Hello Fishbed77,,,

You are probably correct about his nationality,,,
I haven't researched it at all.

But here's what it says on the last page of the manual:

Born in America
Now Made in America
Click to expand...

Actually, the Luger is as American as apple pie. It was
originally designed by an American, Hugo Borchardt. who
tried to market it in the United States. No sale. So. being
enterprising, he sold the idea to a German firm where
George Luger came up with the Luger design as we know
it. Stoeger popularized this model in America! And now thanks
to modern engineering and manufacturing methods
- it says "Made in America" on the Luger. Some of the
features we've shown above just don't exist on other sidearms.
Luger's reputation as the most accurate and reliable
sporter around is no accident. Police departments have
realized that and many are now using the Luger as a training
weapon.
Click to expand...

Aarond

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Hello Rembrandt,,,

Those are two fine looking shootin' irons you have my friend,,,
Your box is identical to the one I was looking at,,,
Or as close as I can remember.

Now you've made me a bit envious,,,
I should have jumped on the pistol yesterday. :(

Aarond

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Actually, the Luger is as American as apple pie. It was
originally designed by an American, Hugo Borchardt. who
tried to market it in the United States. No sale. So. being
enterprising, he sold the idea to a German firm where
George Luger came up with the Luger design as we know
it.
Click to expand...

Just marketing fluff trying to appeal to an American market.

Hugo Borchardt did emigrate to the United States and became an American citizen, but the C93 pistol was developed after he returned to Germany, while he worked at Ludwig Loewe & Company in Berlin. The C93 was a German pistol.

Also, saying Hugo Borchardt designed the Luger is like saying John Bowning designed the Glock.

The 1911 and Glock share the short-recoil system designed by John Browning (just as the Borchardt C93 and Luger share the Maxim toggle lock system, which was not designed by Borchart, but was used earlier on Maxim guns). But no one says that Glock pistols were designed by John Browning.

The fact is that Borchardt designed the pistol at Ludwig Loewe & Company in Berlin, and despite being a very forward thinking design, it was not a commercial success. Georg Luger (also an employee of Ludwig Loewe & Company - he did not "buy" the design from Borchardt) came along a few years later, took the basic Maxim toggle-lock system of the C93, and designed a completely new frame, lockwork, and cartridge. The end result was the Luger pistol.

Here's a website with a brief history of the C93 and Luger pistols.

http://www.lugerforum.com/borchardt.html

http://www.lugerforum.com/history.html
 
My close friend has one, has about 30,000 rounds through it. Occasional feed issues but not to often. I've personally ran at least 1000 rounds through it and it worked almost as well as my families old ruger mk II.
 
Rim fire Lugers are more function sensitive than many calibers because of the wide variation in ammo. Everything from cheap "bucket-O-bullets", hyper velocity, different bullet weights, target ammo, chamber cut dimensions and so forth.

Of the two most common .22 Lugers, Erma and Stoeger.....Erma seems to be more sensitive and prone to feeding problems.

Personally I always liked the Erma's solid metal toggle linkage over the Stoeger stamped linkage because it more accurately resembled original 9mm Lugers. Erma also offered longer barrel versions that looked like the Navy models. As for reliability, I love my Stoegers.
 
Stoeger owned the "Luger" name and could, if they wished, have put it on a carpet sweeper. The Stoeger Luger, aside from the toggle action, has almost nothing in common with the original German pistol in terms of design. (And of course the Stoeger Luger, being .22 caliber, is blowback; it does not need or have the locked breech of the original gun.)

I never owned a Stoeger Luger, but I have worked on a number of them and I wish I could be as positive about them as others are. If owners have had good results with them, that is great, but it is not always thus.

Jim
 
I have two of them, both standard models. Would love to get a target model. Like all the .22 autos I've had, or shot, they are picky about the ammo. They may only shoot one brand/load well, or they may shoot all but one brand/load well. Each one is an individual, or so it seems.

MY first one runs well, is fun to shoot, and has nicely hand checkered grips, (done by a friend of mine).

My second one was in a local shop, where they said they tried to use it as a range rental gun, but it was a jam-o-matic. I bought it anyway ($140, IIRC), and sure enough the first mag I shot, it jammed a few times. Then I OILED it, and it ran like a fine sewing machine.

They are true Lugers, in the legal sense, but share only a resemblance to the P.08, and are not a precise copy of the mechanism.

I recently obtained a NIB (unfired) stainless steel Luger, made in the USA, marked Stoeger and Luger. and yes, its a 9mm, P.08 clone.

The Erma guns were not great. Not total junk, but not great. They used a large amount of alloy parts, and have a reputation for failing. And repair parts are non-existant. Besides the .22, they made a neat 3/4 scale Luger in .380ACP. I passed on one of those at a show recently, due to concerns over its durability, and mostly because it was outrageously priced.
 
For the uninitiated...

(And of course the Stoeger Luger, being .22 caliber, is blowback; it does not need or have the locked breech of the original gun.)
Click to expand...
+1. On a "real" Pistol Parabellum or Luger pistol, the barreled receiver and the toggle linkage recoil together for a short distance before the toggle linkage strikes ramps in the frame, unlocks from the barreled receiver, and hinges upward. On the Stoeger .22, the barrel and receiver don't move upon firing; the pistol operates as a pure blowback, but with a toggle linkage to operate the bolt rather than a more conventional straight coil spring.

Also, AFAIK the Stoeger .22 uses an internal hammer rather than the original Luger's spring-loaded striker and peculiar side-pivoting sear.

One final note: the Stoeger .22 should not be confused with the pre-WWII Stoeger-imported "American Eagle" Luger pistols, which were the Real Thing, made by DWM in Germany.
 
Lugerless

Aarond: Seems like you pulled a Vostracker move. I cant believe I let that little S&W .22 get by me when they had it and I was there!!!
 
Don't worry vostracker,,,

I cant believe I let that little S&W .22 get by me when they had it and I was there!!!
Click to expand...

I gave that little Model 34 snubbie a very good home. :D

In a way I'm relieved someone beat me to the Luger,,,
Having just paid cash for that C.A. Pathfinder,,,
I would have had to dig into my savings.

It's all good though,,,
Something else will attract my attention soon enough.

BTW,,,
The Evil Pawn Shop Guy has a very nice little Ruger Bearcat in the case right now.

Aarond

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Polish the feed ramp

Stoeger Lugers are manufactured in Europe where the OD of the .22 shell casing is just an insy-squench bit smaller (only a few 100thousandths) than in USA, which means that the chamber is marginally smaller. It isn't enough to keep American cartridges from loading, but after they're fired, the casing expands just enough to make it difficult for the extractor to tug it out of the chamber. That's why nobody has any problem if they shoot extra high velocity ammo, because the additional power generated drives the cocking mechanism back with greater force.
In order to make sure you can shoot any and all ammo, take your pistol to a gunsmith and have him polish the chamber out ever so slightly. I would say "ream" it, but it may not need that much. I've had it done to all of my Stoeger Lugers and now they will happily shoot whatever I feed them.
:)
 
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