Luger help please P-08

R

redlightrich

New member
Hello all, can anyone recommend a forum or blog that is specific to all things Luger? I am speaking P-08 of most any year.

I have been searching, but for some reason, the sites I find have very low activity. I would think that based on the widespread use of these pistols, there should be some very active places.

Maybe I am doing it all wrong?

Thank you

Rich
 
The Luger is a beautiful pistol. I only wish some company like Ruger or Springfield could remake the gun for a decent price.
 
"A decent price" in such cases is code for "cheaper than what it would really take to put it on the market."
Click to expand...

Seriously though, if they could deliver it for $299 or less, I'd buy. :D

I kid! For real, I would think $1200-$1500 should get us a close replica at a good quality. I'd think someone like Pedersoli or Pietta, Italian makers of reproduction arms, could do one for that price. Maybe even a Broomtale Mauser for $1600-$1800?
 
My understanding is that Mauser still has some parts sets that were made in the '60s and/or '70s, and they'll build you one for the right price.
I suspect their idea of a right price has one or more additional zeroes compared to my idea. :)
 
I know folks will disagree, but IMHO there is no way a Luger or Mauser C-96 could be made today the way they were made and finished back then and retail for under $5000. And that assumes a factory still exists somewhere. (Note that I didn't say with cast alloy frames and plastic parts - I said the way they were made then.)

if anyone wants to try, go for it, and good luck. I'll invest in something less risky, like gold mines in Tibet.

Jim
 
The $5000 1911s from Cabot are completely machined, with no hand-fitting, to tolerances of something like .0002", about five times as precise as normally seen in gun manufacturing, so they could probably make replicas of all of those complex, tightly tolerance pistols of the early 20th Century, for $5000+.

I remember reading an interview with Ed Brown, maybe 10-15 years ago, and his saying that he would really like to make a 1911 made completely from machined parts (as all 1911s were, until the 1960s), but lamenting that such a gun would cost $3000. He was absolutely right, as the cheapest of the Cabot guns is about three grand.
 
Cheapest of the Ed Brown guns is $2650. So he ought to be 90% milled?

Cabot specifically attributes "clone technology" precisely machined for full interchangeability only for their frames and slides. How often do you replace a slide so as to take advantage? They do not go into details on internal parts.

50 years ago, "modern machining technology" was just about to give us affordable double shotguns and double express rifles. I'm still waiting.

40 years ago, Mauser tooled up (Bought tooling back from Switzerland?) and made a few thousand Parabellum pistols in a variety of configurations, some based on historical Lugers, some off the wall.

Ten years ago, Kreighoff ran off a couple hundred Lugers at $15000. Did they find a crate of 1940 parts? Hard to imagine tooling up for so few, even at an exorbitant price.
 
You'd think with MIM and investment casting and CNC it would not only be doable, but easy.

Such a strange paradox how these old guns are MORE difficult and MORE expensive to produce even though technology has advanced by over 100 years since they were first built.
 
You have to factor in what was considered acceptable profit margin at the time, wages and quality of living for the craftsman, and the fact it was new technology, therefore in high demand, and had several military contracts.

Its really not that its more difficult or expensive, the market for a non historical Luger just isn't there. Folks are primarily interested in light weight hi capacity pistols, or feather weight mouse guns, and a significant portion of collectors are into it for the history behind the old pistols, which a newly manufactured Luger would lack.

I can't remember where I read it, but someone said it would be a labor of love, not profit, if the Luger is ever brought back.
 
About a decade ago (I forget, exactly) I bought a new in the box STAINLESS STEEL Stoeger Luger 9mm. Made in Texas!!

It is a P.08 copy, faithful in all aspects, but parts (magazines) do not interchange. Price was $1000. They had a Navy model as well for $1500. I really should have bought both, :D

Saw the Navy gun (6") a couple years ago at a show, $2000 was the asking price.

It is certainly POSSIBLE to make a new Luger for a reasonable price. BUT, since the market is tiny, you can't make them affordable, for very long.

I bought the SS one, so I could, if I wanted, shoot the crap out of Luger, WITHOUT worrying about wearing out or breaking a valuable collector's piece.

I'm sure there are others who feel like I do, but not enough, I think to make "new" Lugers something that can endure in the market. Most who want a Luger, want an original.
 
Note that I said "as they were made back then"; in other words, forged and machined. Sure, Lugers could be made of cast alloy, as some "clones" have been, but those are not IMHO "real" Lugers, even as copies.

And why would people pay $5000 or more for a copy, even a good one, when real Lugers, with a history, are available at less than half that?

Jim
 
I have been collecting guns for over 50 years but do not have a Luger. I never wanted one badly enough to do all the research needed to know what I was buying .
 
The main reason there is no market for $5000 clones. Anyone who wants a Luger for collecting or shooting can get one with historical value for a lot less than five grand.

Jim
 
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