This subject is worthy of further research. 1’, which is engraved rather than stamped, is considerably higher than what these weapon numbers usually run up to. This would be followed by the weapon number assigned to this pistol. Kompanie, Reserve-Infanterie-Regiment Nr. This interesting mark tells us that the pistol was issued to 8. The front grip strap is stamped ‘JNF.R.60.8.K.419.1’. The DWM 1915 Luger P 08 that we are presenting today is one of these rare examples. However, only around 2,000 of these pistols are estimated to have been unit marked. The number of P 08 pistols produced by DWM in 1915 was 105,000. The total number of P 08 pistols produced between 19 was 1,084,000. Production of the Luger at both factories increased with the start of WWI in 1914 and continued going strong until the end of the war in 1918. The state-owned Königlich Preußische Gewehrfabrik Erfurt began producing the Luger P 08 in 1911. DWM was awarded the contract to produce the P 08 for the army and production started in 1909. The pistol was designated ‘Pistole 08’ or ‘P 08’. Four years later, in 1908, the Imperial German Army adopted the 9mm Para 1908 model, which had a 4” barrel, a shorter frame and no grip safety. In 1904, the Imperial German Navy adopted the 1900 model chambered in 9mm Para and configured to the Navy’s requirements, having a 6” barrel, a grip safety, and a rear sight that was adjustable to 100m or 200m. However, the pistol became synonymous with the designer’s name and it is best known as the ‘Luger pistol’. It used the bottlenecked 7.65mm cartridge and had a slender 120mm barrel. This model is referred to as the ‘Old Model’ or the ‘1900 model’. The Swiss military was the first to adopt the Parabellum pistol in 1900. However, it was an employee of DWM, the Austrian Georg Luger, who in 1898 perfected the design and created the elegant Parabellum design which is so iconic. It was produced at the Ludwig Loewe arms factory in Berlin (later DWM) and various attempts were made to market it as a service pistol. Read on for another LSB journey in firearms history… In an earlier post we discussed the genesis of the Luger pistol, starting with Hugo Borchardt’s locked breech self-loading pistol ‘Construktion 93’, or ‘C93’. What makes this Luger rather special is that we know which unit was using it, thanks to its unit stamps. In this second post with the theme ‘HANDGUNS OF WWI’ we shall be looking at a nice example of a military issue 1915-dated DWM Luger P08 pistol.

Dwm luger serial numbers