LUGER Article by SKEETER SKELTON (1969)

[BigG]

I know we have some Luger buffs here and some of you, I'm sure remember Skeeter Skelton, Handgun Editor of Shooting Times back in the 1960s, so am posting this link to an article somebody was kind enough to post on his website.

Skeeter Skelton on Lugers

 

[Rembrandt]

QUOTE: "An Arizona deputy sheriff I knew made it back with an assembled Luger, still "in the white" as he found it in the Mauser factory. This unblued gun was complete to its black plastic grips, but bore no factory markings, and undoubtedly was one of the last genuine Lugers made."

Now there's a collectors dream gun.......good article, thanks.

 

[Gordon]

Thanks, Big G! Only us curmudgeons appreciate something like this!

 

[jacobtowne]

Thanks for the post. It's enlightening to read old article like that. However:

"The angle of the grip of the Luger is hailed by its devotees as the most natural ever adapted to an automatic pistol, and I agree. Look at a target, close your eyes and raise your Luger - you'll be pointing near dead center."

I couldn't disagree more. The only self-loader I've ever shot that is a natural pointer, for me at least, is the Nambu T-14.
JT

 

[BigG]

Gordon said:

Only us curmudgeons appreciate something like this!

You mean I've finally been promoted? Thanks! Up to now, I've just been an OFIT, according to Unca Art, who is one of the senior old farts.

 

[1911Tuner]

Skeeter

I miss Skeeter Skelton. The literary world is a poorer place since he left us.

 

[unspellable]

wrist angle

Given the number of people who claim this, that, or the other pistola has the best grip angle for them, I'm beginning to think we all have different wrists.

I've already decided that the grips themselves are like eyeglasses, mine won't work for you or vice versa.

 

[BigG]

The grip angle of the Luger is such that it is REPEATABLE. It is where your wrist is locked all the way as if you are throwing a punch and striking with your two big knuckles. Most other autoloaders, incl. the beloved Colt 1911 of song and story, have a phoney baloney grip angle that requires a position somewhere in the middle that you have to pay attention to - iow, it aint natural.

The Luger's grip angle may not be everybody's cup of tea, but it is repeatable and that's a big step towards consistency. JMTC

 

[Dr.Rob]

I sure like shooting mine.

One of the neat things about owning a Luger... even non-gun people know what a Luger is. Arguably one of the most recognised firearms in the world.

Neat article.

 

[Moonclip]

interesting article. Only Luger I've ever fired or owned, a 22lr Stoger sucked, but I wouldn't mind a 9x19 beater for fun or a .30Luger Swiss Luger if I could afford one. Almost anyone who knows someone who was in WW2 or had a relative there will almost certainly hear the story eventually about how they or a friend took a Luger of a dead German officer. It's seems no one ranked below 2nd Lt in the German Army due to these stories.

 

[unspellable]

Lugers taken from German officers

The funny part of these stories about taking Lugers from officers is that is that the Lugers were issued to non-coms. Officers generally carried some sort of pea shooter for dress. Not that there weren't exceptions, but not nearly as many as there were stories. I think it's like fish stories. If you actually took it from a German his rank went up two or three grades in the telling. Most of them were probably bought off somebody for five bucks.

I knew a guy who actually did capture a German general, but the general didn't have a Luger. (He did have a horse though.)

 

[jacobtowne]

If I believed every story I've heard about a pistol that was taken from a "German colonel who didn't need it any more," I'd have to conclude that the German Army was made up of nothing but colonels.
JT

 

[otomik]

great article

gun writers these days sound like the prolitarian novel writing machines of orwell's 1984. I imagine george jetson getting up early to hit the button on Primedia's cliche' compiler.

 

[Dr.Rob]

The only captured German handgun in my family was a .38 SW revolver of unknown make.

The only story I heard was that my (great) Uncle Kermit 'took it off a dead German' the way my (great) Aunt Marie said those words she could just about spit... and she was a god-fearing woman. Apparently she didn't like the idea of "those people" shooting at my Uncle.

That was her nightstand gun for 40-odd years until she passed.

If my wermacht-marked Luger has a story like that it's been lost... doubtless it came home in someone's duffle bag as it's lacking import marks and has a 1939 mfg. date by Mauser.

Lugers are neat old guns no matter what their provanance.

 

[Cosmoline]

One old character confided in me that he toted the modern looking auto because it was the only "sixshooter" (sic) he ever had that would shoot through an oak wagon tongue. Why this capability was helpful in his activities he never said.

 

[Candiru]

Although I'm not old enough to have read any of Skeeter Skelton's original articles, that one was very well-written. I noted with some amusement how 9mm was considered a powerful, hard-shooting round in the days before World War II. Now, of course, we know it's merely a .45 set to "stun". Admittedly, back then they were shooting genuine Parabellum ammo, not the anemic modern version, but still.

I sure wish Luger-pattern guns were still made, as I'd like owning a new example that I could shoot.

 

[CAnnoneer]

Is anyone making new stainless lugers?

 

[Candiru]

Is anyone making new stainless lugers?

Krauswerk in California has a guy who creates handmade stainless Lugers in .45 ACP. I'd actually prefer a blued one in 9mm, for historical authenticity.

 

[Delmar]

I really miss Skeeter's articles, and those of Bob Milek too. I consider those guys to be in the same class as Jack O'Connor and the like.

 

[Gordon]

"1939 mfg. date by Mauser."

Oh YEAH I recently got one of these FOR a shooter and retired my 1916 DWM .
John Lawson is THE wizard for these, if he still is working!New springs,working the trigger over and maybe making a new square front sight that looks OEM but is set to hit on at 15-25 yards and squared up rear notch
I too agree that the Type 14 Nambu has a better 'Natural' pointablity AND a better trigger(scarily so) but it ends there. I just spent $40 to shoot mine 50 times!(ho-hum)

 

[McCall911]

Skeeter Skelton...now there's a name I haven't heard in some time. I used to read his articles as a kid, and it seems like I read that particular one, as I was fond of Lugers.
And what a difference 36/37 years makes! Mr. Skelton talked about a Luger owner bragging about the amazing power/penetration of the 9mm Luger. And, nowadays, so many gun pundits echo how "wimpy" the 9mm is!

And, dear me, we wouldn't even want to get into the .30 Luger....



[Sorry, breaking a fever from pneumonia has made me very sarcastic of late.]

 

[unspellable]

Lugers

The stainless Luger is made by an outfit in Texas. Mitchell distributed them for a time, followed by Stoeger who engraved crap all over the side and changed the magazine to a non-standard one. After Stoeger got out of it the crappy engraving on the side was dropped although it still has the non-standard magazine. Since then it has been an order from the manufacturer proposition. But 30 caliber was added and options like the grip saftey and 4-3/4 inch barrel were added. About a year ago production stopped. The claim is that it will resume.

There is probably no other gun around about which so much BS circulates. For one, the WWII ammo wasn't any hotter and the Luger does not require "hot" ammo, it works best with standard levels. All hot ammo will do is increase the risk of knocking a toggle off. The real problem with the ammo is that some bright boy some where along the line decided that the 9 mm should be loaded to a shorter OAL. The SAAMI spec for MAXIUM OAL is EXACTLY the same as DWM's original spec for MINIMUM OAL. The Luger magazine works like a 22 LR magazine and is sensitive to the OAL of the cartridge. The bullet nose must ride up on the front of the magazine for proper feeding. This is the actual source of all the stories about Lugers being unreliable. No self laoder should be expected to work with ammo that is out of spec.

In misguided attempts at making mismatched shooters reliable under the assumption that the ammo is too wimpy or too hot, it has been the practice to tinker with the springs. On one occasion I have opened seven shooter grade Lugers and found seven different recoil springs, none meeting original specs. As Georg Luger said, "The springs have to be right." A complicating factor is that in the Luger action the type of jam caused by a weak recoil spring is identical to the jam caused by an overly strong spring. If you have to put in a stronger spring, put in a stronger magazine spring. Which brings us to another problem. These guns are from 60 to 100 years old and many of the magazines have been dropped on their head once too often. Something calculated to give most self loaders fits.

 

[MCgunner]

I've always found Lugers to be natural pointing for me. I shoot a lot of revolvers and single actions and the grip angle tends to be closer, I think. 1911s point to low for me, but I can adapt to about anything.

My uncle brought one back from Germany. My cousin has it now. Only been fired a few times since the war. It's in an original holster with spare mag pouch on the forward edge and Nazi eagle and swastika on the flap. He won't part with it, of course. I have an old Erma .22 of Luger pattern, close as I've got to one. I bought it 30 years ago used. It ain't much, but it does have the grip angle.

There is no better work of mechanical art than an original P08 IMHO. They were complicated to machine and assemble and the old ones exhibit old world German craftsmanship like few other firearms.

 

[unspellable]

holsters

Tell your cousin to take it out of the holster. Leaving gun metal next to leather promotes rust.

 

[MCgunner]

Tell your cousin to take it out of the holster. Leaving gun metal next to leather promotes rust.

They have the gun in a gun rug separate of the holster, but my uncle used to keep it in the holster. It's still in good shape, though, not corroded, thankfully. Guess I didn't word that right, it's not "in" the holster when stored. The holster, to me, it pretty cool, though, just knowing the thing is original and was carried in combat. Or maybe it's the Nazi markings and the fact that my uncle obviously got it from a Nazi somehow. He never talked much about the war, was pretty reclusive about it and was an alcoholic, died at age 47 of heart failure, probably helped along by alcohol abuse. I always figured there was a story in that gun and holster I'd like to hear, maybe not, but maybe so. A lot of 'em were brought back, though.

I know the old man was in the battle over a bridge at Ramagen on the Rhine, or at least I think so. I was watching this show one day on history or discovery or one of those channels. It was letters home from GIs. They were talking about that bridge, a group of guys got caught across the bridge during the night and survived multiple battles, ran out of ammo, were fighting hand to hand. One of the letters was from a survivor, a Joe Craig from Conroe, Texas! Now, just how the heck many Joe Craigs were from Conroe, Texas?????? I wonder how that show got ahold of that letter if it was my Uncle???? I called my cousin and she or her husband didn't know anything about it. Wish I'd have taped that.