[George]

Dear Friends:

I recently purchased an 1918 DWM Artillery Luger. I have fired it on two occasions and seems to be very accurate at 25 yards using my reloads. When I show my new prize to friends at the club and advise them that the sights are adjustable up to 800 meters, they look at me as if I had two heads!!

As I calculate it, 800 meters is 2624.67 feet or 874.89 yards. Has anyone every put a 9mm on paper at 800 meters? The longest range at our club is 300 yards. I guess I will see what it does at 300 yards.

Would appreciate your thoughts on this matter.

Regards,

George

 

[Jan C Still]

George
An interesting project. Be sure to keep us posted.
Jan

 

[George]

Dear Jan:

Many thanks for the kind words of encouragement. My problem is I don't think I will be able to see 10 ring on the target at 300 yards.

I will give it a try and see what happens. Possibly someone else on the board has gone through this exercise?

Regards,

George

 

[Guest_V]

George,
the idea was, that even a small number of men under command, firing volleys could keep the enemy down at that range. It wasn´t necessary for each man to hit the target. In fact it was better if a number of them didn´t, so that a larger area was covered. That was before the advent of the machine gun. Fire orders for volleys was part of my training in the British Army during the 50´s. Pistol target practice in the Imperial Army and in the Wehrmacht was limited to 50 metres (which is over my capability).

Patrick

 

[Olefogey]

I have been able to keep my shots within 8 in. at a hundred yds. using a rest and firing a 1917 Artillery Luger. AND nobody was firing at me!! 800 meters is extremely optimistic!! Patrick is right about firing volleys to keep enemy heads down!!

Dave

 

[Edward Tinker]

For the US Army M16, as the target is placed further away, it is ecpected that the target will be larger, i.e. as Patrick stated.

Ed

 

[Spartacus38]

It has been 3 years since this posting.

Has anyone shot groups at distances greater

than 100 yards with an artillery Luger?

Would like to know what kind of groups

are possible using a bench rest.

Bob

 

[Ron Smith]

I shot mine at approx. 200 yds. I wasn't shooting for group, but more or less plinking at a soda can on a hill. I hit the can 3 times, all other shots were within 6" of it. I'm going out this weekend to do some shooting. I'll take it out again.

Last summer we did take out my Red 9. Here's a photo of my buddy Dennis, who is an accuracy fanatic. A non-believer, who thinks I'm nuts for spending money on "old pistols" just to look at. After I let him try it out, I couldn't get it back for awhile. He is shooting at a 2'square piece of cardboard at a measured 268 yds. And keeping them all on the paper just resting it on the tire. The rear sight is set at 100m.

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Ron

 

[Spartacus38]

Hi Ron, I am looking forward to hearing how

well you do with the artillery. Will you be

using a stock?

Bob

 

[Ron Smith]

Hi Bob,

I'll try it with and without the stock.

Ron

 

[Guest_V]

It is generally accepted that the LP08 is less accurate without the stock than the standard 08 as it difficult to keep the long barrel stable. Try firing a rifle in the same manner you would fire a handgun.

The German Artillery were the first (and main) protagonists of the LP08. Görtz quotes their assessment as to how many LP08s were necessary to be equivalent to one carbine at various distances. Approx. four times as many LP08s were considered equivalent to one carbine at 800 metres

 

[Joop van de Kant]

Gents,

During the early years of the last century the arms manufacturers took advandage of the fact that the Military did not yet understand very well the possibilities of the new smokeless powder in combination with the reduced bullet diameters and the lenght of a barrel.

Especially the distance that a bullet (fired at an fairly upwards angle) could travel before it hit the ground was very convincing in the statistics that were presented to potential buyers.

Mauser's C96 Broomhandle was the first pistol to have a rear sight with a non realistic maximum distance (if something had to be hit at that distance too).

When DWM proposed the 8" 'long distance' Luger to the German Military it must have been very seducing for DWM to present a new all time high range on the rear sight. It is interesting to note that the Military did not test the 'Artillery Luger' at the range it was pretending to reach with at least a minumum of accuricy...

It might also have been so that the Military liked the idea of distributing a personal sidearm to the Artillery troops that promised a long range protection - almost like the carbine it was supposed to replace.

I have had good results here with a bench rested Artillery at 100 Meters. Smallest group was 7", average 8.5". At 300 Meters also from brench rest I used 50 rounds to find that only 14 of them hit the target (60"x 60"). My neighbour did not laugh (polite fellow) but told me "too much wind today for that piece of antique".

 

[Spartacus38]

Joop, At 100 meters did you use a stock with

the Artillery?

Sounds like 200 to 300 meters is about the limit

for any possibility of a grouping.

I always thought it would be a great weapon

with a scope.

Bob

 

[Spartacus38]

Ron and Joop, How many shots do you

fire in a group?

Bob

 

[Vlim]

Hi,

German tests show that 300 meters was the distance at which you were expected to hit a man sized target with some luck. At 300 - 1000 meters the effect was, as Patrick mentioned, to keep the enemy occupied and inside field cannon range (not too close). The bonus still was, whether you were aiming or not, the round was still lethal at those distances.

Interestingly, the German airforce was interested in the Artillery as a means of defence as well. The C96 and the LP08 were the first midrange power packs of their days and not too strange in a world trying to cope with the new military technologies at hand.

ps: A stocked luger with shoulder holster attached shoots much nicer. The Holster flap acts as a padding device.

 

[Joop van de Kant]

Bob,

I used the stock to keep it firm in my arm pit while the barrel of the pistol was resting on a solid stand with a cushion on top. I used a non matching 1917 old warhorse. We shoot normally groups of 5 rounds; in the above mentioned case I shot groups of 8 (one magazine a time).
I intend to take my very nice 1915 (has a shiny as new barrel) to the stand and try to improve the grouping. This time I will leave the holster on the stock and use the holster flap in the way Vlim indicates above.

 

[Dwight Gruber]

Joop,

You might consider not resting the barrel itself on the rest, as it is part of the recoiling section of the pistol. This might have an effect on your ultimate accuracy.

--Dwight

 

[Joop van de Kant]

Dwight,

Of course you are right! I will try to rest the trigger guard on the cushion...

 

[Spartacus38]

I spent 5 hours yesterday shooting a 1918 Artillery with stock.

I had a heck of a time until after about 2 hours I realized

the rear sight elevation adjuster was moving towards the 400

meter setting from the recoil.

I fired close to 200 rounds and the gun performed flawlessly.

At 100 yards my target was 12 by 17 inches and I managed to

hit it 13 out of 18 shots (bench rest).

Next time I will use a different artillery with a larger target

with a black bullseye instead of a red one. The red bullseye

was hard to see.

I don't think I can shoot 8 inch 5 shot groups but I will try.

Any updates on what anyone else is shooting with an artillery?

Bob

 

[Spartacus38]

I was using the white box Winchester 115 gr FMJ ammo.

Bob