[Ken]

I have a luger mag that might be stainless or bright plated, does not look like nickel, has a brown plastic bottom held with two pins and the only mark I can find looks like a fancy "P" on the back. I have included a link for the mark incase my attachment does not work

Download Attachment: Dscn1583.jpg
59.22KB. Any one have a clue? Post war repro?
http://www.kebcollc.com/images/DSCN1583.JPG

 

[huggiebear]

I believe that you will find your magazine to be for a Swiss luger.

 

[Frank]

Ken, I concur with Huggiebear!! It's a Swiss.

 

[Ken]

Thanks to all, that was better news than I thought it might be. Came to me in a mixed up parts gun so it looks like the best part was the mag.

 

[Scott Thompson]

Ken, Nice magazine, I don't have a swiss magazine, but have read they are really high quality...

While we are talking about magazines -


Download Attachment: MVC-010S.JPG
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Download Attachment: MVC-012S.JPG
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I have an older spring-style, nickle-plated, wood bottom, unmarked magazine. It is a little different from the wood bottom magazines I have seen, in that it doesn't have the typical pin that retains the wood bottom - but a notch in the wood base with a small metal tab.

Any ideas? Thanks! Scott

 

[Dwight Gruber]

Scott,

Your Luger magazine is the style provided with the first issue of Lugers to the Dutch East Indies Army. In the Army trials for their service weapon the Dutch noted that one of the biggest reasons for failure of Lugers to operate properly was fouling of the magazine; they hit upon the removable base as the solution to aid in cleaning.

Two types of removable base Dutch magazines are to be found. Although the base was easily removable for cleaning, it also had a distressing tendancy to unlatch and fall out--along with the spring, magazine follower, and ammunition--under fire, so a pin was added at the front of the magazine to help retain the base. Around 1927 the Army converted to the conventional pin at the rear of the magazine to fully retain the base.

Yours is an example of the first type of magazine, without the additional front pin. It is worth noting that the environment in Indonesia was very hard on the Army's equipment, and so Lugers and their accessories are usually found in deteriorated condition. Your magazine is an exception, being in rather superb shape.

You have an uncommon and fairly valuable magazine.

--Dwight

 

[Pete E.]

Scott,

Your magazine is for a Dutch contract luger. It is of the "un-pinned" type and is quite rare...

I have seen these sell in the $ 400-700 price range, alone...

 

[Pete E.]

Ken,

Does your brown Swiss luger magazine (for a model M1929 Bern luger with brown plastic grips) have a small swiss cross stamped in the plastic "dished" buttons of the magazine bottom ? One can usually find a very faintly stamped (or molded...?) swiss cross in one of the two dished regions...

 

[Ken]

It does have a small cross moulded on one side of the plastic bottom I had over looked. Thanks for the information, any ball park idea of its value?

 

[Scott Thompson]

Dwight & Pete,

I really appreciate the feedback on that magazine.

I was guessing on it being an early commercial type that I hadn't seen or read about.

Interesting, makes sense though, if that small metal tab was to get stressed or over bent, the spring would push your ammo to the jungle floor - not good. I just did a little reading - looks like limited trials in 1906, with contract orders in 1911-1913, all sent to Java? (Luger Story - Walter)

Again, a big thanks!
I'll do some more reading on the subject. One magazine - and a bit of history becomes much more interesting..Scott

 

[Dwight Gruber]

Scott,

There were actually several Dutch contracts. The first, as you noted, was 1911-1913, 4,181 pistols all sent to Indonesia. The second was 6,000 pistols, assembled by the British firm of Vickers, Ltd. from parts supplied by DWM (thus circumventing the Treaty of Versailles) and sent to Indonesia in late 1921 or 1922. An additional 100 Vickers M-11 (as the Dutch called the Luger) were sent to the Dutch West Indies. In 1928 3,820 pistols were delivered to Indonesia, these are identified by KL in a circle stamped on their right receiver. All these guns were 1906-style Lugers, with grip safeties and no stock lug.

Between 1928 and 1939 2,654 P-08 (with stock lugs and no grip safety) were delivered to the Dutch Navy.

Dutch Lugers are a very interesting variation, which one doesn't run into every day. If you want to know more about them try "The Dutch Luger", by Bas J. Martens and Guus de Vries, Ironside International Publishers, Inc. It is in English, and is the definitive volume on this Luger.

--Dwight

 

[Pete E.]

Ken,

The brown Swiss magazines come up on e-Bay from time to time (in good condition) and can fetch from $ 75 to $ 125...

Tom Heller sells them from time to time here in the USA and a couple of guys from Switzerland sell them as well; all usually better priced than going the auction-route.

I like these Swiss magazines very much, find them reliable, and use them exclusively for my shooter lugers...

 

[Scott Thompson]

Dwight

I will have to check into "The Dutch Luger" - sounds interesting and a good reference for this variation. Thanks for the information and ID -Scott

 

[Pete E.]

Bob,

The folks at Simpson's LTD have the book for sale at ~ $ 50.00, scroll down to the middle of this web page :

http://www.simpsonltd.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?

 

[Lugerdoc]

Pete, I do still have a few exc M29 Swiss mags available @$75 each and plenty of spare Swiss Cross spare brown plastic mag bottoms in the $10 to $25 range. I also stock most other Swiss marked luger parts. Tom