Small Luger?

[A. F Medic]

I saw a small luger in a locked case at one of my flea market haunts. The seller wanted $400.00 for it and I believe that it was in a .380 caliber.

Could it have been one of those "Baby Lugers" or did other companies make them? Sorry about the poor description but I did not examine it as I do not know anything about lugers, small or lugers. Spelled right?

Information

Warning: This is a relatively older thread This discussion is older than 360 days. Some information contained in it may no longer be current.

[Bill Hollinger]

Erma made .22 rim fire Lugers. I just gave the one I had back to it's owner. What a POS! I could not find parts for it nor could I find anyone with any working knowledge on them.

[John L. Lucci]

Erma made .22 rim fire Lugers. I just gave the one I had back to it's owner. What a POS! I could not find parts for it nor could I find anyone with any working knowledge on them.

They aslo made a .32 cal with the proper Luger (not the blowback .22 mech) mechanism.

[JB White]

I do recall a small 5 or 6 shot .380 Luger-looking pistol offered in the mid-80's. Most likely it was an Erma although I'm unsure as to who was marketing it in the USA. My first guess is Iver Johnson but that's just a guess.

[KevinB]

Erma made a .380 ACP Luger that was improted by Beeman Precision (the airgun people) in the 1980s. Many seem to have functioning problems with hardball ammo. Beeman was sold in the early 90s so they are a dead end also.

[Dave]

The 'Baby Luger' was made in .32 Auto. Not more then a dozen were made. It was a experimental pistol, never put into rpoduction. Datig, in his 1962 book, says he had never seen one. I have seen pictures of one, don't remember where, so one may have surfaced or at least a picture has.

[RayP.]

The 'Baby Luger' was made in .32 Auto. Not more then a dozen were made. It was a experimental pistol, never put into rpoduction. Datig, in his 1962 book, says he had never seen one. I have seen pictures of one, don't remember where, so one may have surfaced or at least a picture has.

I have pictures of the "Baby Luger",cut out from old mag. articles("Shooting Times") and have a real good one in "The Luger Book" by John Walter and in "Lugers at Random" by John Kenyon,it is stated by the Weiss(?),project supt. that 2 were made in .32 and 2 made in .380.
Ralph Shattuck has a 7shot prototype Luger,shorter barrel,shorter grip area(only one ever made),in "The Luger Book" by J. Walter the pictured "Baby Luger" is said to be from the "Carl Wilson" collection,there was a member of the "Beach Boys" of record fame named Carl Wilson(guitarist) who was a noted gun collector,I wonder if he is the same person,funny thing about "Carl Wilson",google his name and include gun collector with it,site description says shot 5 times in botched ATF raid,get a real crazy site warning so I didn't go any farther.

RayP.

carl wilson gun collector - Google Search

[MagicMaker]

uger?
Preview

This is a wee bit late (two years), but I'd like to add some information to this and the following comment (from Jim K, dated 05-27-2009 07:24 PM [#9] ). I came upon this correspondence after Googling my father's name to see if he was mentioned as a gun collector. It came up with some very interesting hits--to which RayP can attest. Dad was, indeed, a gun collector of some renown. His greatest claim to fame was being the original collector to discover the location, and obtain, with all the variously-necessary provenance (including correspondence with the actual maker in Germany), the legendary "BABY LUGER"! A feature article on him and the Baby Luger was run in the "Shooting Times" sometime in the 80's (possibly the late 70's), a copy of which I have, but which is packed away in a trunk for safekeeping. During his hey-day as a collector, he owned both the Baby Luger and its counterpart, the Giant Luger--though from my understanding there was less excitement over the Giant Luger. (I saw a picture of a gun--I think in this website somewhere--of what appeared to me to look like what I remember the Giant Luger looked like; a very long barrel with a detachable stock. If this wasn't the Giant Luger, Father most certainly had one like it or very similar to it.) Carl F. Wilson collected Lugers, a hobby ignited from the souvenir Lugers he brought back from Germany during his tour in World War II. At one time during the 1970's, he was internationally known to possess perhaps the world's best (though not the largest) Luger collection.

[RayP.]

Fun gun to shoot,I've had this one(22cal.)since they first came out,Erma did make them in .22,.32 and .380,blew the extractor off this one about 25/30 yrs(?). ago,nobody had parts,I have(had) an asst. of european style extractors,took one of smaller ones,reshaped hookto match the rimfire,been alright ever since,always blamed the gun til about 3yrs. after when I found out Winchester let some over pressured .22LR ammo go to market,since I had already fixed it I never bothered with reporting any kind of claim to them,still have several cartons of that Lot# Win. .22LR ammo,only use it in Ruger MKll and a Rem. pump rifle.(side note on this model .22,ser#'s started at 300,001).

RayP.

[Jim K]

The ERMA Luger was made in .22, .32 ACP and .380 ACP. It was a blowback in all calibers, not a locked breech. The resemblance to the real Luger is mostly outward; it does have a toggle breech, but the mechanism is quite different from the original Luger. There were several versions, including a "carbine" .22, without a shoulder stock. Values average around $250, with NIB going for $400 or so. As guns, I don't recommend them; I have seen few that worked right and parts are very hard to come by.

There was also a Stoeger Luger in .22, but it was not a "baby" being about the same size as the standard P.08.

The original experimental "baby" Luger was made in the 1920's by DWM. There were only four ever made, two in .32 ACP and two in .380 ACP. Only one, a .380, has turned up. They ran into the same problems as everyone else who has attempted to market a Luger copy - the things cost like hell to make. The result was that DWM chose to market a copy of the Browning M1910/1922, which could be made and sold at a reasonable price.

It is not impossible that a true "baby" Luger may turn up some day, but anyone claiming to have one had better be ready to produce both the gun and some heavy provenance and documentation. Datig once said that, given a couple of thousand dollars, he could have one made in Liege, and that is probably still true, but it would be more likely to be China today than Belgium.

(FWIW, one close "copy" of the Luger was the little plastic Kruger, which used a toy cap to fire a #7 shot pellet; at a bit of a distance, they look almost like a small Luger.)

Jim