1914 DWM Luger

[vintage hunter]

Picked this up today. All matching #'s except for magazine, VG-excellent bore, original finish. As far as I can tell it's nothing more than your average garden variety WWI era Luger but then again my knowledge of these is'nt all that extensive so I may have missed something. The one thing I did notice that differs from the other Lugers I've owned(WWII variants) is on this one the toggle does'nt stay open after the last shot. Don't know if the info is correct but I've been told that some early DWM's lacked this feature. Thoughts?

Information

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[Johnny Peppers]

DWM started putting the hold-open on the P.08 in 1913, but some of the 1914 dated P.08 pistols don't have the feature. The stock lug was also added in 1913, but in 1914 some of the pistols still didn't have it. Your 1914 still has the old style sear bar, which would have been altered if it had gone back to have the hold-open added.

A nice find as the earlier P.08 was made in more limited numbers, and attrition accounted for a number of the earlier pistols.

[vintage hunter]

Am I correct in thinking the ''a'' in the s/n is a production series and that a certian # were made during that particular series' run time? Is there any information available on P 08's that would allow one to narrow the production date down to a particular month?

[Johnny Peppers]

There are no records of P.08 production as it relates to when they were made. The military P.08 was made in serial number blocks of 10,000 with the first 10,000 having no letter suffix. When yours was made the serial numbers started back over at the beginning of a new year, with the date on the chamber being changed. Your P.08 would be the 10,109th P.08 made in 1914 by DWM. P.08 production in 1914 went to approximately the 4000c serial number range, indicating production approached 35,000 that year.

LP.08, or "Artillery" production also began in 1914 with limited numbers being produced that year.

[vintage hunter]

Thanks Johnny, that narrows it down close enough. Nice Arty P 08 you have there. I saw one at a show couple weeks ago with a price tag of $1395. The seller was engaged in deep conversation with his cohorts and I was unable to get his attention to look at it but it musta been a mismatch or put together at that price. Most I see are in the $1800-$2000 range for just the pistol alone. About to take mine out back to see if it goes boom. More later.