Shooting Old Lugers.

[Adam Helmer]

My WWII veteran neighbor just bought 3 old Lugers and wanted to shoot them at the bench.

He came by two days ago and we shot his "1916" and "1917" M1908 pistols and his Artillery Luger dated "1917." All shot well, but some sight adjustments for windage were called for, and made at the bench.

The Artillery Luger was an interesting specimen with the tangent rear sight that went to "70" or "80." The veteran told me that was to "range the gun out to 70 or 80 meters." I then told him he was off by a factor of 10; "that meant 700 or 800 "optomistic" meters."

I had sticker shock when he told me what he paid for the pistols and treasure my arms now more than I did a few days ago.

I will say that German engineering is superb and robust. All old Lugers fed and fired every modern 9mm factory load I put into the magazines. Naturally, there were shifts in point of inpact at 25 yards with different bullet weights.

Adam