Henry Rifle Forums

the 1920 DWM Commercial 30 Luger shown below has been handed down in our family for 3 generations .... unfortunately, after doing some research, I've found the story that has been handed with the Luger doesn't match its quality and condition .... my Grandfather was too young for service in WWI and too old for service in WWII .... the family story is the Luger was brought back by one of his friends from WWI .... it was supposed to have been taken off of a German officer in a farmhouse in France .... the reality is, to comply with the Treaty of Versailles, signed at the end of WWI, the 1920 commercials were manufactured for export and were mostly chambered for 30 caliber (7.65) .... apparently, a great many ended up in the United States .... so far as I've found, all military issued Lugers were chambered for 9mm .... for me, it has the best, most natural feeling grip of all semiautomatic pistols I've ever held .... the closest to it in feel has been the Ruger Mark II 22 LR .... with the exception of the magazine, it is in perfect working condition ... I have two replacement magazines on order and am looking forward to being able to fire it Luger again .... as a side note, I do find it interesting that in Lugers the same clip is used to hold both 30 caliber and 9 mm ammo

'Twould be something else to shoot an almost 100-year-old pistol....wow! After you get the replacement magazines, will look forward to your Range Report.

Could you explain a little about your sight picture looking down the barrel? From the side views, looks like some tight visual tolerances on top of the pistol...thanks.

Great-looking Luger. Reminds me of how much I like the configuration of my Mark IV.

PT7 wrote:Could you explain a little about your sight picture looking down the barrel? From the side views, looks like some tight visual tolerances on top of the pistol...thanks.

the rear sight is a small, sharp, machined V cut into the rear of the top of the pistol .... the front sight is a fairly standard blade .... it is sighted much like the old blade revolvers with a cut rear sight

Thanks, JEBar, your photos make it clear. From the first side pictures with the slide either closed or opened, I couldn't see the small V notch; also the top of the pistol looked a little high for that type of rear sight. It will be interesting to see you range report and how well the Luger can place its POIs with that small V. Have fun whenever you shoot it! :*)

from what I've read, these Lugers were designed of close contact personal defense/light combat situations .... it will be interesting to see how well they group

Great looking pistol, look forward to your range report.

Sooooooooo cool.

two replacement magazines arrived a couple of days ago .... based on taking a close look at them, I made a slight adjustment to our original magazine .... today we had a chance to take it to a family range .... ran 1 magazine of 8 rounds through it, the 6th jammed .... fired 24 rounds using each of the replacement magazines with NO jams ..... delighted with the results .. .. the original magazine will now go into the safe and the replacements will be used .... reloading dies, crimper, bullets, and brass ordered .... really looking forward to being able to fire it again

Sounds like a good range time, JEBar. Congrats on the excellent results using the replacement magazines.
Again, you sure have a very cool-looking Luger there.

today we were firing off hand, fairly rapidly, at about 20 yards .... our intent was to determining reliability, not accuracy .... our targets were 8" sq hanging metal plates .... what little I can say about accuracy is, all shots fired rang the gongs ....

I guess it could be a bomber to think the story passed down to you may not ring true. If nothing else, the gun has been taking care of, passed down and still shoots true. Maybe, it will stay in your family for at least another three generations. If nothing else, it may give people something to remember and talk about. Which, most families do when they get together anyway. By the way, interesting firearm.

we've been talking about the story and will never know for sure .... knowing my Grandfather, I choose to believe that he either was given or more than likely bought the 30 Luger from someone who had been in WWI .... along with it he bought story and passed it on .... finding out that it is a post war commercial production doesn't alter the fact that it belonged to him and that he passed it down with his other firearms .... I have every intention of passing all of them, along with all the stories, to our sons and knowing them have little doubt that they will be passed on accordingly