Luger's pistol - heir to Borchardt's pistol
My first acquaintance with the Luger pistol took place in early childhood. Then the Frunze factory of plastic products produced just such a "Luger", and there were black, white and ... pink pistols! But among us, boys from Proletarskaya Street, only black ones were valued!
- We are glad, - continued Ostap, - to meet in this alarming atmosphere a devoted fighter for the homeland.
“Um… yes! - Ippolit Matveyevich hissed proudly, remembering with what hungry ardor he danced Lezginka not far from Sioni.
“Yes,” whispered Ostap. “We hope to hit the enemy with your help. I'll give you parabellum.
“Don't,” said Kislyarsky firmly.
"Twelve Chairs" Ilya Ilf and Evgeny Petrov.
“Um… yes! - Ippolit Matveyevich hissed proudly, remembering with what hungry ardor he danced Lezginka not far from Sioni.
“Yes,” whispered Ostap. “We hope to hit the enemy with your help. I'll give you parabellum.
“Don't,” said Kislyarsky firmly.
"Twelve Chairs" Ilya Ilf and Evgeny Petrov.
History firearms weapons. So, last time we settled on the fact that the military wanted Hugo Borchardt to redesign his pistol according to their requirements, in order to get a pistol of less weight, and with a shortened rear end. In addition, they wanted the designer to shorten the pistol itself, and make the angle between the barrel and the grip larger, so that it was more comfortable to hold in the hand. And also that the pistol is equipped with an automatic safety device, which will definitely increase the shooter's safety.
Georg Johann Luger (1849-1923)
And here it turned out that for some reason Hugo Borchardt himself did not do all this, and this work was done for him by his friend and colleague at DWM Georg Luger. Austrian by nationality, he entered the world of weapons thanks to his joint work with Ferdinand von Mannlicher, and by the time he joined Loewe's company in 1891, he had been developing rifle bolts for 20 years. In 1894 he was sent to the United States to offer Borchardt's pistol to the American army. But the trip ended unsuccessfully, and the gun itself caused a flurry of criticism. And here the most important thing happened: Luger thought about the comments made, tried to take them into account and eventually created his own pistol, which won worldwide recognition.
Pistol "Luger" М1899. The pistol was very easy to disassemble. It was enough to lower the locking bolt - the lever in front of the trigger guard with a grooved button down, remove the square cover of the trigger socket, and you could remove the barrel along with the receiver frame by pushing it forward. In front of the washer of the connecting rod mechanism, you can also see the "tooth" of the lever of the handle safety. Royal Arsenal, Leeds
He did not come up with anything essentially new, but took and only slightly altered the weapon of his colleague, but in such a successful way that he ended up with a completely new pistol! Suffice it to say that in the same patents for him there is only the name of Georg Luger, but the name of Borchardt is absent, and ... he did not file a lawsuit against Luger regarding the rights of authorship.
Diagram of the design of the first samples of the Luger pistol. The back of the pistol still protrudes noticeably back
Although their similarity in a number of parameters was obvious. And so much so that until 1904, in some European countries, this weapon was called the Borchardt-Luger pistol, which, apparently, tried to emphasize either their similarity or the continuity of the design of the latter. However, this pistol also became known for its commercial name "Parabellum", which was the second part of the famous Latin phrase: Si vis pacem, para bellum ("If you want peace, prepare for war"), which belonged to the Roman military writer Flavius Vegetius. The cartridge for this pistol received the same name and was registered under it: 9x19 Parabellum.
Diagram of a Luger pistol from an American patent of 1904.
Diagram of the action of the Luger pistol from the American patent of 1904.
The kinematic diagram of the operation of the bolt and handle safety (at the top, the safety button is not released and the pistol bolt cannot work, at the bottom the button is released and the shutter works) of the Luger pistol from the American patent of 1904.
Bolt carrier with barrel and bolt, and pistol frame with grip safety. The magazine for the pistol is shown separately. Diagram from a 1904 American patent.
Barrel with bolt carrier, bolt and crank mechanism. Photo by LugerMan
At the beginning of the century, there was a craze for pistols-carbines. They tried to make them on the basis of almost all pistols produced at that time. So "Luger" also did not escape the fate of being turned into a carbine, for which it was equipped with a long barrel, forend and, of course, a removable stock. Experimental model ML 1900. Royal Arsenal, Leeds
So, what was this pistol, which is still considered the standard of this kind of short-barreled weapon? "Luger" had an automatic with a short stroke of the barrel and at the same time its rigid locking, which was carried out by a bolt controlled by a connecting rod-crank mechanism. When its two levers were in the "dead center" position, that is, immediately at the time of the shot, the barrel was locked in the strongest way, which, incidentally, achieved the use of such a powerful cartridge in this pistol.
The bolt carrier of the pistol had the shape of ... a tuning fork. The barrel was screwed into it on the thread, the parts of the connecting rod-crank mechanism were attached to pins. Photo Alain Daubresse website www.littlegun.be
Immediately after the shot, the barrel and all related mechanisms were fed back by the recoil force. After a short rollback of the barrel together with the bolt, the levers of the crank-crank mechanism were removed from the "dead center", since one of them "ran over" the protrusion on the fixed frame of the pistol, after which both levers folded up and unlocked the bolt. Then everything was as usual: the compressed mainspring pushed the bolt forward, he pushed the next cartridge out of the store and sent it to the chamber, while the barrel itself was locked again, since the levers were in the "dead center" position.
Detailed diagram of the pistol "Parabellum"
An important design feature of the Luger pistol, in contrast to Borchardt's pistol, was the installation of levers. Now, when folded, they rested not on the lamellar return spring, but on the protrusion of the pistol frame. Well, he moved the return leaf spring itself to the handle, and then completely replaced it with a twisted one. All this made it possible to reduce both the dimensions and the weight of the pistol without any deterioration in its service and operational data. The ejector is located on the top of the bolt, and at the same time serves as an indicator of the presence of a cartridge in the chamber. The sleeve after the shot is thrown out by a spring reflector that is located to the right, left and up. The fuse box is located on the frame on the left. When lowered, it stops the movement of the receiver back and locks the trigger, although the striker can remain cocked. The magazine latch is located on the left side of the handle near the base of the trigger guard. This was also an innovation for that time. Prior to this, the latch was usually located at the bottom of the handle at the very base.
Assembly drawing
At the same time, a noticeably greater angle of inclination of the handle of the "Luger" at an angle of 120 °, in comparison with the Borchardt pistol, helped to naturally hold the pistol in the hand when aiming and firing, and the recoil when fired was felt as very soft.
Georg Luger presented his first development in 1898, when he was 49 years old. It was a 7,65 mm pistol with a barrel length of 122 mm, which was named Versuchsmodelle III (experimental model No. 3) and was immediately presented to the Swiss army. The pistol was tested in 1899, and showed that it is much more perfect than its predecessor. And already on May 4, 1900, by a special parliamentary decree, it was adopted by the Swiss army under the name "Pistole, Ordonnanz 1900, System Borchardt-Luger". A contract was signed under which DWM pledged to supply the Swiss with 3000 of these pistols.
Swiss pistol "Parabellum" model "06/24", that is, this is a model of 1906, but it was released in 1924. Length 215,3 mm, barrel length 122 mm, empty pistol weight 891 g. Magazine capacity - 8 rounds. Photo Alain Daubresse website www.littlegun.be
Following Switzerland, a number of other countries have shown interest in this 7,65 mm pistol. Commercial orders came in from Brazil, Holland, Portugal, Russia and Turkey. In 1902, 1000 Luger pistols of the 1900 model of the year were purchased by the US government for testing.
Army pistol holster "Parabellum". Photo by LugerMan
In Germany, the Luger pistol began to be tested in the summer of 1902. The competition was more than solid, because a large military order was supposed, which could literally make its winner rich. Therefore, almost all models of automatic pistols available at that time in Europe were presented on it: 7,65-mm K93 pistol, 7,65-mm Luger M1900 pistol, 7,63-mm Mannlicher M1900, 9-mm " Mars ", 7,63-mm" Schwarzlose "М1893" Standard ", 9-mm" Browning "and 7,63-mm" Mauser "K96. They were tested by the German military for a long time: and only by 1904 they were able to finally identify the winner. It turned out to be a slightly modified Luger pistol during tests, the caliber of which in 1903 was changed from 7,65-mm to 9-mm, for a new pistol cartridge with a cylindrical sleeve developed a year earlier, although it was altered from the same "bottle" 7,65 mm. And in the same year, the head of the DWM company came up with the name "Parabellum" for him.
As a result, on December 12, 1904 "Marine model of 1904" a Luger pistol chambered for a 9-mm cartridge was adopted by the German naval headquarters for the sailors of the German fleet, and on August 22, 1908, under the name P08 (Pistole 08), the Kaiser's army also adopted it as its standard weapon. After that, DWM began to use the name "Parabellum" only for commercial models P08.
"Marine model" arr. 1906 with a butt holster. Length 270 mm, barrel length 150 mm, weight without cartridges 970 g. Photo by LugerMan
P04 "marine model" pistols (manufactured in 1915). There is no handle safety in the top photo. This is a characteristic feature of the 1904 model. Moreover, they removed the automatic fuse, which turned off when the handle was gripped, for safety reasons. Because of it, many shooters did not put the pistol on the manual safety, which could lead to an accidental shot if the pistol fell. Royal Arsenal, Leeds
To be continued ...
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