Luger VS. Walther P38

Actually according to studies I've read this is not the case. What drops a person wounded with a bullet (unless their brains are blown out of their head) is catastrophic blood loss and organ damage. The ability to discern between the impact of a .45 and a 9mm is negligible and would not result in a person dropping. Additionally a person may drop from the psychological realization that they have been shot.

 

I have always believed toggle top autos to be a bad design. It's all been said, jamming, sight picture and dirt getting in the mechanism. I also feel the recoil is going to be odd comparatively though this is a minor issue. The Luger is pretty and has always been sought after but I don't see it ranking with other military sidearms.

 

Way back in the days before handgun ownership was banned here, I did have the opportunity to fire a selection of well-known pistols including both P-38 and P-08 and I found the recoil of the Luger to be the most comfortable and manageable of them all. Although it's without doubt an odd-looking weapon, the ergonomics of the butt under recoil are excellent. It simply pushes into the web of your hand ; very 'user-friendly'.

 

Well, there is no argument that the Luger design has proved to be inferior as a combat service gun. Compared to the 1911, etc. But the Luger was designed and developed in 1900, and adopted by the German Navy in 1904, the German Army in 1908, and the Swiss, Dutch, and Portugese military as well. It was the first practical semi-auto pistol, the original gun for which the 9mm Parabellum round was developed.

Besides the originality, uniqueness, and natural pointability of the Luger Parabellum, it is also the most accurate of pistol designs, as designed and produced, without further modifications. The barrel and chamber recoil straight back, and then the bolt opens, unlike the Browning design, where the barrel tilts upwards every cycle.

The close tolerances of the Luger make for a more accurate gun, at the same time it is more susceptable to jamming due to dirt contamination. The Luger has the fastest lock time of any of these guns as well, due to the lighter mass of the toggle and its short travel, compared to the entire slide of a conventional semi-auto having such a longer rack motion. Its action is taken from the Maxim machine gun design, and the length of time the toggle is obstructing the sight picture is extremely brief. And as one poster noted, the Luger's recoil quality is uniquely smooth, unlike the assumption someone might make before actually having the experience of shooting it.

 

i like the luger, but for just looking bada$$ the webley 455 takes it hands down.

 

Yup, the Luger is way too refined too win a bada$$-looking competition.

But if you were a trooper in the King's Hussars, trying to reload your Webley at a full gallop, and fumbling with the individual bullets in your gloves, you might envy the Kaiser's Uhlans Lancer reloading his Luger.

Later, when the war was on, it was obvious to (most) everyone that magazines were better for reloading.
Incidently, Vickers LTD assembled Lugers for the Netherlands during and after the war.

 

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I have a Ruger mark II target pistol that has a frame designed much like the luger. it is very comfortable to shoot, and seems to fit anyone who has tried to shoot it.
I fired a Luger in the 1980's, and it never jammed through 500 rounds of military ball ammo. One of the biggest drawbacks to the Luger design was the hand fitting that had to be done during manufacture. You couldn't just grab two Lugers and swap parts and expect it to work every time. Almost any war time 1911 could have parts swapped and it would function. It may not be real accurate, but it would probably shoot!

 

My choice would be the Pistole 08. We had the Walther P1 (ex P38) as a service pistol and if you wanted to injure someone badly, you have to throw the pistol after him. It was the most inaccurate pistol i ever fired. The 1911 parts were interchangeable but sometimes if you get a worst one you weren´t able to hit a barn from the inside.