![]() During that conflict, the Artillery Lugers were generally used to protect machine-gun nests and artillery installations. We are talking, of course, about the most common original use of what has become known as the Artillery Luger, though the Germans knew it as the Long Pistol 08, and the war in this case was the First World War. You and a handful of other servicemen now have to defend the nest against oncoming forces, so you grab your lange Pistole 08 with its drum magazine holding 32 cartridges, elevate the rear-sight slide to the specified 600 yards, put the flat stock tight against your shoulder and, with your buddies, cut loose at the advancing enemy. Suddenly, the machine gun jams and your job begins. It’s late in the war and the enemy is fast approaching your machine-gun nest. Without further ado, here’s what we found. We tested them with two types of ammunition, 115-grain Independence FMJs and Black Hills 124-grain +P JHPs. Sadly, that was the only good part of this gun. The subsequent bluing was probably done by hot-dip process, as there were none of the signs that accompany rust bluing. There was some pitting here and there, such as under the grip areas and along the sides if you looked carefully, but whoever did the rework really knew his stuff. However, we soon found out it had been refinished by a master who maintained all the markings and original surfaces very well indeed. The Mauser looked at first to be pristine. Thus, the price for this one is within reason for a good-looking representative sample with what we thought was an excellent barrel. Those with pristine finishes command prices in the realm of $5000 on up, depending on condition and relative rarity of the individual gun. They saw hard and heavy use and there are not a whole lot of them left. They were used a century ago in the First World War, this one having been made in 1915. Regarding the Artillery Luger, one must remember these guns are all very old. The Broomhandle came in a new wood shoulder-stock/holster with leather, and a bunch of stripper clips. Accessories for the Luger included a new wood stock, two eight-round magazines, a new 32-round drum magazine with loader and leather pouch, and a reproduction leather holster with a two-magazine pouch. They were an Artillery Luger (about $2500) and an 1896 Mauser Broomhandle (about $2000), both with very good bores and in overall nice - though refinished - condition. We were delighted to have this pair of rare and costly 9mm handguns to evaluate, thanks to a collector in Houston who sent them along with a bunch of fine accessories to our Idaho office.
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