Luger Model 1902 Carbine
Luger Variants
•
13m
With the advent of successful self-loading pistols, one of the additional markets that many companies tried to appeal to was the compact carbine. Self-loading rifles in proper rifle cartridges would not be developed as quickly as the pistols because their much greater chamber pressures represented a more difficult engineering problem. However by simply attaching a stock and long barrel to a pistol, many ambitious manufacturers hoped to sell a weapon as a sporting carbine. These were done by DWM with the Luger, as well as Mauser's C96, Mannlicher 1894 pistol, and many others.
Model 1902 was the designation of the major batch of commercially made Luger carbines, although there were several small batches of prototypes prior. Only a couple thousand were made, and they ultimately took quite a long time to all sell - it turned out this type of firearm was simply not very popular for its cost. The same story was true with the other contemporary pistol-carbines - none would be very successful. DWM did make another group of carbines in the 1920s, although those were made from various leftover parts and are both not as nice as the original 1902 guns (which were mostly made in 1904 and 1905) and widely faked.
Up Next in Luger Variants
-
A Well-Traveled Luger
This Luger has seen basically all of 20th century German history. It began as a 1917 production DWM pistol, used in World War One. After the war, it was one of the guns remarks for use by the police and military of the Weimar Republic, and at some point in this period had a special police safety ...
-
Portuguese Navy Luger
The Portuguese Army purchased 5,000 7.65mm Luger pistols in 1908, and the Navy followed suit the next year - but the Navy opted for 9mm ones, with 100mm barrels. A contract for 350 was placed in November 1909, with the guns delivered in 1910. These were in a standalone serial number range startin...
-
Portuguese Army Lugers: From Manuel I...
Portugal first tested the Luger pistol in 1901, and its commission on self-loading pistols recommended the design for adoption in 1904. No money was available at the time, but a second commission again recommended the Luger in 1907, and it was formally adopted and purchased in 1908. The initial b...
