The Mexican Luger
Luger Variants
•
7m 2s
Mexico’s President for nearly 30 years, Porfirio Diaz was very interested in modernizing the Mexican Army. He invested in new artillery, magazine guns, and small arms - such as the Mondragon semiautomatic rifle. In addition, Mexico tested the Luger pistol circa 1903-1905. They found it to be quite satisfactory, and appear to have been interested in purchasing them for artillery and cavalry use, but never followed through - presumably political or monetary problems prevented doing so (and Diaz was removed from power by 1911). Mexican property Lugers are extremely rare, as only a small number were purchased for testing. They can be identified by an “EJERCITO MEXICANO” mark engraved on the left side (done in Mexico, not by DWM). They are otherwise standard Old Model Lugers, in 7.65mm, with the typical traits such as dished toggles and a flat leaf mainspring.
Up Next in Luger Variants
-
American Eagle Lugers
Many people are aware of the .45 caliber Lugers made for US military field trials - but far fewer people realize that Lugers were both tested by the US military and sold commercially several years prior to the .45 tests.
In 1900, the US military put several hundred 7.65mm Luger pistols into fi...
-
Persian Model 1314 Luger and Artiller...
In 1934 (just year before officially requesting that the Western world call his country “Iran” rather than “Persia”), the Shah of Iran ordered 4,000 Luger pistols form the Mauser company. These were to be divided between 3,000 standard P08 models and 1,000 LP08 artillery models (plus a handful o...
-
Bulgarian M1911 Luger
Bulgaria bought its first Lugers in 1903; 1000 Old Model guns in 7.65mm. It bought another 1300 New Model Lugers in 1908 (again in 7.65mm), but both of these orders were intended for private purchase by officers. It wasn’t until 1911 that Bulgaria formally adopted the Luger as an army sidearm, an...
