In 97% condition and all matching, we have a post WWI production DWM made export model luger in 7.63 mm Luger caliber, which is known as 30 Luger in the States. These guns are often referred to as the 1920 or 1923 Commercial, The Alphabet Commercial or just the Stoeger Commercial Luger. It is a new made gun and was not a rebuilt WW1 Luger. Unlike most of these pistols that were “Germany” marked for importation to America this example is not. This example is believed to be a WWII Vet Bringback.
Large numbers of these pistols were brought over here in the 1920’s and you can think of it as being analogous to the Makarov pistols sold/dumped over here after the cold war. At the time, they were cheap,plentiful and mysterious and importers such as Stoeger sold a lot of them. It was this influx of Lugers that made them so well known and popular in America prior to WWII. They were chambered in the small but potent .30 Luger caliber as it was illegal to manufacture 9m/m caliber handguns in Germany at that time due to the Terms imposed on the Armament industry by the Treaty of Versailles. This model of Luger was sold all over the World and it was the standard military side arm of Finland where it was known as the Pistooli M23.
Scotty’s Collectors Insight…The .30 commercial post WWI Luger is the most commonly encountered Luger in North America. They were a bit of a fad in the 1920’s and many were sold. Today, a hundred years later most of them are pretty dogged out. This example has great condition and a great price too.
