Luger P08: 9mm or 30 Luger?

[EMR]

Wanted to pick the brain of the collective. Looking to pick up my first P08. Unsure as to which caliber. 30cals seem to be abundant and cheaper. I already cast and load 9mm but not the 30cal. Would the 30cal be worth learning to cast and load for or should I just wait for the right 9mm to come by?

[gnostic]

I have both 9mm and 30 cal. The 9mm is a 1939 S/42, that's the secret code and the 30 cal is a 1920 commercial. They're both matching numbered safe queens. Lugers aren't great shooters, as they have mushy triggers, slow lock time and tiny hard to see sights. They are however, delightful to look at and wonderful to touch.

[Der Gebirgsjager]

Good questions. General opinion of various militaries would seem to fall in favor of the 9mm as a defensive round, but a few, like the Swiss, thought the .30 Cal. to be adequate. The .30 brass is not as easily found or as inexpensive as the 9mm. The .30 is a fun round to shoot small game with.

[redhawk0]

Due to ammo cost and brass availability...get the 9mm. I have a 1917 double date that's a lot of fun to shoot. It has an S/42 toggle but mine is only a 60% SN match. No value in the pistol...but it is a blast to shoot.

redhawk

[bmortell]

I would agree that the fun part of owning a luger is looking at it and feeling the mechanics and engineering which is outstanding. shooting them is less great as the trigger is pretty much a lever that pushes another lever that pushes another lever. id get the one that you think looks nice to you and the right price, and make loading for it priority number 2.

[charlie b]

It depends on why you are getting it. If you just want a shooter I'd get 9mm.

I have a C96 Mauser and the brass is expensive enough I spend a lot of time picking it out of the rocks.

When I shoot my 9mm I sometimes don't even pick up the brass since I have a bucket full. Same with the .45

Having said that, the .30 Mauser is very accurate. More noise and blast but it is fun to shoot, especially with the buttstock.

[bob208]

I have one it is a Finnish contract was original .30. but the Finns. reworked it and converted it to 9mm tikka. did the work. I have shot it a little 20 years ago. if I want to shoot a .30 cal handgun I breakout one of my broomhandles more wow factor and a better shooter.

[Drm50]

I have only had 4" in 30 Luger as most of the 9mm I've owned. I only shot Win FMJ in the 30s and they shot as
accurate as the 9mms. I know a guy who has a 6" and he shoots cast. He does some pretty good shooting with
it. I always wanted a 6" 30Luger I think it would make a good field gun. It's a zippy round. I have never loaded
for them but I have a good supply of WW 30Luger ammo left over from the ones I had.

[EMR]

Thanks for all the insight, everyone. It’s not really going to be a shooter, just for outings once every blue moon. So I think I’ll just look for one in 9mm. And maybe some day I’ll pick another one up in 30luger.

[Hardcast416taylor]

At a recent local auction a Luger by itself with no holster or other tools and showing a bit of holster wear went for $1500.Robert

[EMR]

At a recent local auction a Luger by itself with no holster or other tools and showing a bit of holster wear went for $1500.Robert

I’ve been scouring websites like Simpsons and Checkpoint Charlie’s and have come to the conclusion that $1500 is the ballpark I’m looking at for a decent condition, matching pistol.

[Dan Cash]

If you can afford the Luger, cost of brass should not matter overly much. Starline has .30 Luger brass at a reasonable price. I don't have the Luger but do reload and cast for large quantities of .30 Mauser. It is straight forward and easier to make shoot well without leading than the 9mm. As defensive cartridges go, neither is much to brag about but the few animals I have shot with the .30 Mauser died quickly with massive wounds from a relatively soft, flat nosed cast bullet. Pick one and enjoy.

[PB234]

You might also consider the Lugers made by Mauser in the 1970s and imported by Interarms. A virtually NIB one will run about $1500 (including all tools, extra magazine and hang tag) on the auction sites. It is a real/quality Luger made by Mauser and the steel is less old. If I recall correctly they come in 4 and 6 inch barrels and are Swiss pattern. They will not have the history, but they are a newer piece of metal so you are not shooting a 100 year old gun perhaps suffering metal fatigue. 9mm is easier/cheaper to get ammo than 30 Luger. 30 Luger shoots like a rifle. If you reload the cost of ammo is about the same. The Luger is not really a pistol to shoot anymore except as a plinker as it was obsolete long ago.

[Texas by God]

I had a 1923 Commercial Safe/Loaded with a broken takedown lever. It was in .30 Luger and it shot great with Win factory and my reloads with the 100gr Speer Plinker. Young and foolish, I traded for an XP-100 7BR when they came out. You have to load a little on the warm side for best function IME. If I had another I would shoot it weekly at least.

[Bigslug]

I think most folks are buying Lugers these days for the sake of them being Lugers, and have no designs to make them their primary shooters.

Since that seems like the case here, I'd go with the caliber that presents you with the best target of opportunity for the purchase. Both are going to be historically significant - the .30 being the original round for what was pretty much the first semiauto service pistol, and the 9mm being the first launch platform for a cartridge that hasn't needed to change for over a century.

Another thing with Lugers is the STAGGERING number of variants out there - some of which being physical changes, others just being markings. Some of that may be relevant to you; it is certainly relevant to the pricing.

[bob208]

best investment for a luger is first get the book lugers at random and read it. then you will know what you are looking at.

[MFGordon]

I have been shooting a Luger quite regularly for close to thirty years and most of that with cast bullets. My gun in a 1936 dated S/42 (Mauser) with matching numbers. Unfortunately some one must have stored it in a basement at one time and decided to make homemade grips. The basement gave the gun some putting on the exterior which also led to a really low price.

I've shot all kinds of ammo through it over the years: corrosive Egyptian 9mm ball that used to sell for less than .22s, Winchester White box and lots of cast bullets. My cast loads include 150 grain SWC meant for .38 Special which still cycle fine in the Luger but mostly 124 grain Lee tumble lube bullets. They all work fine. But do expect jams. I've never seen luger that won't jam occasionally. The pistol cycles very fast and I think in many cases the next cartridge can't feed fast enough from the magazine, which leads to jams.

Triggers are squishy and the sights are abysmal. Still my Luger shoots remarkably well, better than most striker fired pistols today. Oh and they are quite heavy compared to today's aluminum or plastic guns.

One thing about shooting a Luger a lot is that I have really come to appreciate the genius that was John Moses Browning.

[charlie b]

One thing about shooting a Luger a lot is that I have really come to appreciate the genius that was John Moses Browning.

Great comment :) And consider all of the designs that are still being used today, many are based on his work.

[EMR]

Thanks all for all your suggestions! I ended up picking up a 1915 DMW in 9mm. Since I already cast and load for 9, I decided to save my work bench from a new caliber at the moment. It won’t be a shooter, since it’s 98% and all numbers match (minus mag) but I believe it to be blasphemy not to at least put a mag or two annually.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20190314/7d2b74b48c6d6c4c256c2d6dbf291e71.jpg

[Conditor22]

I would slug the barrel before you start casting and loading for your 1915 DMW. many of the European 9MM or .002 to .0025 larger bored than the US guns.

In the future, Instead of looking at the .30 luger look at 7.62x25 Tokarev. very similar cartridge but can handle much higher pressures, bulletproof tack drivers and can be had surplus for <$300

[Cary Gunn]

Howdy Conditor22,

I share your view on the 7.62x25 Tok. It's fun to shoot, relatively easy to cast and load for, and the Tokarev pistols from the various Commie-Block countries are usually really great shooters. The guns themselves were, and to some extent still are, available at decent surplus prices.

Considering all that, there's not much more a guy could reasonably expect from an old, historic handgun. And -- as for the fact that much of the pistol's design is a copy of Mr. Browning's earlier work, so much the better.

Happy trails,

-- Cary Gunn --

[EMR]

I would slug the barrel before you start casting and loading for your 1915 DMW. many of the European 9MM or .002 to .0025 larger bored than the US guns.

In the future, Instead of looking at the .30 luger look at 7.62x25 Tokarev. very similar cartridge but can handle much higher pressures, bulletproof tack drivers and can be had surplus for <$300

Oh I definitely plan on slugging it. I typically size my rounds to .358, so hopefully that’ll work.

I’ll poke around and take a look at those Tokarevs. Thanks for the heads up!

[Texas by God]

Congrats EMR, that's a nice one! I'd run a few thru it too.

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