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Winning Bid US $1232 First bid $400 Quantity 1 # of bids 9 Time left Auction has ended   Started 2024-08-05 00:00:00 Ended 2024-12-05 17:00:00

RARE!! DWM (Finnish), Model: M/23 Luger, Cal: 7.65x21 Parabellum, MFG: 1921-22, S/N: 8355, Semi-auto pistol, 3 7/8'' barrel.

HISTORY: In the early 1920's, Finnish army had a big shortage of pistols, & were looking to standardized one model. At this time the Finnish officer corps was mostly comprised up of former German Prussian Jaeger Battalion 27 Officers, who returned to Finland in the middle of the Finnish civil war in 1918. they would have used the P08 Luger when they were part of the German army & had good experiences with them, so naturally their first choice would be the P08 Luger in 9mm. The only problem with this is that Germany was not allowed to make Pistols in 9mm, or with barrels longer than 100mm at the time due to the treaty of Versailles. So the only pistols available from Germany were 7.65mm Pistols with short barrels. They could gotten 9mm pistols Belgium at that time, but they were far more expensive & would have had a slower delivery time, so they decided to buy the 7.65mm Pistols from DWM in Germany. The first shipment of 2,000 pistols would arrive in July of 1922, & a Additional 2,000 pistols were bought in 1923, & at that time the Finnish army officially named the pistol the M/23. more pistol would bought later on & by 1929 they had acquired around 8,000 M/23 pistols. Acquisition stopped at this time because the Finnish military wanted to develop their own domestic military pistols, that would later be the L-35 pistol. The Lugers Finland would receive were not new manufactured pistols, there were all earlier manufactured P-08 pistols equipped with 7.65 mm caliber barrels & refurbished very nicely. During the Continuation war, Finland started replacing worn out or damaged barrels with longer 9mm caliber barrels, so they could use there standard issue ammo from their sub machineguns in the pistols. The problem with this, is that the 9mm ammo that Finland used was loaded way hotter than what Germany used & Designed it for, since it was used in the Suomi M/31. the increased pressure would make short work of breaking the toggles & lock work on the pistols, so much so that the Finnish Ordnance Department had to send out letters to the armories to only replace the barrels if it was completely worn out or damaged, to try and save as many pistols as they could. In February of 1944 only about half of the M/23 pistols Finland bought would remain, & in 1951 only 3,724 of the 8,000 remained. Even with this amount of losses it was still the most common sidearm of the Finnish military until the 1980's.

CONDITION: The black, checkered plastic grips are excellent with minor wear. The blued metal finish retains full coverage with spots of wear/thinning, & as such rates 90%. The left side of the upper assembly is marked with the ''SA'' in a box Finnish property mark, & one German proof. The top of the toggle is marked with the DWM logo, & ''52''. The bottom of the barrel is marked with import stamps. The right rear of the frame is stamped with the unit marks ''T.S.'', ''74.''. The front of the frame is marked with the S/N which has a ''W'' S/N block. All the serialized parts on the pistol appears to be mismatched. The bore is very good. Its bright & mirror like with light rifling thinning. The barrel holds a tall barleycorn front sight with a U-notch rear sight. Pistol comes with one wooden bade mag. Mag has chips on both sides of the wood base, & there are no visible markings. FFL or C&R Req. - Value: 800 to 1600

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Payment Details See Payment Instructions and item description, or contact seller for more information.

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Price

RARE!! DWM (Finnish), Model: M/23 Luger, Cal: 7.65x21 Parabellum... Item # 4739 This auction is over. No new bids can be placed. Price: US $1232

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