Georg Luger adapted his famously successful toggle lock form the Luger automatic pistol into a self-loading rifle for the German military. It was built in 8mm Mauser, but only a few prototypes were ever built.
Luger 1906 semiauto rifle in 8x57mm
According to the related patent (which you can download below, thanks to a fellow name JonMac who found if for a post on The Firearms Blog) the rifle incorporates an improvement over the Luger pistol mechanism. The pistol was known for having minimal spring pressure holding the toggle closed – a little dirt in the chamber or a bumping the cocking knobs upward could inadvertently keep the action from going fully into battery. This rifle design uses a different setup to put more positive spring pressure on the toggle when closed. This would probably not have been very easy to retrofit into the Luger pistol, simply because of space constraints.
The rifle recoil spring would be the primary force on the toggle when the action was fully open. As the toggle closed, the leverage of this second spring would increase, solving one of the main faults in the Luger pistol.
Patents
UK Patent 4126 (Georg Luger, “Improvements in Recoil Operated Fire Arms”, July 26, 1906)
Photos
(download this gallery in high resolution)
WOW, what a unique piece. Wish they had been mass produced. I’ve always been a fan of the pistol, and would love to have the opportunity to shoot a Luger rifle.
[...] German Luger rifle [...]
What a beautiful rifle. I’d love to see one of these in person. Love the site guys. Keep up the good work.
I once had the opportunity to handle one of these which was owned by Interarms and was in their private collection whilst they had a branch in Manchester UK. If my memory serves me correctly it was numbered ’4′ on the woodwork. I can tell you the weapon has a VERY strong recoil spring and was unsuccessful largely due to the necessity for such a spring, and apparently suffered frequent stoppages. Production was stopped after a few prototypes as the problems could not be resolved. ( so I was told at the time). Glad I had the opportunity to see it though – I doubt I’ll ever see another. I believe the weapon was shipped back to Viginia when Interarms closed their Manchester site.
Perhaps with a smaller caliber, the need for a stout recoil spring would be negated. I’d still very much like to see one of these rifles “in the flesh”. New production guns in smaller, workable chamberings would be very welcome.
I am sure you are correct Bill. It was the necessity for the weapon to use the standard 7.92 cartridge that was the problem. The cartridge is too powerful for this design to function without the powerful spring. I’m sure a lighter cartridge would have solved the problem, but would have been unacceptable to the German military. I wonder if Interarms allows visitors to it’s collection in Alexandria, Virginia? I’m sure that is where this weapon is now.