Hey guys, thanks for tuning in to another video on ForgottenWeapons.com
I'm Ian McCollum and I'm here today at the Rock Island Auction Company taking a look at a Bulgarian Luger.
This is another interesting and slightly different variation on the Luger.
So, a little bit of background. In 1903, Bulgaria first bought Luger pistols.
It bought a thousand of them,
Old model ones, and then in (that would be the ones that still had a flat mainspring). Then in 1908
They bought another
1300 new model Lugars (those would be the ones that were changed to the coil mainspring as well as a few other slight differences),
But at this point these were all guns that were intended for basically private resale or private purchase by officers.
They weren't something that the Bulgarian military was actually sending out as standard-issue.
However, it was worth buying them as a batch from DWM because they wanted some things like
Cyrillic safety and loaded chamber indicator markings. You write those in English, not really gonna be so useful to guys speaking Bulgarian.
So, they followed this up in 1911 by finally deciding to adopt the Luger as a standard-issue pistol and they ordered
10,000 of them from DWM, these being guns that they intended to actually issue out
widespread to everybody in the military who needed a handgun. So
These, the guns were delivered in 1911 and they have a few differences from other standard Luger types that we'll see. So, let's take a look.
From the side this looks like a pretty typical,
New model Luger except it's got this lanyard ring on it.
That is not a normal standard pattern.
It was specifically requested by the Bulgarians and will only be found on Bulgarian pattern guns.
Then, you'll find something interesting if you look at the top of the gun.
Typically, the manufacturers mark is back here on the toggle and there's some sort of like national crest
Or in the case of a German production gun or a German military gun a date of production up here.
Well, the Bulgarian guns are actually reversed so they have (and it's a little bit light on this one), but they have a
DWM script logo up here on the chamber and that's the manufacturer and then they have a
Bulgarian crest back here on the toggle.
Over here, on the side, where we would normally find German proof marks will find no German proof marks and instead just this one rampant Lion.
That is a Bulgarian military acceptance mark, so that's on there in lieu of proofs.
I mentioned earlier, the Bulgarians wanted their markings in Cyrillic
So we have a safety in Cyrillic back here.
And then, on the loaded chamber indicator, this one's-
This one's got some grunge on it, it's a little hard to see but that is also marked in Cyrillic.
I mentioned that there were 10,000 guns in this order and they are numbered from 1 to 5000 and then from
1C to 5000C. Exactly why DWM chose those serial numbers
I'm not sure. But, that's what they came up with and it's quite well documented. So this one is 1839,
And you'll find that on the frame
and the barrel.
And then, typical of Lugar's, you will find the last two digits of that number all over the place on the rest of the gun.
So we can see it there,
there,
Here, and in a number of places on the inside of the gun.
While this is the most common pattern of Bulgarian Luger,
There are a couple other things that you would potentially need to look out for if you are collecting
Bulgarian Lugar's. First off, during World War II, a bunch of the 1903 and 1908 purchased guns were converted.
That's because when those were bought they were bought in 7.65 Luger, where these guys were all purchased in 9mm.
Well, by World War II, 9mm is the obvious standard caliber, like no one's really using that 7.65 Luger cartridge anymore,
So get rid of it. During World War II a lot of the older guns were updated, re-barreled, in 9mm.
So those will lead to some somewhat strange markings and serial number configurations that you should be aware of. In addition, in
1943 Bulgaria got a bunch of, like 5600, German
Standard-issue, PO8 Luger. So, German army production Luger pistols that were sent to them as military aid.
So you'll also, if you're following
Bulgarian Lugar's, you'll also run into those. But, I think this is the most interesting of them because of its interesting, like, reversed
Toggle markings and the fact that it is the most common standard-issue Bulgarian model of 1911 Luger.
Hopefully you guys enjoyed the video. If you'd like to see higher-res pictures of this,
You can check them out at Rock Islands catalog page for their most recent auction.
Also, if you take a look in the description text below you'll find links to Rock Island's Instagram page and also their YouTube channel, where
They post a bunch of other interesting stuff to take a look at. Thanks for watching!