Gary Reeder
we were the first ones to build the stainless Lugers
Wednesday, September 05, 2018, 16:12

We contracted to build 100 of them. When we finished the 100 the guy that was making the barrels for us in Texas had gone up to triple his price, which would have made us sell them at a bit over $3000 which I didn't think they would sell at that so I passed on it.

The very last 2 of them I thought I would keep one it had serial number REEDER 1 or GNR-1. At a custom show in Las Vegas a fellow came up to me and I thought I was seeing a ghost. He was Ed Sullivan's brother and could have passed for a twin of Ed. Ed had died a few years before that. You old guys might remember Ed from the Ed Sullivan Show.

Anyway, he wanted to buy the gun. I told him it was a display piece and wasn't for sale. He kept coming back nagging at me. Finally he asked me if I were to sell it, what would I ask for it. I figured if I hit him with a high price he would go away. I told him $3500. He nodded and walked away. About an hour before the show ended he came in with a roll of hundreds and laid them on the table and said "where's my gun?" I had made him a price and pretty much had to stand by it.

That left one gun left. I had it on the forum here and Bill Firman talked me out of it. That was when I thought we were going to build a second hundred.

Anyway back to your question. The guns are like the original Lugers and picky about ammo. They take full power loads, and FMJ. The German Lugers liked the hot machine gun ammo. The only ones I found that were reliable were the red box American Eagle and they still took a couple hundred rounds to break in. But if you want a stainless Luger, there are 100 of them out there with my name on them and a lot more with Stoeger's name on them. This was one of our earlier guns. The flash from the camera made the engraving look like it wasn't there, but it was just the glare on high polished stainless steel. This was one of our field grade guns. I have a pic of the Luger that Bill Firman bought somewhere around here.It was the deluxe grade gun.