American Handgunner July/August 1982

IS THE
PARABELLUM
PRACTICAL?
By Robert Shimek
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Where does this Old World design fit into
today's defensive shooting picture?
I
f, in freestyle combat shooting, experi­
'menting with what is new can be revealing,
then revisiting what is old, to
check and verify what we think we know,
can be absolutely devastating, Take the
"Luger" pistol, for example-or, better yet,
the Mauser Parabellum 06170, since this is
as close as we can come to Luger's original
design without dealing with an antique.
Popular wisdom holds this weapon to be
little more than an unreliable semi-curio,
useless for any practical purpose,.horrendously
overpriced, a decided bottom
choice as a defensive sidearm. Indeed,
many say that when, several years ago,
Mauser Werke A.G, ceased production of
this probably final Luger variant, the event
made no impact whatsoever on the world
of practical shooting.
50
Maybe it should have. Lugers are troublesome,
and there is little point in denying
the 70 plus years of experiencethat
tells us so. And the 9mm cartridge will
never approximate a .45 ACP (White Laboratories
notwithstanding). Furthermore,
the pistol will always remain too dirt-sensitive
to constitute an optimum choice for
military and police service.
But useless? Unreliable? A last choict?
No, most emphatically a good
Parabellum-and there are such guns-is
not that! I know because I own one and
have shot it in everything from local IPSCstyle
matches to Siluetas Metallicas, all
with a degree of reliability that has put
some customized Colt autos to shame, Indeed,
in a recent club championship, my 4­
inc,h 9mm m~rrily gobbled its way through
AMERICAN HANDGUNNER· JULY IAUGUST 1982