The Unusual German JagerpistolFranz Jager was a small time gunsmith living in Suhl, Germany in he ea

The Unusual German JagerpistolFranz Jager was a small time gunsmith living in Suhl, Germany in he early 20th century who made a most unusual pistol during World War I.  Jager saw success producing hunting and sporting shotguns and rifles, which were often considered fine quality custom arms typically purchased by well to do clients.  In 1914 Jager decided to expand his business, buying a small factory and hiring 50 employees.  Unfortunately World War I would throw a major curveball into his plans.  After the declaration of war the German government halted manufacture of all civilian firearms, with shops and factories ordered to either switch production to military arms, or close business entirely and transfer their resources to factories that were manufacturing military arms.  Right when Jager made his big expansion, it was possible he would be forced out of business.Jager lacked any military designs. More importantly he lacked the machinery to produce military firearms.  His machinery was made to produce fine quality double barrel shotguns and single shot rifles, not bolt action rifles, pistols, and machine guns.  This was the type of firearm Jager produced.This was the kind of firearm Jager needed to produce to stay in business.Jager immediately set to work designing a semi automatic pistol which could be quickly and cheaply manufactured using the limited machinery he had.available. What he would come up with was a .32 ACP semi automatic striker fired pistol with a seven round magazine.  The Jager pistol is unique in that it used mostly die cut parts for the frame, as Jager had only a few milling machines. Typically the frame and slide of a pistol is milled from a roughly shaped piece of metal as demonstrated below.With the exception of the slide and barrel, the pistol was made from die cut steel, where the parts are produced by being cut from sheets of steel.  The parts were then assembled using various pins and screws. Despite being a pistol put together like an erector set, the Jager pistol was rugged and reliable. It’s rare to find an example today where the pins have worked loose, despite being produced over 100 years ago and seeing the toils and abuse of World War I combat. The biggest drawback of the Jager pistol was it’s subpar ergonomics. With it’s rigid build and sharp corners, the Jager pistol was uncomfortable to fire. But due to the arms shortages created by the war, if it went pew pew pew it was acceptable for the German Army.  Around 13,000 Jager pistols were produced.More infohttps://unblinkingeye.com/Guns/Jager/jager.html -- source link

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