American Luger (successor to Schimel)

American Luger (successor to Schimel) 

Jimmie Dee, in an article on the Schimel, writes that the American Luger (succeeded by the Carbojet) was the result when the Schimel company went bankrupt:

"By 1955, bankruptcy loomed for the Schimel Arms Company and its assets were purchased by the American Weapons Corporation. The American Weapons Corporation didn’t continue the manufacture of the Schimel themselves. Instead, they handed the production tooling to A. C. Swanson Company, Sun Valley, California who designed out the Schimel’s flaws and added a few enhancements along the way. The result was the American Luger which was available from 1955 according to a parts list that was supplied with the pistol."

Dave Barchent wrote on the American Vintage Airguns forum: "The first modern CO2 pistol to be commercially manufactured was the single shot, Luger look-alike, Schimel GP-22, made in Southern California. It is a desirable collection item, but not rare. A pneumatic version, the AP-22, although shown in early Stoeger catalog pages, has yet to be seen by the author (Beeman, 1983b). Perhaps it was never manufactured. The Schimels had a very unusual, very complex valve arrangement apparently not found in any other airgun. In the gun world, complex construction usually means undependable action and the Schimel was no exception. This intriguing gun soon passed from the market.

Hy Hunter, an energetic American gun promoter, marketing guns made on the Schimel tools, brought out a repeater version labeled as the American Luger. The American Luger CO2 pistol was almost immediately removed from the market because of trademark problems with the Luger name. American Luger gas pistols are extremely desirable collector items but are almost never seen for sale... A pair set of a Schimel and an American Luger, in original factory boxes with original tins of pellets, is a very desirable, but difficult, collecting goal."

LeonardJ replied: