Today on Gus’ Gear I have an example of an interesting pistol produced by the Franz Jägerfirm. Jäger was producing quality shotguns and combination guns before the war, but at the beginning of the war the sport market was gone and the government ordered all firearms manufacturers to produce weapons for the military. Jäger did not have the tooling to produce machined pistol frames so he designed a pistol made with plate steel sides and spacers to form the frame. The Jägerpistol was not well received by the German military but it was included in the list of weapons that officers were allowed to purchase on the private market. This allowed the Franz Jäger Company to stay in business and between 1915 and 1917 with approximately 13,000 pistols produced.
The left view of the Jäger pistol shows the safety lever at the rear of the frame under the slide, forward is fire and to the rear is safe. This pistol has a typical European heel magazine release and is a blow back design.
The holster is a standard German issue short small frame holster marked BA XI and dated 1917.
The right side of the pistol shows the two spring loaded pins, one at the front and one at the rear, that are used to disassemble the weapon. It should be noted that this pistol has a replacement magazine, the normal magazine for most Jäger pistols has a small pin at the toe of the base that is used to depress the pins to disassemble the pistol.
It is often written that the pistol is made from stamped sheet metal, but the side plates are die cut from 2.7mm plate steel. While the overall shape is die cut, I believe the assembly holes for pins and screws are drilled for closer tolerances. To disassemble the pistol, first remove the magazine and clear the chamber then the two spring loaded pins are depressed and the front and back strap can be rotated away from the frame, this allows the slide to be lifted up and moved forward off the barrel. The left grip panel must be removed and then the three screws on the left side of the pistol can be removed (front strap, back strap and just below the chamber). Assembly is the reverse with the exception of installing the trigger bar (shown just above the front strap) once the barrel and spacer have been placed, the screw below the chamber can be installed, then the front and back strap screws can be loosely installed. With the pistol laying on the right side plate, install the trigger bar in the angled groove on the right plate and then insert the magazine to hold it in place and rotate the front strap up and lock it with the spring loaded pin. Now the slide can be installed with the breach block and then the back strap can be rotated in place and locked with the pin.