American Pistolsmiths Guild presents: Gun of the Year 2005.

Once again, American Handgunner is proud to be the exclusive venue for this year's American Pistolsmiths Guild Raffle Gun of the Year. Once a year, the talented members of the Guild gather to create a one-off, stunning example of the custom pistolsmith's art.

This year may represent one of the most compelling, a blend of old-world design with modern custom gun-maker skills. The hundreds of years of combined knowledge of some of the world's best custom 'smiths, together in one, small work of art, has to be measured in more than money. Since this particular juxtaposition will likely never occur again, what price can be put on it? You could get something similar, something even close to it, but never again could you get this particular example of the pistolsmith's art. There's only one Eiffel Tower, one Last Supper and only one custom Luger like this.

This incredible effort, once a standard 1921-dated DMW 9 mm military version, has been reduced in size to the approximate dimensions of the personal gun of George Luger. After shortening the barrel approximately 1.5" and the grip by .5", the result seems almost like an imaginary thing--but it's not. It's real. As a result of the process, the magazine capacity is reduced by one round, leaving a tidy package in anyone's opinion. This initial major rework was done by Neil Keller of Kustom Ballistics. But then the ...