A 1800 Meter Luger !

[DonVoigt]

I don't like those plastic "ring" bases either; the rings have been removed from mine too!
Only difference is I use a 1/2" ball end mill, 'cause that is what I have.

[sheepherder]

I mentioned in another thread that Numrich had an aluminum base magazine listed. I had an order in to Numrich so I had them add the Luger magazine to it -

Magazine, 9mm/7.65 Para
(.30 Luger), 7 Round, Blued
New (w/ Aluminum Bottom)
Product #: 466090

It came in today. As you can see from the pics below, it has a metal follower, button, and base.
I set it up in my mill with the 5/8" ball end mill ('cause that is what I have ) and proceeded to mill the finger depressions in the base. It was a tough cut. I had to use fairly strong pressure to get the end mill to cut. After I was done, I noticed that the pins were roll pins [split pins]. I knew they would drift out easily so I removed them and inspected the internal parts. I couldn't figure out why an "aluminum" base was so hard to mill. Even Zamak isn't that hard. ...D'Oh!... It's not aluminum! It's stainless steel! Last pic shows the base hanging from a magnet. Not as magnetic as the steel tube but enough iron & nickel to make it magnetic. And it's hard stainless; not soft.

No identifying marks anywhere. Flat checkered button. Round spring. Seems to function OK. Locks in place, button trips the hold-open. I still don't like the rings, but from now on, I'll stick to ball-milling plastic and aluminum, not these stainless magazines.

[sheepherder]

I received a call from Charles Danner last night that my Swedish sight equipped P08 would be finished later this week. Mr Danner had explained to me some time back that he painstakingly draw files, sands, and rust-blues the parts he refinishes. He also re-cuts any letters/numbers/graphics that the refinishing might diminish. His work removes pits, scratches, and blemishes. He did my Lahti and Nambu projects, as well as my Luger carbine and several 1911 builds. Excellent work, and Charles is a member here as well.

I don't want to tie up my lathe/mill table as I will be using it to install the parts removed from the P08 frame - mainspring, safety & pin, recoil lever & pin. So, in the meantime, rather than start a long project, I whipped up a 1911 recoil spring guide rod. I'll continue to polish it and shape the rear while waiting for the refinished P08 parts to come in.

I made a couple of these back in the 80's but I was never convinced that they did anything. Lately I have changed my mind. I had a 1911 that shot pretty well, so I dropped in a leftover JT Masen one-piece guide rod I had used as a pattern/master. With no other changes and the same ammunition, the point of impact changed dramatically. I'm still dialing that .45 in, but since I had some free time now I decided to make another.

I used a Grade 8 1/2" bolt 4 1/2" long, turned down on the lathe. It will take some time to polish it with many grades of wet/dry sandpaper, and then I'll either drill & ream out a spare guide rod plug or make a new plug out of another bolt. Whichever looks better.

Then I'll tackle the assembly of the 1600 Meter Luger.



Pic 1. Turning down the 1/2" bolt.
2. Bolt/rod polished and flange turned down.

Update: I was expecting this post to be the last for the 1911 guiderod, but as it turns out, I screwed up. I wish I could say that it's a rare occurrence, but hey, I make mistakes too. In this case, I didn't go big enough in my choice of bolt size. When I set the turned-down bolt/rod in the rotary indexing head, I found I didn't have enough diameter in the bolt head to accommodate the 'ears' that prevent the guide rod (stock or aftermarket) from rotating. There is a cut in the head of any 1911 guide rod that allows the barrel to drop down fully under full recoil. If the guide rod were to rotate, then the barrel would hit the rod and jam the action. The ears prevent rotation.

So, back to the hardware store and a couple of 9/16" Grade 8 bolts. I turned down and polished the first this afternoon/evening. I'll set it up in the rotary indexing head tomorrow. Maybe.

3.Turning down the 9/16" bolt.
4. Bolt.rod polished and flange partially turned down.



5 & 6. Rod chucked in the 4-jaw chuck on the indexing head. Pic shows head of guide rod being milled to include the 'ears'.
7. Cutoff tool being used in lathe to turn down the flange center.
8. Grinding wheel being used to extend the ears on each side to clear frame rails. (I didn't mill the circumference far enough). I just drilled a hole in a block of aluminum and turn the rod with a padded visegrip. Field expedient grinding jig.

I had noticed that I had an original Colt 2-piece guide rod assembly in my parts box, and after looking at it I decided if Colt could make one, so could I. So, I'll cut that first guide rod made from the 1/2" bolt and thread it to screw into a cut-off Colt guide rod plug.



9. End of rod has been threaded to 1/4" x 28tpi.
10 & 11. Guide rod plug is cut off ~3/8" from flange.
12. Guide nub is threaded 1/4" x 28tpi.

Threaded rod back in lathe chuck.



13. Threaded nub fitted to rod.
14. Both 1-piece and 2-piece rods ready for final fitting to length of 5" slides.
15. Making a guide rod plug for a Colt Commander.
16. The completed guide rod plug, guide rod (shortened to Commander length), and recoil spring for a Colt Commander.

I'll show pics of the finished Colt Combat Commander (with a Bo-Mar rib!) on page 3.

[sheepherder]

All right!!! The reblued and refinished Luger parts arrived today from Danner Gunsmithing! Charles & Sons did their usual excellent job of removing pits, scratches, blemishes, and oxidation!



Top pic shows parts as they were sent to Danner etc, bottom pic is as they came out of the box after refinishing.

Now to reassemble this Swedish sight-equipped long barreled Luger!



1. Reviewing all the parts, I noticed that I had milled out the V-notch in the Swedish Mauser sight leaf to a squqre 'Patridge' style notch but had neglected the slider V. So, here is the slider being milled. I only milled down to the bottom of the original V.

2. The bare frame is clamped to a suitably stable table. I clamp on the inside of the magazine tunnel. First item to be installed was the recoil lever and its pin. These were pushed on and I went on to the mainspring and its guide. I 'threaded' the mainspring on to the guide to simplify installation.

3. Now the captive mainspring and guide are slid into the frame and a steel rod (red line) used to compress the spring while using a pick (or small screwdriver) to guide the hook on the mainspring guide onto the recoil lever. (Jim Solomon's mainspring tool could be used here, but I had used the knobbed-rod before and was familiar with it so that's what I used). That completes the mainspring installation.

4. Next I installed the safety bar, safety catch, and safety pin. Tapped the pin in place with a suitable drift.

Continuing reassembly.



5. The hold-open assembly is installed next. I use a razor blade to hold the spring while pushing down and forward on the hold-open latch. Next, the locking bolt spring and locking bolt were inserted, and the trigger and trigger spring and the magazine catch and its spring were also slid into place. All push-on pieces; no special tools or procedure needed.

6. This completes the reassembly of the Luger lower assembly. Danner & Associates strawed the magazine catch, locking bolt, safety catch, and trigger as part of their refinishing. Looks good!!!

Next up is the reassembly of the upper ('cannon') assembly.

7. Reassembling the trigger lever in the trigger plate. Line up the lever and slide in the pin.

8. Using a drift to rotate the pin into the locked podition.

Moving on to the last of the reassemblies.



9. Using an undersize pin to line up the Swedish Mauser rear sight leaf, and tapping the sight pin in.

10. Torqueing the front sight base in place, using the aluminum spanner and a large Crescent wrench to line up my marks.

That pretty much completes the reassembly of the Swedish rear sight 1600 meter Luger. I have a set of new grips but they need fitting, which I really suck at.

I've attached a couple pics of the left/right/top for now. I'll try to get a set of pics with grips in a good light.

[sheepherder]

I dug through my box of odds & ends and came up with a pair of Numrich 'laser-cut' grips. They look like Walnut, they're darker than I like, but it gives a good idea what this Luger would look like.









It doesn't really look all that much different from a 'regular' artillery Luger.

I have a set of light color Sarco grips, coarser checkering and kind of chunky, but definitely a different look.







The Sarco coarse-checkered light color grips don't look as good as the dark Walnut.