Mitchell Luger
 

Hello,

I recently bought a Mitchell luger. I wanted a luger for at least 25 years but have never been a position to buy one. When I came across this Mitchell at a local gun store it appealed to me for several reasons so I bought it. The gun looks brand new and the barrel looks excellent. It came with two clips, a stainless loading tool, a leather holster, a felt Mitchell bag, and the instruction manual. I paid $625. I live in New Jersey so I have to wait for my pistol permit to come in before I can actually take it home and shoot it. I have several boxes of Winchester and S&B ammo standing by for that day.

The other side

This is the last photo. I can't figure out how to send more than one photo at a time.:confused:

Hello Chris and welcome. At each posting you can post one photo. However, you can also Upload photo's, upper right corner, then you copy the URL and paste it into the thread, and can post up to 8 photos per posting.


Ed

Nice find. I haven't seen one priced that low around here!

A really nice pistol. I also have a Mitchell American Eagle, 1992. Although many do not care for the Mitchells, mine fires great and cleans up nice. I am very happy with it. What year is your Luger?
Fire your pistol and enjoy it. You have a nice Luger at a great price. It looks beautiful.

Warren, welcome to the forum! Lots of army, navy, air force and marines vets here, and even some retired ones! I was in 1980-2000.


Ed

It is a 1993, and yes I do plan on shooting it.

I have never owned a stainless gun before, are there any special considerations when cleaning and polishing it?

Welcome to the forum!

I have two of the stainless guns. For cleaning, I use Hoppe's on a Boresnake for the bore and Tetra cleaning spray and a toothbrush for everything else. Just be careful when removing the left grip! Take the right grip of first and after removing the left screw, push the bottom of the left grip out just enough to clear the bottom of the frame and slide the grip down. If you try to just lift it out you will break the top rear projection of the grip.

Other than that, the stainless guns do not seam to take any special care.

Steve

In my opinion, it is a good idea to use a stainless lub (grease) on the frame and receiver rails to prevent galling. TH

My pistol permits finally came in after 14 weeks so I picked up my Mitchell luger and my Ruger Super Blackhawk 44 Mag. and went to the range. Here are several pictures of my new toys. The luger grouped well but had extractor and ejecting issues that I will discuss in another post. The super Blackhawk also grouped well but it was so loud that all of the other shooters in the small indoor range immediately came over to see what I was shooting after the first shot. Out of courtesy for the other shooters I only shot 5 more rounds. Overall I am very happy with both of my new toys and I just need to sort out a couple of issues with the luger.

http://forum.lugerforum.com/lfupload/p3200011a.jpg
http://forum.lugerforum.com/lfupload/p3200001a.jpg
http://forum.lugerforum.com/lfupload/p3200001lr2.jpg
http://forum.lugerforum.com/lfupload/p3200005.jpg
http://forum.lugerforum.com/lfupload/p3200005a.jpg
http://forum.lugerforum.com/lfupload/p3200008a.jpg

I shot my new(to me) Mitchell luger for the first time today and it started having issues on the third shot. I was not able to shoot more than four shots without a jam. I was shooting S&B 115&124gr, and Wal-Mart Winchester. The most frequent jam was a failure to extract the case from the chamber. The action would then attempt to feed the next round into a camber that was still occupied by the previous shell case. The next most frequent type of jam was the spent case staying attached to the breech block without ejecting and blocking the next round from feeding. This second failure mode started to happen after about forty rounds and after a couple of these I noticed that the action felt like it was full of crud so I stopped shooting at about 50 rounds. When I took the gun apart after 50 rounds it was filthy inside so I hope the second failure mode was attributed to dirt.

I gave the gun a good scrub and will try again. After cleaning the breech block I noticed that the bottom face appears to be pushed up slightly as if it struck a miss-fed case. I am not sure if this is normal, but I doubt it.

I could not get the extractor out because I donâ??t have a small enough punch to remove the pin. I will make a smaller punch later this week, and will remove the extractor to clean under it.

I have attached some photos of the breech block, and of the jams. The jams were taken with my camera phone and are not good quality.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

http://forum.lugerforum.com/lfupload/p3200010.jpg
http://forum.lugerforum.com/lfupload/p3200014.jpg
http://forum.lugerforum.com/lfupload/p3200016.jpg
http://forum.lugerforum.com/lfupload/p3200034.jpg

Jam mode # 1

http://forum.lugerforum.com/lfupload...032006_001.jpg
http://forum.lugerforum.com/lfupload...032006_005.jpg

Jam mode # 2

http://forum.lugerforum.com/lfupload...032006_003.jpg
http://forum.lugerforum.com/lfupload...032006_004.jpg

Your experience with the Mitchell Luger is about the same as I had when I owned one. I also had the opportunity to fire two more, and none of them would function satisfactorily. I have noticed that the word seems to be getting around, and have seen them changing hands for as little as $400.

These guns may not have the fit and finish of their ancestors, but they are 100 precent Lugers by design... Some patient examiniation for burrs, and tight fitting parts that move when the gun is fired, followed by very careful polishing and appropriate lubrication will result in a very fine shooter...

It appears that the face of your breechblock, extractor, and ejector need some attention for smoothe operation...

One of our moderators, Steve Richards, owns several, and gets reliable functioning from them. Spend some time searching and reading the forum's archives on malfunctions and I am sure you can diagnose and mitigate your "new" Luger's problems... Some of these guns just need to be "shot in"...

My Mitchell came right out of the box and has never missed a beat.

My 9mm does indeed function fine with the S&B 155gr. I have tried other brands and had mixed results. Follow John's advice and look for burs and such and keep it lubed well (without overdoing it) and give it another try. Also try a new MecGar magazine since yours has the original style magazine.

Good luck.

Steve Richards

I did follow Johnâ??s advice and did find some burrs that were causing the extractor to stay up. I noticed if the action was closed and I pushed down on the back of the extractor, behind the pivot pin, then let go, the front of the extractor would stay up until I pushed it back down. Upon further investigation I found several things were causing this. First I found a metal chip in the extractor recess on the thread line where the barrel mates with the receiver. I removed the chip with a brass flat head screwdriver and the extractor moved more freely but it was still scraping somewhere when the action was closed.

I took a black sharpie marker and coated the extractor with black ink, closed the action and rocked the extractor about a dozen times to cause scrape marks in the black ink. Then I took a dremel with a small polishing pad and no compound and polished the high spots that were scraping. After some time of slowly polishing and rechecking, the extractor no longer binds or scrapes. I did not appear to remove any metal from the extractor but only needed to soften a couple of edges on the side of the extractor. I did not go near the part of the extractor that contacts the shell case.

After this I thoroughly cleaned the gun and oiled it and reassembled it. I put 5 snap caps in the magazine and cycled the action as fast as I could by hand by pulling back quickly and letting the toggles snap out of my fingers as my hand continued backwards. The action ejected and fed the snap caps flawlessly. I did this for at least 50 rounds then stopped when my fingers were too sore to continue cycling the action quickly by hand. This seems promising but I still wonâ??t know if it solved the problem until I get a chance to actually shoot the gun again.

If this does not solve the problem I will focus on the ding on the bottom of the breechblock face. No�«l and Steve could you please examine the breechblock face on your Mitchell Lugers to see if they appear to have the same ding on the bottom as mine does. If possible could you post photos of the breechblock face and bottom?

Sorry for the long post.
Thanks again for the great advice and support.

Chris

Sounds as if you're almost there on solving your problem. Good luck and let us know the final outcome.

I put 200 rounds through the luger this afternoon and the extractor only failed to extract the case about five times total, and these all occurred after the gun was hot. This includes two where the case was pulled halfway out of the chamber before the extractor let go, which is a new symptom. This is a great improvement over the once every two to five shots that it did before. I noticed that when the gun was hot I was able to make the extractor hang up again so I polished the extractor some more and am thinking about getting a new extractor spring.

Now that the extractor problem is nearly solved I was able to shoot it enough to get a feel for the gun. The gun did jam once every magazine or two but myself and another shooter who came over to see the luger were having so much fun shooting it that I did not document the types of jam. From what I remember there were two. The first was the front of the bullet hitting the top rim of the chamber opening and stopping. The second was the spent brass staying attached to the breech block and blocking the next round from feeding properly. Every fifty rounds or so I needed to brush a lot of copper shavings out of the action.

I was able to get the action to cycle more reliably by holding the gun firmly with both hands. I used this technique for the last fifty rounds and only had about four jams. I know you shouldnâ??t limp wrist a luger but isnâ??t the need to hold it firmly with two hands excessive?

I plan to buy the metgar magazine and to polish the feeding ramps to see it helps. I am also still trying to find out if the bottom face if my breechblock is dinged or if it is normally that way.

The other shooter was so impressed with the feel and accuracy of the gun that he now plans to buy a luger. His exact words were that â??he never had a gun feel so good when you shot itâ?�. I sent him to this site.

You said "spent brass staying attached to the breech block and blocking the next round from feeding properly." Could that be due to underpowered loads, which would not drive the linkage to full travel thus not activating the ejector?

I did several tape test today. I put a double layer of masking tape across the rear of the frame. The tail of the rear toggle put a ding in the tape without cutting it, so it appears that I am in the ballpark. In addition the action has never failed to hold open which is another test for an underpowered load that is listed on this site. The breechblock does catch the next round properly when this jam occurs so the action is moving back far enough to catch the next round.

The good news is that I shot 50 rounds today and did not have a single extraction failure, So I hope that problem is behind me :roflmao:

In the 50 rounds I had 6 jams total and four of these were the ones where the empty case stayed attached to the breech block and blocked the next round from feeding. On another the tip of the round hit the top of the chamber opening and stoped dead. On the other the next round was feeding properly but the empty case did not clear the action completely and kept it from closing.

I actually made up a test plan and record sheet and kept careful notes on each shot.
One pattern that surfaced was that all but one jam occurred on the fifth round fired from a full magazine, and the other one was on the fourth round fired. Perhaps the follower is catching up on something at this spot in the mag. I am going to order a Mecgar stainless magazine tomorrow and hopefullly this wil fix this last problem.

I spent more time polishing the sharp edges near the chamber opening before todays session. As a result there were no copper or brass particles all over the action like last time when I had to clean the copper shavings out regurlarly.

I am beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel. (hopefully it is not the train)

Today I shot Winchester 115gr. I cant find S&B ammo anywhere in Southern New Jersey. If anyone has a local source I would appriciate it.

You show a picture with a snap cap held to the breech face of the breech block by the extractor. I don't think it should be tipped down like that as if there were a high spot on the breech face. I'll try to remember to take a look at mine tonight. I'm not sure from the picture where you have a ding, but if I look at mine it will refresh my memory of what it looks like.

BTW: For functioning tests you should use a dummy with the correct weight. The snap caps you have are too light to function properly and are only meant to cushion the firing pin.

The Luger is sensitive to overall length of the cartridge and a bit sensitive to the bullet ogive. That could be a possible cause for the bullet ogive hanging on the upper edge of the chamber mouth. You might try different ammo.

The face of the breechblock is flat. If the extractor were moved back a little the bullet would sit flat. When I push the bullet flat to the breechblock the extractor rides up a little on the back of the groove in the cartridge.

I did remove the striker, and performed the same test with Winchester 115gr bullets. The action performed perfectly when cycled quickly by hand.

I will be out of town until Saturday and may not have computer access. My Mecgar mags should be waiting for me when I get home.

By Jove I think I got it!!! :cheers:

I shot a whole box of Winchester 124gr. today and only had two jams in the whole box. Both of the jams were a failure to extract so my next step is to try a new extractor spring.

Ponyman, you were probably correct about the 115 gr. loads not being strong enough, even though the gun seemed to pass several tests that I mentioned above. The Winchester 124gr. seems to have slightly stronger recoil than the 115 gr. and the gun does function better with them.

I wound up using the magazine that came with the gun instead of the new Mecgar magazines that I bought. The new magazines have a much weaker spring and rattle around in the magazine opening when I put them in the gun. I had to put 6 layers of tape on the back of the new magazines to take up some of the slop and to hold the mag forward. Before I added the tape the mag would move back with the action to the point that the action could not get behind the bullet to strip it out of the magazine even with the action fully retracted by hand.

Sounds like you have the newer stainless Luger, which has a completely redone magazine design...

The new mags are identical to one of my old ones, but it turns out that the new mags were not latching in fully. If I push the mag in firmly, then push on the back side of the mag release to engage it fully, the mag don't rattle around anymore.
I guess it has to wear in.

Heavier bullets will cause more felt recoil as a general rule. Recoil impulse can be changed by using a different powder. Winchester likely uses the same powder in those two loads, but maybe not.

Glad things are improving for you.

I am still getting a jam about once every other magazine.

I decided to give up and send the gun back to the factory for repair.

I will keep you posted on the results.

Over the weekend I came across a good looking, matching number, re-blued shooter
that was for sale on this website for a good price so I decided to buy it. I cannot
afford two lugers right now so I have decided to list my Mitchell Luger for sale on
this website. I want to be full and open about the jamming problem that this gun is
having so I will reference this thread in the listing.

The problem:

Once every magazine or two the gun experiences the jam shown in the two photos
below. When this happened the breechblock does pick up the next round and begins to feed
it properly but the spent case blocks the next round from entering the chamber.
http://forum.lugerforum.com/lfupload/p5110001.jpg
http://forum.lugerforum.com/lfupload/p5110002.jpg

The contributing factors???:

The bottom face of the breechblock is pushed up which I donâ??t believe is normal.
http://forum.lugerforum.com/lfupload/p5110028.jpg

There is a hole in the bottom of the breech block.
http://forum.lugerforum.com/lfupload/p5110030.jpg

The extractor appears to be too far forward. If you look at the back of the extractor
(by the spring) the extractor is about 1/8 inch forward of being flush. In the second photo I push
the cartridge back and you can see light between the rear of the extractor and the breechblock face.

http://forum.lugerforum.com/lfupload/foward.jpg
http://forum.lugerforum.com/lfupload/back_copy7.jpg

With the gun disassembled I extracted several cartridges from the chamber using the breechblock. The extractor allows
the cartridge to move forward to the point that it is just barley staying attached to the breech block.
The cartridge fell off of the breechblock face several times during this test. See photos.
http://forum.lugerforum.com/lfupload/hangingon.jpg
http://forum.lugerforum.com/lfupload/falloff.jpg

My theory:

I believe that the top of the cartridge is staying attached to the extractor but the
bottom of the cartridge is coming off of the face of the breech block and tipping up
to the point that it does not contact the ejector when the breechblock is full aft.

Then when the next round is being stripped from the magazine it is blocked by the spent cartridge.


I was planning to ship the gun to AIMCO for a new breechblock and extractor this week,
but the purchase of my second Luger means that I need to sell this first one and recoup some of the money now.

Looks like with the help of the "Lugerforum", you have solved most of your problems. I really like your Luger and I would purchase one if I saw one up for sale at a good price. I'd keep my 1916 Erfurt in its velvet case and just use the stainless one.

Bob