Re Owned Stainless Steel American Eagle luger
 

This is a 1993 Stainless Steel American eagle i had once owned a few years ago. Today reowned it/lol. Made by spm houston texas, ss and all numbers match/lol. before it seemed to be finicky and prone to various problems common to these pistols. After reowning it and some cleaning and tuning it has worked rather well in firing today only a few problems showed up. I do think this wil be a keeper this time around.

It was fired today using the winchester white box ammo and the factory mag plus two triple k mags and fxo world war two mag. There were no failure to feed or eject issues with any of the mags. only once did it fail to lock open on last round fired with the factory mag. so it does well with even the older p08 mags it seems. there was one issue with with the trigger not resetting once. All total eight mags were fired total without a feeding ,jam or failing to eject. I am starting to believe that someone may have tuned this pistol while it was with another owner. anyway it works and apears to shoot well now.

I am thinking i may have found a nice shooter . It sure does not act like the gun i owned a few years ago

It worked well with all the mags, a world war two fxo, two tripple k and the factory mag, which has a wooden bottom and stamped with an eagle on it.

Padredan
Nice gun.
How is the deformation on front of the ears on the frame? My Mitchell SS has some deformation there.Probably from shooting hot ammo.
Glad it is working for you! I have always enjoyed mine.
Bob

no deformation that i can tell of. have noticed tonight that the side plate moves out when the trigger is pulled, do not think i noticed that earlier when i cleaned it , but it may have been there. Could be apart of the problem with the trigger not resetting , still a few bugs to be worked out yet. I liked the way the gun looked before and perhaps down the road it may lend itself to some engraving , but thats a far peice off, thanks for looking.

looks like i may have spoke too soon. The entire side plate moves when the trigger is pulled now . and you have to hold against the side plate to get the trigger to engage the sear to fire. side plate locks up tight when the take down lever is engaged. oh well, it did shoot well for one session. Still looks good in the display case. tired of fooling with it going to bed. ZZZZZZ

Has anyone ever seen this problem occur on any model lugers not just the ss models??? It's once more the ss copies have issues.

I've seen various degrees of side plate movement in some of mine. I had good luck with this when I adjusted the tang of the side plate. Padded vise, tap-tap a little, try it, repeat until just snug when trigger system is tensioned.

well i do not remeber having this problem before when i owned it or when i first fired it earlier in the day. not sure how it developed.

Wow thats pretty! Congrats on getting her back.

thanks, i all ready had the display box from another luger and the extra mags, just it seems the ss model looks better in it. now if i can only get the sideplate movement out of it and tweak it a bit more.

I do not think i have ever seen a side plate with this much movement or gap. The gap is .018, not really sure how to correct this, it seemed to work fine yesterday till it was fired over forty times .

thanks, thought about it. it is so tight now when the locking bolt is engaged you have to use the take down tool to desengage it. Without the upper installed there is very little movement. Like i said now you have to press on the side plate yo engage the trigger bar, now when the trigger is pulled the triger bar and spring wil start to bulge out.

It is pretty easy to bend the sideplate tang away from the frame as David previously described. I put mine in a vise and put a cresent wrench on the tang for leverage. The metal isn't hardened like other parts. The more you bend it the more pressure it has against the frame. Try it, it's really easy.

the tang is the part of the side plate that goes under the locking bolt or take down lever. I have considered it, but being it is ss and not carbon steel a bit afraid to try it.

you would need to bend it out. like i said i can see that in blue steel. but stainless may break. i might try to just tap it a bit while it's support on a soft surfice and see how that goes. thanks to all for your suggestions.

Support the body of the side plate in a padded vise with tang sticking up to receive the tapping (also with something non-marring). Tap the tang in the direction that would tweek the front end of it away from the frame. This works to take up the play in the side plate by leverage. The pivot point is the front edge of the side plate's body. Raising the front end of the tang makes the back end of the side plate rise more when the locking bolt is swiveled over to lock things down, snugging the small flange on the back end of the side plate body more firmly into its slot in the frame, directly behind the side plate.

Strictly speaking, your side plate will be .018 out of parallel with the frame; or it may actually end up exactly parallel, since you have adjusted it back to its original position. Regardless, you will have no looseness whatsoever when you are done. The disappearance and reappearance of the problem after shooting some rounds...? Sure, a gun heats up a little after 4-5 mags, one right after the other, but I can't see this affecting the side plate. If the issue goes away and comes back, unconnected with any adjustment, then I'm stumped. If so, perhaps there is some mechanical instability with the assembly that is not obvious--maybe something amiss with the fit of the side plate flange in its relieved area on the frame?

Don't worry about bending SS and breaking it. It is 'tougher" than carbon steel, not harder. It displays more "spring back" than carbon steel, and usually needs more displacement in bending to wind up in its new shape/angle/whatever. It will eventually stress break, but will generally endure back and forth bending significantly better than carbon steel. The slight bending of the material involved in these adjustments, coupled with the material's resiliency and the infrequency of bending applied, will reduce the likelihood of breakage to near nil.

I hope this is clearer...

thanks, now which way should i move the tang? in ,towards the reciever or out away to correct the problem? I did just as you said and taped it a bit away or out and no change. Do remember we are dealing with a ss spm houston texas made p08 copy and not the real thing, these are quirky to say the least. I owned this pistol once before and now i have it back, seems i steped in it again/lol. I do not remeber it having this problem before, but i i never got it to fire this many times before either. Like i said it started this the second firing session and the triger is not resetting as well, i will go back out and give it a few more taps and takea few pics allso. again thanks to everyone for your help.

I think these pictures will show pretty much the procedure for adjusting the sideplate. just clamp the side plate in a vise or in my case an engravers block and tap the tang, in my case outward away from the frame . this did the trick there is allmost no movement that i can tell in the sideplate, will try to fire it tommorow and see it anything changes. Like we have said over and over again the ss spm/aimco american eagle lugers are a different breed of luger. this one was made in 1993 and apears to havea low serial number. For now everything seems to be working ok on it. Not sure i would want to ever own another one, but i have owned this one twice/lol.

Put it in a vise just like Padre's pics show. Then tighten a cresent wrench on the tang for leverage and bend it away from the frame. No tapping required. Much more control I think.

I think either way will work. I went with the tapping so as not to over do it. as far as i can tell it worked , i see little to no movement now. I think it will lend it's self well to an up coming engraving project. It loks good in the display case with the extra mags.

the grand poobah firing the ss american eagle. it worked this time and the side plate stayed tight. thanks to all for your help.

thanks, i think it once belonged to fred flintstone, or so i was told/lol.

I do not know how close the american eagle engraved on the stainless steel versions are , really have to be side by side to compare i guess.

Kinda sorta with out the detail. yours looks better, i did fire it about 50 times today without any problems. i did smooth the side plate and the trigger a bit and it feels betterto me. As quirky as these pictols can be, this one may have all the bugs worked out of it and makea good shooter yet.

not sure who made the case , it came with one of my dwm's. i use both the wooden bottom mags and the aluminum bottoms one with it as well , it has worked well with all of the mags.

haven't decided which case i like best to display it. yet. both look pretty good.

Hi To all! side plate issue!
 

I'm a bit late to the discussion on the loose sideplate, BUT, the correct way to tighten the sideplate is to GENTLY, with a cover shim or, a super clean flat faced hammer, supported on a clean steel block, to then tap on the flat side end of the sideplate arm where the radiused cutout area is, where it contacts the takedown lever.... Tapping on the arm end lengthens the arm, and sideplate as a whole...The TD lever has a cam machined into it right behind the lever, and the sideplate is held tight & firm by pushing it back against the frame, not forced in with the lever arm!!???... That is why you never see minty Factory Lugers scratched up in this area, and the sideplates are as tight as can be...:surr:. ...nothing is bent on a Luger by design, all is square, straight, and parallel....These guys were pretty darn smart when they made these, and the basic funamentals didn't escape them... "Nothing is ever as it seems" One of the GT rules of life....number 2 I think???... ;) .... til....lat'r....GT

You are thinking about the crest waaay too much! There is nothing wrong with it. Looks like you are stuck with a genuine 1900 AE.

As mentioned above, lock tang in padded vise and a couple of gentle taps on the inside rear of the side plate, should be enough to remove the gap when side plate is reinstalled. If you haven't fitted one before, I may take a few trys, but be gradual & gentle with the force you use. TH

wery true rick, but on the Stainless Steel lugers made in houston texas, we are not talking old world german craftsmen. They are not very well fited in most of the pistols they produced. I think their down fall was a combination of the metal being used and the lack of true craftsmanship to produce a quality pistol. As stated i have owned this one twice. The first time i just gave up trying to make it work, now with the help of the members of this forum, i now have what i think is a decent and a bit different shooter. This project is not finished yet, there maybe a bit ofksore surprises to come. thanks again to everyone for your help.

Dan,

Have you tried fitting an original or reproduction sideplate to the gun? If so, how far off is it from the SS factory sideplate?

I'm just speculating that if a hardened steel sideplate could be made to fit, then nickel plated............

no i havn't, the problem was solved by adjusting the tang on the side plate , so far it has worked and shot well and the side plate stayed tight,

rick ,could not agree more. Thats why i gave the ss another try and i am now glad i did. this time around it seems i have worked the quirks out of it, and it makes a good shooter. thanks for posting.

What model luger do you think the stainless lugers were copied from? I have wondered how close a copy they are and if they are as safe. I know it maybe hard to tell from a few pictures ,but i would like the members thoughts on this.

Dan, I would think a regular p08?
I have an old article buried somewhere that was published around the time these first came out. There was an interview of someone that was involved with the building of these if I remember, but I forgot what was said. When I get the time I can try to find it.

it looks close but not sure how close a copy it is , and to which maker or the model. I am guessing maybe early commercial.

I remember reading a very long time ago, that the stainless Lugers were copied from a 1942 Luger. The copy had some of the problems of the early 1942 models.
However, I cannot remember where or when I read that. Sorry.

thanks, i have found some old articles on them to , this one was made in 1993. alot of the articles on them raved on how good they were and how well made and they were exact copies and great shooters, well we know better now.