Shot my first Luger tonight
 

Thanks to all who replied to my earlier topic on my first Luger purchase--a 1936 S/42. I shot the gun tonight, and it is unlike anything I've ever shot before. Pretty neat, actually.

I experienced a number of malfunctions. They became less frequent after about thirty rounds, but I still had quite a few after that. The most common malfunction occured when the bolt pushed the cartridge up from the magazine at too steep an angle. The bullet lodged up against the top of the breech and the action was unable to close. By pulling the toggle slightly to the rear and releasing it, the jam was cleared. However, this happened more than a dozen times and I'd appreciate some advice on how to fix this. I'm assuming it is a magazine problem.

The other malfunction was when the empty case got lodged length-wise in the ejection port. This happened maybe five times.

The last (and most serious) problem was when the toggle axis pin (the TINY little pin that keeps the larger hinge pin--#007 on the parts diagram on this site--in place) slipped and allowed the toggle "knee" to come apart. I figured out the problem and put it back together and put a piece of tape over the axis pin as a temporary preventative measure (I just put some blue locktite in with the pin to prevent this in the future).

Though the bore looks more like shotgun bore than a pistol bore, the gun is still capable of decent accuracy. Though I'm disappointed by the gun's flawed functioning, I can hardly blame it--being almost seventy years old and probably never properly maintained.

I'm not going to give up, though. Once I get her funtioning well enough I'd like to get the barrel re-lined and throw a nice blue finish on the gun.

I'd appreciate any advice on how to remedy the problems I've described. Thanks!

failures to feed a lot of time are because of weak mag springs. Wolff springs sells replacements.

Thor's advice is absolutely correct. And is a primary cause of jams and "smoke stacks" ( empty case jamming vertically).


Also, another thing to keep in mind is that , Lugers like to be held with a stiff wrist. Most semi-auto pistols funtion better when fired with the wrist kept rigid. Rather than "limp wristing" or letting the pistol roll back under recoil. Revolver shooters, tend to shoot this way, as it cuts down on recoil slam to your hand. Most autos will not funtion well being fired in this manner.

Ron