1917 Erfurt
 

Iâ??ve been working on a project luger, and yesterday had the opportunity to take it to the range for some test firing.

The gun shot great, but I was very disappointed to find that the gun doesnâ??t cycle. I can manually eject a spent round and feed a new one from the mag, but the gun will not automatically cycle a round or even eject the spent cartridge.

I have manually checked the movement of the canon to ensure that it slides back far enough to start the lift of the toggle on the ramp and that all seems fine.

Main spring tension doesnâ??t seem to be more than some of my other guns which shoot fine.

I was shooting 9mm luger Federal 147 grain Hydra-shock round.

Hugh, Doc, Thor or Sam any ideas of what else to check ?
:confused:

Luger Operation
 

Hi:


The Luger wasn't designed for so heavy a bullet, however, it certainly should cycle these, and easily.

Did you change the recoil spring? If so, what to?

This is commercial ammo, so it certainly should be "Hot" enough.

If you would have told us that the Luger ejected o.k, but wouldn't feed; I'd say that your ammo was so hot as to bounce the toggel back so quickly as to override the next round in the magazine.

The other alternative is ammo that is too weak, very weak, it would seem. This is possible but not so likely with commercial ammo.

Here is a really simple question. Will the Luger cycle with regular 124 grain store bought ammo?


Sieger

147 grain 9mmP standard pressure ammo has a notorius reputation for not cycling in many 9mmP handguns such as Glocks, CZ-75's, and others. The pressure curve for the 147 grain ammo is very different from 115 grain or 124 grain ammo. Due to the much more limited powder capacity of the case when loaded with a 147 grain bullet, faster powder is used, which gives a much shorter pressure pulse (The bullet has to be seated so deeply to maintain an overall loaded length within cartridge specifications, that is significantly reduces powder capacity.).

Given the stiffeness of the Luger action, I'm not suprised that the 147 grain load didn't cycle in your Luger. I would try some standard 115 grain or 124 grain full metal jacket ammo, like the Winchester 115 grain white box available cheaply from Wally World and see if functions with that.

I have had functioning problems with 147 grain 9mmP ammo in several of my none-Luger handguns (Never tried it in a Luger.) and consider it basically to be junk. It takes the great 9mmP cartridge and turns it into a mediocre equivilent of a 38 special. The german military knew what it was doing when they loaded the 9mm with 115 and 124 grain bullets.

James, As has been said above, first I'd try some 115 Ball Winchester ammo. If that does the same thing, check the ejector for smooth full movement and that the triangular tip inside isn't broken off. Also, try a variety of mags. If still no joy, sent it to me and I'll fix it at my normal $60/hr + S&H. TH

Thank you everyone for your replys, I'll let everyone know how it works out after this storm passes and I get the chance to shoot again.

It looks like this thing might skirt the west Coast (Fla) which means we'll be getting rain for the next few days

Jim

I agree with above comments, I think that the pressure curve is different on the 147 gr ammo than on the lighter bullets. If you want to use 147 gr bullets, you will have to handload and experiment with differnt powders to find the right combination to cycle the action.