Durability of Post War Mauser Luger
 

I have a collection of post war Mauser Lugers, but I must confess that I have never fired one, since I regard them as collector guns only. I am curious to know if any forum members fire any of these pistols on a regular basis and can comment on their reliability, accuracy, and durability.

I have a 70's Mauser Luger that I fire all of the time. It's extremely accurate. It has the Swiss style grips which I don't like as much as the P08. As for durability, I've had the ejector and rear axle pin break. Other thank that it's been great.

Aaron,
As far as I know the Mauser Parabellum are absolutely very accurate. I know people that are used to fire with and the comments are enthusiastic.

I have fired mine on two outings. It was very accurate, though it was a navy and 40 yards was the only range I had to try. It was about two feet high at that point with a variety of 115 gr. factory ammo.

On the second trip the ejector left for parts unknown.

As requested, left side photo of Cartridge Counter magazine:
http://forum.lugerforum.com/lfupload/dsc02453.jpg

Aaron,
Thank you for the magazine photo.

Aaron, I do not have one of these but it is odd that both the extractor and the toggle pin are what has broken on my original P-08's. Of course I fire many thousands of rounds...Something is bound to break.

Tracy, do you really mean the ejector and not the extractor? I cannot emagine an ejector breaking, it has almost no stress. Whearas the extractor is inheriantly weak in it's design. Very thin in an important area. Jerry Burney

Jerry,

It was the ejector. I don't know how it happened, but it didn't eject the next round. It must have caught on something. Anyway, I bought another one from Tom Heller ($50). I also bought the toggle pin from him. If you need parts for these, Tom's the guy.

Tracy

I wrote "ejector" when I meant "extractor." Can't believe it; I just replaced it.

I get the two mixed up all the time. If I sit and think, I know which is which, but normal talk and I get uhhhhh :bigbye:

Remember the broken parts shooting survey http://forum.lugerforum.com/showthre...n+parts+survey ? The ejector was the most-reported part failure, by a significant amount.

--Dwight

The process commonly referred to as "strawing" is actually a mild form of temperring, which improves the elastic response of the metal. Of the small parts that fall in the straw category, only the ejector and the extractor are likely to be significantly distorted in the firing cycle. Strawing of the extractor was terminated early in the program. The high breakage rate of ejectors reported by Dwight may be an indication that - at least in the case of the ejector - strawing was not just cosmetic, but intended to prolong the life of the part. Is there any way to find out the straw condition of the parts reported as broken?

Your assessment of the hardness situation is a good one. I'm sure at this point you'd have to do a new survey particularly for the "straw condition" information.

And I'm not sure that it wouldn't be a red herring, in any case. I don't imagine that the remaining straw is any indication of the change of hardness of the part (if any); straw is a surface color effect which can fade even by long-term exposure to light.

I can report that one ejector which broke on a G-date I used to own was polished white, and only the tipbroke off--it was still functional. The still-strawed ejector which was on the S/42 I shoot broke behind the ejection tab, as did the no-straw-remaining replacement, in short order.

This gun currently has a blued ejector, which brings up another point. From 1937 on these parts were blued, so even though they may have tempered them to straw temperature, the straw itself was covered--probably polished off in order to take salt-blue.

--Dwight

Gentlemen,

I agree with Dwight's last statement... in 1937, the German war machine dropped strawing as a firearm finish because it was too expensive a process and went to salt bluing of all the parts. Mauser's only exception to this are the commercial or contract pistols sold after 1937, where standard civilian finish was used, presumeably because the customer was paying the premium cost for the additional process.

IMHO, I don't think that their military would have intentionally changed the finishing process if it would have meant more parts breakage in the field on high impact parts what were not strawed...

Is my logic flawed here? Your opinions please.

Hi,

Most failed ejectors I've seen, failed the same way. The metal just behind the ejecting triangle will become fatigued and will slowly crack, pushing the ejecting triangle slightly inwards. Which is a bit surprising, really.

The Germans must've had tons of replacement ejectors for them and I dare to say that there are very, very few lugers still have the ejector they left the factory with.

Some broken ejectors I save, along with a firing pin retainer:

http://forum.lugerforum.com/lfupload/failures.jpg