My Luger
 

I am new to the forum (today). I have a long barreled .30 Luger (got from my father) and have some questions. I believe it was made in 1903-04 time frame, but am not sure. How do I tell?

I test fired it 3 years ago after it had not been fired since 1950. The cartridges did not eject properly and I took it to a gunsmith. He suggested I use "hotter" ammo so I sent away for some Norma 7.65. No improvement. The next gunsmith replaced the spring. It had little effect.

I put the gun away, but would now like to get it working. Any suggestions?

Can I switch barrels to a 9mm and would that possibly help?

Noooo..don't replace the barrel! you'll destroy half (or more) of the value of the gun. 30cal Lugers are usually more reliable than the 9mms, given the bottlenecked cartridge feeds smoother. Find a GOOD gunsmith who knows Lugers (search Lugerdoc on here). The easiest way to tell if your Luger is a very early model is by the toggles...the 1900 models have a scalloped (dished out) shape, where later guns have a full donut shaped toggle....see my post of today.