Luger will not fire until the trigger is pulled twice.
 

First time posting.

I picked up a mismatched Luger, looks like a complete upper on a complete lower from the serial numbers that I can see.

I took it to the range today for the first time and here is what it is doing.

1) Load mag in, cycle action as normal.

2) First trigger pull of first round fired as normal.

3) Action cycles and loads second round as normal.

4) Pull trigger and nothing happens, no click no sounds at all.

5) Pull trigger again and it fires as normal.

6) Loads new round and the process repeats. First pull of trigger and nothing second pull of trigger and fire.

I went thru 4 magazines full of ammo to make sure it would repeat and it did without a miss. Always two pulls of the trigger to fire after the initial round is shot. No failures to feed or eject.

I have read a few other posts about a similar problem but they refer to a light hammer strike and not repeatable two pulls of the trigger like this one does.

Anyone have ideas?

HI welcome to the forum. have you thoroughly cleaned the pistol? my first thought would be gunk in the sidplate or sear or a worn out trigger spring. light hammer strike shoudnt apply to this becuase you would have to caulk the gun again to reset the trigger. If dirty or worn perhaps the first pull primes the sideplate arm and the second pull is just enough to pop to the sear. also is the firing pin spring and breach block free of debris?

Sounds like the disconnector ( the little plunger at the front of the sear bar) may not be resetting properly until bumped by the trigger bar. Check it to make sure it's clean and lubricated.

Also look at the small axle pin (the fulcrum) that the sear bar rotates around. Make sure it's clean and in position.

Marc

welcome to the forum, i allso had a dwm doing the same thing. A total striping and solvent cleaning , i mean every part had to be cleaned , then dried and reoiled and worked fine then . good luck

Thanks for the replies. I think I will totally detail strip it and see if anything is obvious. My first instinct was a weak trigger spring or a problem with the disconnector.

I was in Vegas about 4 years ago at a pawn shop just looking around and there was a box of DVDs and the top one was a AGI Browning Hi-Power gunsmithing DVD. I opened the box and there was 40 of them in there, everything firearm I owned and many more. Also some "How to butcher game" and hunting DVDs.

I asked the kid behind the counter how much he wanted for the whole set and he said it had been there a couple of years and wanted 100 bucks. Well I just about broke my wrist trying to get the money out quick enough before he changed his mind. lol

Each one of the DVDs is about 40 bucks.

One of the DVDs is on the Luger so I will give it a view and I will see what I find.

Marc, is correct. The disconnector plunger is not pushing back the trigger lever in the side plate upon normal recoil. Sometimes just increasing the angle of the top rear edge of the lever will cure the problem. TH

Agree with the Doc and Marc. A common problem is trigger reset.

So I watched the AGI Luger DVD and it was excellent, he explained how the trigger worked and had a nice cut away Luger to demonstrate it.

I totally stripped and cleaned everything, that main spring was fun to get back in.

Here is what I found.

1) The end of the Trigger bar spring is broken off, there is enough spring left to hold the trigger bar but I think this is my main culprit.

2) The trigger spring itself looks like it has been cut, I don't have an original to compare with but I will get another one anyway.

3) When I released the firing pin guide and took out the firing pin and spring, out came two springs. Looks like the original spring and then someone else has put in a small about 3/8" heaver spring to help supplement the spring action of the firing pin I can only guess.

The trigger leaver moves freely with some play and pushes the trigger bar as it should so I am assuming that since the end of the trigger bar spring is broken it is not positively holding the trigger bar correctly in the right relationship to let the trigger bar plunger (disconnector) do it's thing.

Numrich has all these parts, anyone suggest another supplier that they have been happy with?

Talk with Tom (LugerDoc)...

BF, I have all of the original parts you mentioned, if Numrich doesn't have them or you don't want repros. TH

Pm sent.

Reading the post about a horrible trigger pull fix by QuanLoi, I had a thought in my head and wondered if there was something wrong with the "L" or Trigger lever.

Watching the AGI DVD on the Luger the smith said that his cut away model was really good and that some of the put together Luger's have to be fitted to work correctly. As he pulled the trigger it was a nice smooth movement of the trigger lever the way it should be.

I pulled mine apart and with the top removed and just the trigger plate on the lower, watching the trigger lever as I slowly pulled the trigger was an eye opener.

As I pulled the trigger the lever started to move as normal and then about 1/2 thru the movement it stopped or more like hesitated and then continued on.

I think this can account for the being able to fire every other trigger pull that I am having. Fires every time on the first load but when you pull the second time nothing and this extra trigger pull must reset this lever to where it should be and then it will fire.

So taking the advice of the other poster I added a small amount of JB weld to the lever on the bottom part and waited till it cured. I had to sand some of it off to even get it on the trigger again but eventually I got it to fit.

Now when I put the trigger plate on the lower and slowly pull the trigger the trigger lever moves with no hesitation at all and I only have to pull the trigger about 1/2 way for it to fire. Before I had to almost bury the trigger before it would fire.

So I am kind of anxious to see if it will now work correctly.

Did this make sense to anyone?

Is the pin that retains the trigger bar worn where the trigger bar rotates around it?

Marc

When you test fire the pistol, be sure to load only two rounds in the magazine. If the gun goes full auto when you pull the trigger, you need to file off more of the JB Weld. In any event, your trigger pull should be reduced somewhat.

Good luck...

I assume you mean the trigger lever pin #36 http://www.gunpartscorp.com/catalog/...spx?catid=3124

I tried removing the pin from the trigger plate but so far no such luck, it is wedged in there really good and I don't have the correct punch size. Today I am going to stop by my local tool store and get a small set of punches.

On the AGI DVD the smith just rotates it easily but mine is almost welded in.

I was wondering about that pin this morning before leaving to work, maybe it is warn on one side and that is why the lever will hesitate when you pull the trigger.

Marc: If you mean #10 http://www.gunpartscorp.com/catalog/...spx?catid=3124 then no it is fine and does not rotate.

Use a brass screwdriver. Check out this video...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHh9prVMYpM

MFC: I finally got it out, it was in there good. The pin looks just fine as does the lever so that is not my problem. I kind of expected the lever to be rounded out or the pin to be warn in some what but they both look good and fit good.

I am going to go to the range tomorrow and we will see if the small bit of JB Weld on the lever will do the trick.

No my little JB Weld fix didn't cure the no second shot problem.

When the replacement springs get here from Lugerdoc I will replace them all and give it another try. I am sure I just need to find the proper relationship between the trigger lever and the trigger bar plunger.

If I work the pistol manually with some snap caps it works every time. Chamber a round, pull the trigger and work the toggle and pull the trigger again and it works.

With live ammo it doesn't work.

HI James, the pin I was talking about was #36 in the parts diagram. They can be difficult to remove, but it was worthwhile checking it.

Marc

I finally got it out and it was fine, no slop. I also got the Trigger bar plunger pin and spring out and there was a bit of crud in there but seems to be ok.