Stove Piping
 

I have a S/42 1936 P08 and I've had some issues with it stove piping. I think I have it narrowed down but here is what it's been doing. It will stove pipe sometimes several times per magazine. It also badly dents the brass. I've replaced all the springs and that didn't change. Tried many types of ammo including my reloads and some is better than others but it still does it.

What I think it could be is the magazine sitting too low. There is a larger gap between the magazine base and the frame than I normally see on Lugers. When I push the magazine up firmly while shooting it the brass ejects much further with almost no dent or none at all and so far it hasn't jammed that way. So, I ask the Luger experts, does this sound right? I may just put a spot of weld there and file it down until it sits higher. It's a shooter grade luger, so I'm not too concerned about a little weld as long as I get it to work correctly.

Clayton

Welcome to this Forum made by LUGER enthusiasts.
Among the possible causes for stove piping could be the magazine, but generally are due to a loose o damaged ejector, a worn extractor hook, a light extractor tension or maybe a recoil spring too heavy, last but not least a loose grip.
This is only the theory from a distance of course, still you've got some more points to consider.

Sergio

I have two original mags, 2 Mec-Gar and one other after market mag and it does it with all of them. I checked the extractor and ejector and they're in great shape and I put in a new extractor spring. I'm narrowing it down!

All else being equal, I would say a damaged or worn magazine catch. If this is an all-matching gun, that is an issue. If you have access to a separate mag catch, try that. If this solves your issue you could them have a forum Luger wizard build up your original catch with a little micro welding.

CJ. I do have many exc orig PO8 mag catches instock @$15 each + $5 S&H. TH PS: I recently ran into a DDR rework with a similar problem, which turned out to have a new barrel installed with a bad final chamber ream. TH

It has a few mismatched parts so it's hard to tell if it's the original mag catch.

Results in case anyone else has this problem. This project got put on the back burner for other things but I think finally resolved it(two years later). I wound up taking the mag release and welding it up and machining it back to spec. The other day I fired 6 mags worth of various ammo with no problems and the brass ejects much further into orbit now and doesn't dent the brass. It's nice to have a happy Luger :D

Thanks for the follow-up.
Enjoy!
dju

You are firmly holding the pistol, right?

Tom,
you did notice that the original thread is over 2 years old and the last post nearly 4 months ago.
He fixed the problem of the magazine being too low in the grip by welding the notch and re-locating it.

since this was recently brought up, I literally have the exact same problem. shells don't eject far, getting stovepiping, dented brass, and hold open doesn't always catch on the last round but always does when I manually **** it with an empty
2 brand new mecgar magazines. it's a nice byf so I don't want to weld anything. I haven't removed the extragtor for cleaning but i think GT put in a new spring and definitely a new ejector. not sure what's going on