Real damage
 

I have no real info on this as it was forwarded to me.

Apparently some fool is going around testing expensive firearms with hot loads.

Good Lord, is the frame still ok?!

To heck with the frame...is the stupid shooter still breathing?

MikeP,
Did someone say it failed during firing?

Would be interesting to have some information if you can back track it.

Send him over! :D

Well,

Just another masterpiece butchered by one of the "Magnum Boys".

Sieger

Here in Italy there is a proverb that translated says: "the mother of idiots is always pregnant" ...
some things sometimes make me think that is probably true.

Sergio

When he is allowed visitors maybe he will give explanation, more details!

"Here in Italy there is a proverb that translated says: "the mother of idiots is always pregnant" ...

Careful, here in America "idiots" are another class of protected persons and you are being offensive.
Welcome to life in the P.C. arena...
dju

Time for a different barrelled receiver. I have a 1916 dtd one now in the For Sale section. TH

Never seen this type of failure before. :eek:

I really would like to know how it happened.

It appears to have been a police pistol. It has the sear safety and had the magazine safety

More than likely IMHO it would have been a double-charged handload...that was already too hot to begin with.

Just out of curiosity, John, do you reload??? :)

(Not being disparaging; I just don't recall you ever mentioning reloading). ;)

Hi,

The Germans have a good saying..."like a pig looking into a watch mechanism..."

Ha!


Sieger

Hi,

We had a similar photo of a Luger that had been destroyed by firing some of the red hot Chinese 9mm through it about 2 or 3 years ago. The fork damage was quite similar.

If you value your Luger, please don't fire +P or +P+ ammo through it, as it was not designed to safely fire such ammo!


Sieger

I don't know... Pigs are quite clever.

I have all the equipment and got started reloading back in the late 1960's. I own an original RCBS A-2 press, and dies for every caliber I own... but I haven't reloaded anything for a couple of decades... never have time to do much shooting, but when I do get to do some shooting, I enjoy every bit as much as back then.

My comment was based on the number of pistols I saw back when I was gunsmithing that were the result of careless powder charges by both amateur and very experienced reloaders.

Thank goodness I never actually witnessed the accidents... only the aftermath. Seeing a S&W .357 magnum with the top half of the cylinder and top strap missing was as close as I ever want to get to that kind of accident... The shooter escaped with only minor injuries. I also saw a modern Colt .45 SAA in the same condition... SCARY stuff...:eek:

In the photos that started this thread I find it amazing that the "ears" of the receiver fork were damaged by the stress and NOT the toggle... I would not have expected the toggle to survive such a detonation.

That picture reminded me of those stupid experiments they perform with Glocks, of wich the Net is full.
Too bad that was a Luger not a Glock, but maybe that guy didn't even know the difference...

Our world is going topsy turvy.

Sergio

It would very hard for the toggle to fail if locked, it would be under compression, all the force being transfered straight back to the toggle axle and thus the fork.

The fork broke at the sharp cut where the opening transition is, a weak spot due to the "corner" present.

If the fork was over hard, or brittle to begin with; then use over the years could cause cracks radiating from each corner, and a final failure- perhaps even with standard ammo.

We don't know enough about this to call it an ammo problem just yet, likely a contributor- yes; for certain = unknown without more info. JMHO.

I agree with you John. I have seen these kind of mishaps(not on lugers) when the loader is using a very fast powder like Titegroup that has a very low loft, and even a max charge is a very small amount of powder in the case. It is easy to double or even triple the charge on some cases and have no overflow of powder. Fast powders don't play well when this occurs.

Also, it could be just a flaw in the forks from years of shooting hot loads, and finally just "gave up". I am not sure that I want to see the shooters face, as it may well have taken the brunt of the toggle train coming back. A bad scenario all the way around.