Luger Reliability
 

I have two Lugers: a 1940 "42" with little finish, and a 1937 S.42 that is pretty nice. The S/42, though, is a a bit goofy. It manages to choke on feeding and extraction/ejection, sometimes every magazine. I have tried different types of ammo, from some nice, older FNM military type 124gr, to modern WW whit box, to 125gr. truncated cone, coated bullet reloads, with varying powders and charges from light to strong, and it still balks. The "40" model is pretty good, but still screws up now and then. Does anyone offer a "reliability" gunsmithing service for Lugers? I don't really want to modify them much, but it would be nice if they could be brought up to speed for reliability: mags tuned, extractors tensioned, ejectors, etc. I have tried both original and Meggar mags, and the mags do not seem to be the sole problem. Anyone out there take on guns for these kind of issues, or should I keep selling and buying a Luger until I find one that shoots 99-100%?

You could send it to lugerdoc for tuning.

Or buy one from someone who has shot the one for sale. I have sold several shooters here -
I always testfire them and guarantee them to shoot.

Two "basics" are good lube with oil and a firm grip.
You don't mention if either or both are matching pistols?

Both fully matching. The parts and guns do not look like they have been fired much, but the "40" was definitely carried long and hard, but is super clean inside....well taken care of. Maybe they are just not broken in? :)

Something more. The feeding is sometime bullet nose jammed into the bottom of the extractor cut on the barrel, and other times I have stovepiped cases. It seems to be a little of everything going on. And I thought 1911's could be fickle.....

1. A G. T. improved mec-gar magazine, or,
2. A short plane ride to the LugerDoc
dju

What do the frame and barrel feed ramps look like?? I have a 1921 DWM that had a terrible frame ramp cut(factory) that caused a drag on the bullet as it attempted to feed into the chamber. Anything that slows down the cartridge movement during feeding can cause a misfeed. I cleaned things up, and now it works well for me with FMJ ammo.....just a thought.

You've done the basics, experimenting with ammo and different magazines. When those don't cure the issue it requires a bit more experience to fix things. You might publish your location, perhaps an experienced member is near you and could help. The advice to contact G.T. or Lugerdoc is sound.

Sometimes it can be related to the bullet shape and length. I recently bought some maxtech FMJ 115 grain and it turned my Lahti, and my p38 into jamm o matics, and my shooter Luger has a hard time with the first and last rounds. All these guns run beautifully with S&B 115 grain FMJ, which I have gone back to. The Max Tech are 2mm shorter overall, and they just don't present as well in the magazine.

Have you field stripped, cleaned, and completely oiled each pistol?

You've been given some good advice above. A good cleaning and lube may help. New Mec-Gar mags may help. Different cartridges or, if you reload, playing with OAL can make a difference. If all else fails, send it to Lugerdoc.

My current load works well in my 9mm Lugers. I use a Berry's plated 115 grain flat nose (truncated cone) bullet over 5.6/5.7 grains of Hodgdon CFE Pistol powder. OAL is 1.100". I began with 5.5 grains but my cases are mixed and I'd have an occasional failure of the case to clear the action (eject). Stepping up to 5.6/5.7 grains has eliminated that problem. (Max published charge is 5.9 grains) CFE also meters well.

I appreciate the above convidence of the members, but I never promise to make any luger 99% reliable, since there are so many variables involved, including the shooter. In most cases, I can improve a luger's function, but no guarantees. Lugerdoc

It may sound obvious, but it's often overlooked ;) A good clean and lube job is often all that's needed, and with pistols as old as the Lugers it's a good idea to do a complete disassembly to get rid of all old residue hiding in the nooks and crannies. I guess this can be a bit intimidating if you haven't done it before, so the quick and dirty way is to field strip and dunk the parts in kerosene for a day or two, then brush them off and rinse as good as you can. After that, blow clean and spray everything with Kroil (or other penetrating oil), blow clean again and reassemble. Many guns will come to life again after this simple DIY procedure.

It could also be a good idea to change the recoil spring. I have seen many of these being weak from old age, so a fresh one from Wolff is a good investment.

These steps may or may not fix your pistol, but cleaning, lubing and changing the spring gives you a much better baseline for further troubleshooting.

Ollie brings up a good point: I ALWAYS change the recoil spring first thing on ANY used gun before I even fire it. Springs are cheap, and Goddess only knows how old and/or tired the existing one is because I sure don't. So I change it.

Sorry, been away for a few days. Thanks for all the info, and I will try the spring change out, although I'm not the most mechanically inclined. I've cleaned and lubricated it pretty well, shy of disassembling the frame. I've mostly used regular ball ammo, and the truncated cone 124gr coated bullets from Black Bullet International. I will try a few more times. The 1940 runs pretty well, the 1937 is one of those "challenges", and may need LugerDoc's assessment somewhere down the road. It's a really good thing that we have people out there that still cares about these pieces of art and design, and are willing to help others.

I could not get TC coated bullets to work well at all- I'd forget even trying them.

Go about the evaluation methodically, use the same ammo in each mag(good idea to number them) you have.
Start with one round in each- observe; then try 5, and finally work up to 8.

I'll bet you find differences in the performance of each mag, with each luger(different in each).

Then change ammo and repeat.

Slow and steady wins the race.

You may have to eliminate one or more mags from use, with either pistol.

I know it is maddening, but tolerances are not your friend in this case. JMHO.

Don, I don't know why they don't work for you but I use them in several Lugers and they work fine. Just today I ran two full magazines through a 1917 Erfurt - 16 rounds - and function was 100%. Accuracy was also quite good.

I once shot a couple hundred "Bayou Bullets" - one of the first coated bullets available in the US - through my '40 42 and it *loved* them.

Could be the "load" they were reloaded with.

Good they work for you all, but too many other choices to try to make them work for me.
I was only interested because of the truncated cone shape.