Magazine Safety?
 

Never having seen one before, could someone please tell me if this is a magazine safety illustrated in this photo? (Sorry about the poor quality of the image.) I'm also not entirely sure what purpose this safety served.
The luger in question is a 1925 dated Simson.
http://boards.rennlist.com/lfupload/1925Simson4.jpg

JohnF,

It is a magazine safety and from your photo it appears that it has not been clipped or disabled.

The graphic illustration below is modified from one that appears in Gerard Henrotin's excellent Luger E-book on the Luger Mechanicals...

How it works?

When the rib on the side of a magazine (pointed to by the green arrow) slides up the mag well and contacts the inside of the mag safety (red arrow on the right) it pushed the safety out and allows the trigger to be pulled by eliminating the interference by the front of the mag safety behind the trigger (red arrow on the left). Most all of these safety devices were permanently disabled by clipping the portion that fits behind the trigger...

Hope this helps...

http://boards.rennlist.com/lfupload/...ngineering.jpg

Thank you John. That helped a lot. I shall have to download that e-book. If I do get this pistol, I'll post better photos of the safety to establish whether or not it is really intact.
Cheers,
John

Just wanted you to know that I recommend all four of Gerard's E-books on the Luger. They are filled with excellent illustrations and will give you lots of enjoyable reading on your favorite subject for less than the cost of one of the many printed Luger reference books like Jan Still's...(which are also recommended).

Let me know if you buy Henrotin's books... sometimes they can be a little tricky to use depending on your PC configuration. I have had them since they were first published and know all the in's and out's.

Hi John,
I already have one of these books - "The Luger Producers" - and that seems to work just fine on my machine. I found it very useful to begin with but I've since bought a lot of reference books so I don't look at it much these days. That being said, most of the references are very long on markings etc but not so informative on the mechanical workings of the Luger. I'll definitely be downloading the Luger Mechanicals book. Thanks for the tip.
Cheers,
John