safe to shoot
 

i

If I were to pick up a unfamiliar Luger and prepare to shoot it I would remove and check magazine condition for dents, dirt, and spring tension, then take off safety and pull toggle all the way back then release making sure it closed tightly and was locked. Then I would place safety on and pull trigger. Take safey off, insert empty magazine, pull toggle to rear and lock. Look in chamber and barrel for obstruction. Make sure gun is well oiled. Check locking lug with toggle both down and locked back to be sure spring is present.
Check bolt face for wear/dirt and push up on ejector checking tension. Dry fire just once listening for "click". Put one round in chamber, no magazine, pull toggle to rear, release.Did it completely close and lock? Next, fire. Did it eject? Did toggle return and lock? If OK then put three rounds in magazine. Chamber. If it worked then fire. Did it eject and chamber the next round? Did hold open work? If any failures then its time to start working on magazines, springs, ammo, ect. If I had resources I'd also want to disassemble, clean, and lubricate it first.

rk

Everything RK said is true, but prior to that, I would visually check to ensure that it had no cracks, warps or other items wrong with the toggle, frame, barrel, etc.

Take it to a gunsmith if you feel funny about it at all, where they can headspace it and this will reveal if it has any abnormalities prior to firing it.

Then follow through on RK's suggestions.

Ed

Many Lugers do not have the original recoil spring in them. Following all of the above checks except actually firing, load a magazine, point the pistol down range and cycle the whole magazine through by hand without firing. When the toggle is all the way back release it. As an absolute minimum the the recoil spring must be capable of driving a cartridge into the chamber and completely closing and locking the action each and every time. A better test by far is to remove the spring and actually measure it. A bit tricky wthout the right setup. In place of that compare it to another Luger and make sure its not overly soft.

Many Lugers will have cut down springs, presumably due to attempts somewhere in the past to get them to function with sub-standard ammo. This is especially true of 7.65 Lugers.