[Citizen C]

Having recently aquired a 1970s Mauser Parabellum as a shooter and another one NIB as an investment, I discovered that the shooter's magazine had a worn spring.

With the NIB Luger's magazines, I could only load two rounds or so with my thumb pressing down on the follower button before I had to resort to the loading tool.

With the worn magazine, I could load 4 or 5 without the loading tool and I found that I would get jams with a freshly fed round standing straight up. A stovepipe. With the last round fired, the toggle would not lock open, fooling me into thinking I had another shot.

Obviously, the follower wasn't getting to where it needed to be in time.

So I ordered a Wolff "extra power" magazine spring. Swapping out the springs was very simple, except that the plastic magazine base, or floorplate, cracked into two pieces in the process. Superglue fixed that easily.

I went to a gunshow today looking to acquire another magazine for the Luger. I looked for originals, but didn't see any. Then there was the Triple K and Mec-Gar magazines. The Mec-Gar was listed as $36, but the guy let me have it for $30. I decided against the Triple K, as the magazine base was held in with roll pins rather than the solid pins of the Mec-Gar.

This was important because I could tell I was probably just buying a magazine body, follower, and floor plate. The spring was as easy to manipulate as the worn spring of my factory mag before the Wolff spring.

Well, long story short (too late), the original factory magazine with the new Wolff spring worked perfectly. The Mec-Gar, predictably, gave me the same problems as the factory mag did when it had the worn spring.

I'm pretty sure this can be corrected by installing a Wolff spring in it as well. Next time, I'll get the "triple pack" of Wolf Luger mag springs.

Now I'm wondering if it would have been better to just get the Triple K magazine and swap out or make new pins for the base and install a Wolff spring, as the Triple K was going for just $22.