I've had my 29/70 9mm now for about 9 months.
I've only had WWI era Lugers before. The Swiss influence
is very clear. There are some simplifications to the machining,
and some fixes to a few Luger problems. The large head on the rear
toggle pin serves the same purpose as a "Mauser hump". The front of
the sear cut out in the upper receiver is rounded, this was good to see as
I've had an upper receiver crack at the front edge of the sear cut out.
Some other features seem to go back to the 1906 Luger, the unrelieved
sear bar, and the round magazine spring.
I bought this gun as a more modern shooter, my other two lugers have broken several times
on me over the twenty years I've owned them.
So of course I've had two things bust on the new one already. The first time out the pivot for the grip safety came loose, it had never been riveted in place, later on the magazine base broke in half. This was my fault, I have been shooting a 8mm Nambu pistol, you've really got to jam the mag in on that one. So the combination of a cold day and a hard shove was too much for the mag base.
After all this time I'm still tinkering with the loads. Winchester bulk 115gr is very accurate but has numerous jams associated with insufficient power.
My loads with 700x powder and 115gr plated bullets cycle well, but bullets thrown at the target from a bucket would group better.
I've just done some loads with real jacketed bullets and 700x, when the weather gets better I'll see how they group. I couldn't get enough Unique
in the case to get the gun to cycle.
I'm having fun, its nice to be shooting a gun that is like new, not nearly 100 years old and showing it.
Mike
