[Artsi]

I personally regard any authentic pistol from 1914 to be appreciated what it is - an almost priceless artifact. That pistol must have endured and survived all kinds of hazards. Be buried 1 or 2 feet under on a battle field or sunk in a sea. Your piece has survived to date all hazards out there. It would be sad to see parts getting broken for unfortunate ammo choice.


I would recommend purchasing another P08 that does not hold any special collectible value. At part failure you just simply snap on a replacement and keep on shooting.


If you really really wanna try out your artifact, I suggest selfloaded ammo is the only way to go.

If you are an occasional shooter and thus investing time and money on reloading equipment is not your cup of tea, try talking to someone who has a progressive reloading press. Those presses easily can make 400 to 600 rounds in an hour. After finding out what powder charge is good for your pistol he can pump out 1000 rounds well within 3 hours. Occasional shooter should get by with 1000 rounds a long time.


Finding out load level.

Make a run of say 10 to 15 rounds of maybe like 10 different load levels. Start from a really lame load level. Most lamest loads will not function, they may not even toss out a spent case.


This way you can step by step safely approach the load level that makes your old pistol to function toggle action reliably.

Very roughly one can see what is the toggle action velocity by looking at spent case flying. If it gets ejected pretty ferociously and flies far away - loads propably are a bit too hot.

A batch of ammo for recreational plinking that I've loaded are just strong enough to work the toggle reliably. I only need to drop powder charge very little and I get occasional jams. This ammo that reliably works the toggle action, throws spent cases gently over the shooter.

I have a feeling my P08 has a healthy and long life in the field of recreational shooting front of it.


- Artsi