ssmith;
The above advice on comparative values and professional evaluation are all right on. As far as the shooting experience I would make the following comment:
Let me understand what you are saying.
Jammed. Does this mean that a round improperly fed and the piece could not go into battery?
If the magazine spring is what he replaced then he probably had the right idea, just not a strong enough spring. If that is the kind of jam you are experiencing I will post what I posted for Tony:
1) 90% of Luger jams are caused by bad mags. My suggestion would be to trade off the present mag to someone that wants it as a collectors piece or just retire it. Then find and buy one of the circa. 1975 Mauser mags--Unused if possible. There was a very practical reason that Germany issued a loading tool with every Luger. Because, if you can load a magazine without a loading tool you are a prime candidate for stovepipe jams.
Thus a question. Were you using a loading tool when you tried to load your mag? If not than 4 rounds is about right unless it is a mechanical problem with your mag that it won't take the rounds (i.e something inside it, wrong type spring, it is bent or some such)
2) You will do yourself a favor to save the wooden bottom mag in any case. The newer Mauser mags have plastic bottoms and will serve you quite well, at least mine do.
3) The well meaning advice that you need "stronger ammo" should be politely ignored. I have loaded and fired a few thousand rounds of 9mm and found that the standard handloading manual loads work quite fine (Unique powder seems to work best for me).
Replacement springs for magazines that are not just cosmetic are very hard to find. I look for the whenever I can for extra social mags.
I also do not store my mags loaded. My social Luger is for travel. At home I have revolvers.
Let me know how it comes out. There certainly could be other problems but this is a real important step because without a shooting mag nothing else will work.
Gary
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