[John Sabato]

Welcome to the Lugerforum to both Sprue, and AVogel57....

This advice should be applicable to both you and the original poster. In the future, please start your own thread for assistance.

AVogel57, In your photo, the safety lever is not all the way in the OFF position. That can contribute to your problem. You should not see the safety bar sticking up as far as it does in your photo. This would hinder the operation of the sear.

The point where you indicate that the action is hanging up is close to, or right at, the point where the pistol's firing pin engages the sear to be reset after firing. The gun should never hang there if it has been fired, or if you have pulled the toggle all the way back and released it. NEVER ease the first round into the chamber... the bolt should slam shut.

As others have already mentioned. Get the pistol completed torn down and clean it well with Hoppe's #9 and a toothbrush to get rid of all the congealed oil and gun grease of the last 50 years. Lubricate liberally, (that is the only thing I am liberal about!), but don't get any oil on the grips if you can help it. Hold the gun firmly when firing, and until it is functioning well with factory Winchester White Box ammunition, don't bother with reloads. even if you are pretty sure that they duplicate factory ballistics. The gun wasn't designed to function with lead bullets.

Make sure your magazine is clean inside and out, and be careful if it has a wooden bottom as they break easily if dropped. I recommend you find an aftermarket magazine (Mec-Gar), or at least an original that has an aluminum bottom that has no collector value.

Try all that and report back... Good Luck, and we will walk you through this to the level of reliability you should be experiencing.