Hello to all, by now, with the first four installment of magazine magic, you should be just as able to repair an injured Luger mag same as me? But, there are still some little quirks and issues that still might affect the reliability of your favorite P.08... This installment is about the correlation between feed lips, and feed ramps?
The feed lips on ALL original Luger magazines are soft! As a result, they become, over time, spread out for the following reasons. Stored full with max capacity of ammo, overly strong follower spring, or, just constant use and abuse? The good part of this, is they can easily be reformed. You'll need a flat nose pliers, preferably one with few or no serrations. And, you'll need a large regular type pliers to gently squeeze the top feed lip area back together when it is obviously spread out.
Again, less is more, and it is far better to err on the side of too wide, rather the too narrow? When adjusted correctly, the nose of the bullet should set (approx.) 5 to 10 degrees ABOVE the top level feed lips.
Now, this is where it gets interesting, the steeper the feed ramp, the shorter the holding part of the feed lips (over all length) need to be!
An easy way to compensate for this is to slightly, and uniformly, (with flat nose pliers) bend the front part of the feed lip ahead of the seam a little bit more vertical, allowing the cartridge to set even more proud as to the angle of the feed lips! Conversely, if the feed ramp is very long, and / or, very shallow you would bent the same part of the fee lip in or hold the cartridge a little lower, a little longer? NEVER less then level... It is amazing, but with a little loving care, feeding becomes a problem of the distant past... That's why the very best advice, is find a mag that works with your particular Luger, have a shotgun wedding for them, and never let them part!
.... And, so ends the Magazine magic little tid-bits of info.?? I hope it helps some of you thru and Luger woes you might encounter in the future! Best to all, til....lat'r.....GT...
BTW, I've found 50 degree ramp angle works perfectly in ever application... but, that's just me...
