Thanks for the responses to the grip issue. I will be in contact with Jim Soloman most likey. Mauro- I will get it certified , although this model might not be in the Mauser records from what I am reading on your pages? Since it is 9mm and all...
Anyway, went and shot her today! Ran about 150 rounds of Herter's "Select Grade" Brass 115 grain from Cabelas. I figured this would be decent ammo to start with... maybe I was wrong.
The Good: it is accurate. Once I got a hang of the sights (dang indoor lighting was almost hard even for my young eyes to see well), the bullet went exactly where I wanted. first 6 shots as you see below, were pretty much within one another at 10 yards. I am high and to the left, which is just my finger learning the gun. Also had more than 3 people come look at it and tell me about their own Luger experiences. None really understood the Mauser Interarm variant I had, which was fun to me to talk about. The grip issue sorta went away during shooting- my hand seemed not to care much when it came down to firing the weapon, although it was sharp and def had some sore spots after. Maybe I wont fix them
The Bad: I didn't go 2 or 3 rounds without a FTF
. Although, honestly, I expected issues as I had them with my other Luger, but not THIS bad. Part of me thinks its the mag, but more likely the ammo? The mag seemed to have a great spring, and it ejected each time with so much force that it caused the plaster ceiling to crumble down on me in my booth. The gun is 50 something years old, and LNIB, so I am not sure if the toggle/main spring just needs to be "broken in"? Rounds just weren't getting caught by the toggle as it rarely went all the way back as it should. Had issues with the hold open also, as that didn't always engage. I'd have to really pull back to have it engage.
The following round most the time would be caught near the end of the brass case, or in the middle, and forced up into the breech but wouldn't seat properly and get stuck, so I either had to pull the toggle and shake the round in, or pull the toggle and catch a new round. Other times it just missed to capture the next round completely. Thankfully with the loaded chamber indicator, I knew if that occurred without having to inspect it. The gun worked fine around the last 2/3 rounds of the factory mag, but 4+ loaded and those had issues each time. So I found myself just shooting 3 rounds at a time, with hold open issue most times.
The Ugly: the brass casings were pretty mangled, with scrapes and dents in places I wouldn't expect. I can take pics of them if you are interested. Also the right grip panel is not loose by any means, but clicks around during/after firing which is kinda annoying. Ugly side of them not mating these grips properly with the frame.
I plan to buy new Mec-Gar mags and try those out. I'll also try out other ammo options, and I'll research around what is working for others. Besides maybe keeping the toggle open during storage to compress the main spring, not sure what else I can do on my end to fix the FTF issues. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯