I have long suspected that the
ejector on the Luger does not do much of anything. Repeated instances of ejected cartridge cases smacking me in the forehead, hat, and arm have led me to believe that the
extractor does the job of ejecting. I am of the opinion that the
ejector is a 'belt and suspenders' kind of addition. Some individual Lugers may require it; some may not.
Georg Luger adapted the Parabellum pistol from Hugo Borchardt's C93 auto pistol. It does not use an '
ejector'. The
extractor does the ejecting.
I have owned four Mauser C96 auto loading pistols. They also eject the cases up and back, not to the side. That pistol also does not use an '
ejector'. The
extractor does the ejecting.
The Type 14 Nambu does not have an
ejector. The
extractor does the ejecting. And it also ejects up and back, not to the side.
Posts like this one make me think that Luger's adaptation was flawed in this respect. If the
ejector was doing its job correctly then the cases should be coming out the side and back, not up and back. The broken ejector, left in, may be the cause of the stovepipes.
I have a parts P08 Luger that I will be fitting together this week, I am going to test shooting it with the
ejector installed and with it not installed.
I'm not sure if a test like I described would be definitive. DWM/G. Luger adapted an existing design, and in making it better, they may have introduced unintended flaws. And the "Luger" was 'designed' for the 7.65mm bottleneck cartridge (a shortened Mauser C96 cartridge), not the 9mm cartridge. Another 'improvement' that may have its own feeding/extracting/ejecting failings.
My own long-held $.02 belief...
