[be sure to remove and clean the firing pin assembly, the trigger bar and the hold open. At least clean around the extractor and ejector (the ejector is fairly delicate, remove carefully if you do so). When lubricating the gun, get some light penetrating oil, like WD40]
Karl:
I have been cleaning my DWM model profusely for two days now. But to be totally honest, I’m very pensive about disassembling it past a certain point. One of the first things I did was to print out the five page 40 step procedure for fully field striping a P 08, located in the Technical section of this Web site. I am up to step 12 in that printout. The ejector is step 16, the firing pin 20 and the extractor is step 23. I’m worried that if I go past step 22, I will get to a point where I will be left with a pile of Luger parts that I will be unable to re-assemble with my limited knowledge.
I’m sure that sounds real silly to people who have been field stripping a Luger down to its last parts for 20 years, or even more. I guess that I need to locate someone in my area who is an expert with this type of firearm. That way, I can get some help if I go balls out to step 40, and have trouble reversing the process. There is a sportsman club very close to where I live and a firing range. I’m sure that someone at one of these places is a Luger enthusiastic. It never ceases to amaze me how friendly and incredibly helpful firearm enthusiasts are at such places. (At least in my area, Oregon.) It makes me real angry when I see some liberal on TV or left-wing broadcast program imply (or directly state!) that the general population of people who enjoy firearms are some kind of crazies. If you ask me, anyone who goes against the ten points of the Bill of Rights of the USA is the crazy.
That political statement behind me, I’ve examined the inside of my DWM very carefully, and I get the impression that the former owner kept it very clean, for an extended period of time. But I will carefully check the parts that you mention Karl, and oil and spray it down very carefully with WD40. The pawnshop owner gave me a 9mm shell case (no bullet) to practice dry firing with, but I will look into these snap caps.
I’m amazed at the incredible complexity of my DWM Luger. I’ve never personally seen a pistol this complex before. I saw a program on the History Channel that dealt with the small arms of the Second World War. In it, they said that the Luger was replaced with the P 38 about 1942, because the Luger was simply too expensive and hard to manufacture. I can see that now. They also mentioned that if you drop a Luger in the mud or dirt, it probably would not fire anymore. At least until it was cleaned. I can see that now too. So many moving parts, especially on the left side.
-Curt
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