saw a damaged breachblock today

[DAVID]

Going through a old box at my dealers shop. Found a Luger

breachblock (damaged) with the following marks.


On the side a Crown over B and number 53 with triangle

in a circle in the hinge area. The recess for the firing

pin was sheared out. Any ideas on this . David.

[Thor]

Legend has it that this was an occurance of an overload and the breech block being really hardened and a little brittle a shearing of the recess area occured from back pressure force from an excess high pressure gas occuring from the case (the brass part of a loaded round) pushing back on the firing pin against the retainer pin and breech block! The firing pins were redesigned in WWII with vents in the firing pins to prevent this from happening! Most of these failures would be in WWI Lugers or those that are parts guns that use the WWI Luger firing pin! ~Thor~ Unclear on the markings but I bet someone knows

I have had some experience with the firing pin retainer stripping out the back of the breach block. This was with Gunparts 16" Barrels which had excessive headspace. The fired case moves backward and the firing pin punctures the primer. Escaped gas pushes the pin assembly backward with enough force to strip the retainer out of the breech block. The fluted firing pin is supposed to prevent this. The stripped breach block can be fixed---not much fun though.

I concur with the comments on the cause of the damage. This is one of the most common failures of Lugers made prior to about 1925-26. During that period firing pins began to be made with the gas bleeding flutes. Many of the Police used WWI era Lugers were later fitted with these type firing pins. If you look closly you can find examples of the original firing pins in many of these type (Police) Lugers that had the firing pins expertly arsenal (not factory) modified to the fluted style. IMO the fluted pin is a MUST have for any shooter Luger esp. if reloads are used.

[Don]

I learned this lesson early on in my career as a Luger maniac (which just began in March of this year). In May I bought a 1915 artillery from an Austin gunshop. The finish was worn down to white steel, the bore was poor, but I had them fire a couple of magazines through the gun, and she functioned flawlessly. After firing a couple hundred rounds, the same thing happened to me. I shipped her off to Tom Heller, and he installed a new breechblock and barrel, and swapped out the old firing pin for a fluted model. We were back in business, so I shipped her to Thor for a beauty treatment. And now we're living happpily everafter!

[Orv Reichert]

This is a proof on the Portuguese guns...right? At least it was on a Crown/M2 that I owned many years ago.

[Kyrie]

Hi Orv,


Right on target


Hereâ??s an example:


Best regards,


Kyrie






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