Magazine Malfunction?

[G.T.]

Hi to all, Original luger mags are really a masterpiece of work... still, all in all, never really perfected.. That's because they asked more from the materials and design, then it could stand up to with repeated use.. For example, in order to form the folded sheet metal shell, they had to use dead soft, or maybe at most quaterhard steel sheet, to form the severe bends and crimped seams necessary to make the shell... To give you an example you can easily bend a small amount by hand..And, it is less than .020" thick. This means no heat treat, or very little, probably most of the spring in the steel was just from work hardening.. so now, you have a thin skinned soft steel container, with a small seam running the length... Pretty much an old campbells soup can would have been stronger... Now, lets put in a grossly overworked coil spring that goes to solid evey time you fully depress the follower! No modern designer in his right mind would design such a monster... So, we have a soft steel mag, overtaxed spring, and just for grins and smiles, lets tilt it 60 degrees and see what happens... Remarkably, they really do work quite well! Which amazes me every day... But, whether they are numbered to the gun or not, nice nickel plate or plain steel finish... they simply will not last with continued use... The first problem to show up is spreading at the magazine top, especially the feed lips.. This is usually the beginning of feed issues and the end of the drop free provision of the magazine.. The same issues that cause the mag to spread at the top, also start affecting the bottom also, and you get expansion at both ends. About the time you realize what is occuring, the mag starts failing in the seam, at best it'll grow a few thousands from front to back, at worst, the seam will fail to the point to where the mag shell twists and cannot be made stable... looks perfect, but will never consistantly fit correctly.. And then, just to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, lets put a wood bottom on it in various degrees of quality... pin it at the bottom back edge and see what happens???... All of the above is why the hardened MEC-GAR replacement mag is better then an original pre Mauser magazine in just about every respect... Gott'a love those Germans though... They just make really neat intricate stuff! ...... best to all, til...lat'r...GT