Breech Block Failure 1916/1920 Erfurt

Allen Brett · 01-26-2021, 02:32 PM

UPDATE:

I ordered and old "new stock" breech bolt that arrived in perfect condition. I swapped the breech out and put the firing pin and extractor from the original into the new block. The pistol will now cycle a new round with no problems (this was done manually and I did not fire the pistol). The next process was to check the headspace which is the current problem. I called all 3 gunsmiths where I live and they only do headspace work on bolt action rifles.

One of the three told me to pull the firing pin and extractor then use masking tape one layer at a time to see if the round would feed while slowly letting the toggle down. In short I ended up having to add 5 layers before the breech will not close when letting off the toggle slowly so the round is not being slammed in place. I used my calipers and the thickness of the 5 layers is 0.017. I found the following on a google search which took me to "LUGERFORUMS" and it stated the following "minimum headspace measurement from a SAAMI chart is 0.754" and the maximum headspace is 0.776", or 0.022" difference."

My question is using the factory round and having to add 0.017 before the shell would stop means I should be at 0.771 or slightly less which would put me under 0.776? If this is correct I should be within specifications to shoot factory loads?

Thanks,

01-26-2021, 02:32 PM	#11
Allen Brett User Join Date: Nov 2017 Location: Central Wyoming, USA Posts: 49 Thanks: 78 Thanked 26 Times in 13 Posts	UPDATE: I ordered and old "new stock" breech bolt that arrived in perfect condition. I swapped the breech out and put the firing pin and extractor from the original into the new block. The pistol will now cycle a new round with no problems (this was done manually and I did not fire the pistol). The next process was to check the headspace which is the current problem. I called all 3 gunsmiths where I live and they only do headspace work on bolt action rifles. One of the three told me to pull the firing pin and extractor then use masking tape one layer at a time to see if the round would feed while slowly letting the toggle down. In short I ended up having to add 5 layers before the breech will not close when letting off the toggle slowly so the round is not being slammed in place. I used my calipers and the thickness of the 5 layers is 0.017. I found the following on a google search which took me to "LUGERFORUMS" and it stated the following "minimum headspace measurement from a SAAMI chart is 0.754" and the maximum headspace is 0.776", or 0.022" difference." My question is using the factory round and having to add 0.017 before the shell would stop means I should be at 0.771 or slightly less which would put me under 0.776? If this is correct I should be within specifications to shoot factory loads? Thanks,