Widen Receiver forks?

[DaveinTN]

Although I cleaned and oiled my two Lugers earlier this week, this topic provided me with a good reason to take them out again. Using a 6" dial caliper accurate to 0.01" I measured the gap between the forks at the breech and at the extreme end on both pistols.

Having recently purchased the Plans CD from John Sabato, I checked on Page 3 and found the specification for the gap width to be 13 mm (which is 0.511".)

On my "tight" commercial shooter, the forks are 0.01" narrower at the far end. To spread the forks 1/32" would be just over 0.031" or 0.02" too much!

On my 1917 Erfurt, both measurements are 0.52" and the toggle assembly slides in effortlessly.

Here's a diagram of my results.... (isn't it a sad statement that on a Saturday night I have nothing better to do than measure pistols and play with Photoshop ...)

Dave in TN