"New" Luger Issues

[Dwight Gruber]

Johnny,

Welcome to the Forum, and congratulations on having your first Luger. Probably won't be the last...

I seem to be missing the "Hold-Open Latch Spring" and the "Locking Bolt Spring". I don't believe that either of these is critical to a firing test. Is that true?

You have already discovered the answer to the holdopen-spring question. Until you get the proper spring, you can simply remove the holdopen from the frame. You are fortunate that your takedown lever ("locking bolt") seems to be a tight fit without the spring. Very little is more annoying (or embarressing) than firing your Luger and having the sideplate fly off, particularly if it ends up in front of the firing line (providing you manage to find it at all)!

Where is the best place to get the two springs?

Lugerdoc (Tom Heller) will probably reply to this question. If you can, use original springs rather than repros, otherwise there will be a fitting issue. (Tom beat me to the punch, here...)

A couple of times the next round stayed down in the mag. Probably a mag issue I'll deal with after the next two.

This problem is an easy one: don't bother to use an original folded-steel Luger mag. Pick up a modern replacement--MecGar is my favorite--and the problem should go away.

The lanyard ring chewed my thumb up. Guess a glove will take care of that.

This should not be a problem. It is possible that you are holding your Luger too loosely ("limp-wristing") when you fire. A Luger should be held firmly, the recoil being taken up by the forearm, elbow, and shoulder rather than the wrist. Limp-wristing can cause the pistol's action to operate improperly, and exacerbate some other problems.

Where is the best place to get decent (read: functional and relatively inexpensive) repro wood grips?

There are several people here on the Forum who can probably help you out.

I used only Remington "Green Box" ammo today. I have read that Lugers are ammo-sensitive. Could this ammo be the cause of any of the problems above?

Lugers are indeed ammo sensitive--overall cartridge length is one of the major factors. In my tests I have found that modern Remington ammunition fails to feed properly most of the time. Oddly enough, your holdopen problem probably masked this by not allowing your Luger to auto-load. If you look through the "Shooting and Reloading" Forum section you will find many discussions about which ammunition operates a Luger effectively.

The trigger did not re-set most of the time and I had to re-**** the pistol. Anyone have a clue on this issue?

There are several possibilities here, not as straighforward as the solutions to your other problems. Best to solve them first and remove what variables there may be affecting this one, and then attack it directly.

--Dwight