A lesson in humility................

[DaveinTN]

Iâ??ve just learned a valuable and embarrassing lesson about Lugers first-hand.

When I bought my first Luger a few months ago and learned to take it apart, I felt pretty comfortable about participating in the forum. I even allowed myself to think that I knew something about Lugers.

In hindsight, I guess I appeared to some of the more senior members of the forum like a kid in the shallow end of the pool, splashing around and making a lot of noise but not doing a whole lot of swimming. In my last profession (which lasted 26 years), we â??old timersâ?� had the same attitude about people who were new to the field. Patiently, we let them bang their drums and blow their horns. We didnâ??t try to discourage them, but rather we watched as they learned valuable lessons about the ups and downs of business life for themselves. Those who couldnâ??t hack it left. Those who stayed became more reflective and a lot less noisy.

This afternoon I received some parts I had ordered for my Luger. My intention was to replace some of the more fragile numbered parts on the pistol with ones that wouldnâ??t decrease the value if they were to break while at the pistol range.

The first part I tried replacing was the extractor. The un-numbered replacement installed very easily and I reassembled the gun. That was when I noticed that the front of the extractor was not fitting into the recess above the breech. It was keeping the breech block about 1/16â?� away from going all the way forward. That in turn put compression on the toggle joints which made the rear axle really difficult to install.

So, out came the Dremel. At least I wasnâ??t foolish enough to start hogging out the top of the chamber! Carefully and slowly, I started removing material from the front of the extractor until it finally fit into the recess.

I then tried to install the ejector. The original came out easily enough, but the replacement wouldnâ??t go in at all. Comparing the two parts side by side, I was able to see that the three â??protrusionsâ?� didnâ??t line up exactly. Out came the file and again I slowly and carefully began to remove material from the center and forward protrusions. I left the cylindrical one alone. Finally, it too clicked into place.

Then, I tried to put the gun together but found that when I tried to install the breech and toggle assembly into the frame, the front portion of the ejector wasnâ??t engaging the groove on the side of the breech block. After a good bit of fiddling around, I finally got the pistol reassembled.

I put the magazine with five snap caps into the pistol and pulled the toggles up and back smartly and released them. Major jamâ?¦.. The bullet was in the chamber but the extractor wasnâ??t engaged. I got that bullet out and tried it again. Another jamâ?¦. Also, I had noticed a grinding sound which later turned out to be the front protrusion of the ejector scraping on the side of the breech block. Too many things were going wrong at the same timeâ?¦.. I was out of my element and the pistol was out of tune!

Now really frustrated, I removed the ejector and extractor and reinstalled the original parts. With those in place, the snap caps cycled flawlesslyâ?¦ every-time-smooth-as-silk.

Some of the lessons Iâ??ve learned during the past two and half hours:

1. I may have an aptitude for things mechanical, but Iâ??m no gunsmith. I can clean and oil a gun, but thatâ??s about it.
2. Lugers may look similar, but they arenâ??t clones. Major components may be interchangeable, but it appears to me that small parts need to be individually fitted to the pistol by an expert.
3. I need to read and learn a whole lot more before I put in my two cents next time.

Itâ??s now about 10:40 PM and thatâ??s about as much soul searching as I want to do for now.

Iâ??m going to keep the old parts as a reminder for the next time I start feeling like a know-it-all.

Dave in TN.