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Unread 07-07-2001, 08:35 AM   #1
renaissance
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Default "Shooters" Care and Maintenance

My luger ("The Bloody Beast" )is neither a prime "Collectors Model" nor in "Collector Condition".

I call it a "Shooter" because "I shoot it"; rather than because it is "not of Collector quality"


I shoot it regularly and often.


I use my own reloaded 9mm ammo.

125 grain RN FMJ

1.15X OAL

4.3 of Unique OR 4.0 of TiteGroup

The "Beast" functions flawlessly with either.


Quite accurate, also; (at 25 feet > 2.0" groups print at 1.5" and 5 O'clock from POA) > [ as good as I can hold it ]


I do not want to "shoot it out" or "break it".


What comprises "proper preventative maintenance" for a regularly fired > 1940 "42".


How far should I break it down for cleaning and maintenance; and how often.


Lubrication hints (use what and where?)


I'd like to hear from other "Shooters" on this.





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Unread 07-07-2001, 10:59 AM   #2
BOB REGERS
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Default Re: "Shooters" Care and Maintenance

i cant take apart a gun to save my life making me wonder if i am at all qualified to own such a gun. all i do is open the actio remove the mag and clean the hell out of it after every use with q tips -lots of them. i am back to basic reliability and accuracy throoughly claening the chamber magazine and bore. time consuming but worth it! important parts are extractor, extractor seat(top of barrel), firing pin and rear of chamber and i do all this with out pulling apart the gun. i worked around my inexperience so speak to a real expert...



 
Unread 07-07-2001, 11:21 AM   #3
tom h
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Default Re: "Shooters" Care and Maintenance

After each shooting, I'd recomment cleaning & oiling the bore, toggle assy and inside frame rails. At least once a month, remove firing pin, extractor and holdopen and soak in solvent and give inside of breech block and extrator & holdopen cutouts a good cleaning. You might also want to include the ejector, but many people have difficulty reinstalling this part. Tom



 
Unread 07-07-2001, 12:50 PM   #4
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Default Re: "Shooters" Care and Maintenance

Hi Bob. I'm with you about taking Lugers apart. Your comment made me think about the average German soldier. He probably did a lot less than you or I do to clean a Luger! Maybe that's why we see a lot of double dated Lugers! Can you imagine what it would have been like to just exist in a trench on a day to day basis? Nevermind worrying about whether or not your sidearm was going to last longer than you did. Of course, the condition of your sidearm might have everything to do with how long you lasted! Just some idle thoughts evoked by your comment. I hope all of you will indulge me.



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Unread 07-07-2001, 03:51 PM   #5
Big Norm
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Default Re: "Shooters" Care and Maintenance

Remember that because of the blood pitting, Your gun does have a certain amount of history because it has character. Somebody bleed on that gun fighting so something. We don't know who or why. But you can look at it and wonder.


Aside from that, until you get used to really stripping the gun down to give it a good cleaning, do it on a top of a bed. Some of these parts (change that to springs) will either fall off (e.i trigger spring) or shot off (e.i ejector spring). Its a lot easier to find a small part on a white bed spread than on a dark plush carpet. Some of the pins can be hard to find. I have learned this the hard way.


Use a brass knockout punch to remove pins. That way you won't scratch up your blueing. Think when you remove the Locking Bolt. Many guys have used a screw driver the wrong way and have broken that part or scratched it badly.


If you have trouble closing the Locking Bolt when you finish. You probably have the side plate in wrong. Make sure that the lip of the side plate at the rear is properly under the frame. Many guys have it on the top of the frame and then try to force the Locking Bolt. Try not to force the Locking Bolt or the side plate. The Locking Bolt has a spring under it and this spring will create a little tightness when opening or closing the gun. Some guns are tight some are not.


I may be a bit wordy but I am trying to remember all my mistakes and trying to help other guys who are just starting out. This forum has a group of newbees continuously entering and I want to help all. It does no good if anyone says that it was mentioned three months ago in the forum. A newbee may not have been here then. Sometimes instructions have to be repeated.


After you have done it a few times you will adapt a feel for where to be careful.

Big Norm



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Unread 07-07-2001, 07:30 PM   #6
MK
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Default Re: "Shooters" Care and Maintenance

After each shooting is when you clean it.

How is that you remove the cannon-barrel assembly, remove the toggle assembly and take the grips off.

Then clean the bore from the breech end.

Take some solvent and a small brush (army type toothbrush) and scrub everywhere that you can reach as well as everything else you can touch with the brush.

After that, take a can of BRAKECLEAN and hose away, washing everything. Let it dry.

Then just slop either Breakfree CLP or (better) Clenzoil on everything, put a drop at every working joint or pivot and anywhere metal moves. Run a patch wet with Clenzoil or CLP through the bore. Really get the Clenzoil everywhere and plenty of it. I mean you want Clenzoil or CLP on EVERY metal surface.

Then wait a little bit.

Now, take an old T shirt or some other cloth and wipe away all the excess oil, keeping the oily shirt handy.

Reassemble the pistol and use the rag to wipe off any left over excess oil. A DROP of Clenzoil at the toggle pivots and a drop on the sliding surfaces is all the extra lubrication needed. Then wipe the pistol off again.


That's it.


Mike



 
Unread 07-07-2001, 07:32 PM   #7
MK
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Default Re: "Shooters" Care and Maintenance

I forgot, take the firing pin out and treat it the same way.


Mike



 
Unread 07-07-2001, 07:50 PM   #8
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Default Re: "Shooters" Care and Maintenance

Just my opinion, but I wouldn't remove any pins other than the axel pin to remove the toggle assembly and the firing pin. The axel pin is much easier to remove if you will trip the sear when the receiver assembly is off the frame. Same thing putting the toggle assembly back in the receiver; trip the sear to relax the tension on the assembly. The pin will go in or out easily.



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Unread 07-07-2001, 08:24 PM   #9
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Default Message to DOK, re Shooter's Care

Dok,

I can't speak for other newbies, but I find this string useful and informative. In fact, I have copied all of the messages to a file on MAINTENANCE. This kind of file might be a useful part of the TECHNICAL INFORMATION section or the GENERAL INFORMATION section.

Just a thought.



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Unread 07-07-2001, 08:29 PM   #10
Luke
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Default Re: Message to DOK, re Shooter's Care

Duh . . . . . . just realized there is already a pretty good section there. I'll keep quiet or a while.



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Unread 07-08-2001, 10:41 AM   #11
Steve Lempitski
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Default Re: Message to DOK, re Shooter's Care

As we now have non corrosive ammo, you guys are going way too far in your cleaning. A little swabbing of the bore and a little gunslick, (or equivalent), on the slide rails is enough, followed by a little oil on the exterior where the gun has been handled. The only way I can think of having to go this far in a cleaning is if you are using some corrosive military surplus ammo, which was corrosive due to the mercury based priming mixture.



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Unread 07-08-2001, 11:44 AM   #12
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Default Re: Message to DOK, re Shooter's Care

Going too far? Really? I'm also a newbie, but I don't understand that notion. I fire non-corrosive ammo (almost exclusively 115 gr FMJ Winchester), but after 200-300 rounds, the actions look like they've been sprayed with tar,:-) I'm exaggerating, of course, but there is a very thick, heavy mixture of soot and lubrication. The face of the breechblock has a thich deposit of extra gunk from primers, and the firing pin and cavity seems to have an extra portion of goo. I know that if I didn't clean the weapon at this point it wouldn't affect functioning, but it seems that at some point --a few hundred rounds more--it would start to gum up things. I usually go ahead ahead and clean everything, including firing pin cavity, hold open, etc. every few hundred rounds on the theory that it's easier than waiting until everything is a gooey mess.



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Unread 07-08-2001, 01:42 PM   #13
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Default Re: Message to DOK, re Shooter's Care

If you want your firearms to continue to look like new, even though you use them, you HAVE to keep them clean.


I use the same basic procedure with every firearm I own.

Mausers, Enfields, Lugers, P.38s, Hi Powers, AK47s, whatever.


Take the thing as far apart as you can, using no tools or only a screwdriver for grip panels and other small easy to remove parts and clean the things thoroughly.


That way, even though your weapon sees a lot of use, it won't show it much if at all.


The LIBERAL use of Breakfree CLP or Clenzoil makes it much easier to keep your guns clean.


Also, spray brakecleaner, which is the same thing as Gunscrubber, will clean out ALL nooks and crannys and other tight places, keeping you from having to go too far in disassembly.


Mike





 
Unread 07-08-2001, 04:32 PM   #14
Steve Lempitski
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Default Re: Message to DOK, re Shooter's Care

To gunk up like that you must have excess grease or oil in the gun to begin with, that the powder fouling adheres to.



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Unread 07-08-2001, 04:44 PM   #15
MK
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Default Re: Message to DOK, re Shooter's Care

Nope, CLP or Clenzoil doesn't have that problem.


Look, if you can't tell that your gun gets dirty when you shoot it, I don't know what to tell you.


Mike



 
Unread 07-08-2001, 06:29 PM   #16
Dok
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Default NOW NOW Guys... Be Nice! >:( (EOM)

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Unread 07-08-2001, 11:29 PM   #17
Big Norm
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Default NOW NOW GENTLE PEOPLE

First of all, the original question was from two newbees who felt a little intimidated about stripping and cleaning their lugers. I made a suggestion that I thought would help them strip the gun without losing parts. I have nearly lost parts in carpeting when I first started and spent a lot of time looking before I found MOST of them. I wanted to help them avoid that sort of disaster.


Then people went off into never never land.


Let us remember, these guns are fifty to one hundred years old. My guess is that the breech block on MOST lugers have NEVER been disassembled unless there was a restoration. Who knows what lerks in the evil darkness of that area? How many people have ever taken the safety lever off? There could be E-Coli in there for all you know. That little, itsy bitsy pin in there can be lost very easily. And worse yet, it can be broken easily while attempting to re-install.


A while back, I heard rumors that the ejectors in the breech where breaking after all these years of usage. I have not found any substantation to those rumors. But what can it hurt to check it out? In the back of my brain it seems that I remember reading someplace that the 1900 luger had a problem in this area.


Finally, do you experinced lugerheads remember the first time that you took a luger apart? Remember how nervous you were? Now, its no big thing. Now there are two newbees who started this thread who feel a little nervous and we should try to come down to their level and help them until they get their confidence up. Remember too that they are not the only newbees who feel just as nervous and want to do the right thing. Try not to snow them with talk that might be too advanced for a beginner. Todays beginners are tomorrows serious collectors. They are the ones who will continue what we are doing now.

Love ya all,

Big Norm



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Unread 07-09-2001, 02:11 AM   #18
Steve
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Default Re: NOW NOW GENTLE PEOPLE

After reading this thread, I took my gun apart further than I have in the past and cleaned more nooks and crannies. After reassembling with a few drops of oil, I could feel the diference in how the parts moved when cycling by hand. It is bound to work better when I have a chance to shoot. Thank you from a newbie!



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Unread 07-09-2001, 09:07 AM   #19
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Default Re: NOW NOW GENTLE PEOPLE

I think it is great that the person that has never taken a Luger apart would get such great advice on completely disassembling their pistol, but by the same token they should be gently advised that they may end up with a cigar box full of parts that they have to have someone else put back together. That hardly constitutes never never land.



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Unread 07-09-2001, 11:57 AM   #20
Big Norm
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Default Re: NOW NOW GENTLE PEOPLE

Johnny,


I agree with you to a point. The original contribution to this thread was by two newbees who just wanted to talk to someone about basic cleaning of their luger. I remember how nervous I was the first time I did it alone. I remember how nervous I was the first time I did it at a gun show with the dealer looking over my shoulder. I remember jamming the firing pin into the housing and getting it stuck there and how embarrassed I was to run to a friend of mines house to unjam it for me. I remember how long I had to look for that little spring on the trigger that dropped on the floor. I remember unsucessfully looking for that little pin that holds the safety into the gun. I remember breaking that pin on a different gun while trying the re-install it.


I hate to use this phrase, but I felt their pain. But I knew that in time they will gain confidence and go further in stripping down a luger. I just wanted to put my feet in their shoes and help. But right now they just wanted to know the basics to help them build up their confidence.


When I said that some people went into never never land, I noticed that some people went beyond the basic cleaning and maybe beyond basic cleaning confidence level by NEW people. But thats OK. I found some of the cleaning hints to be helpful. I even copied one section to help me clean my deer rifle Remington 742. The barrels cone MUST be kept clean but its a bear to do a good job on. But some people went into a TOTAL breakdown of the luger. Some people took on an adversary tone as to why a luger should be cleaned beyond just basic cleaning of the bore and putting a film of oil on the gun.


I hope that this helps you understand my feelings as to why is said what I said. This forum has many different levels of lugerheads and sometimes to be more helpful we have to try to put ourselves in the other persons position. I would never have said the instructions that I did with, say HÃ?Â¥kan. He is clearly at a different level.


Now, if I could just find someone to help me strip down my Winchester model 94 for a total cleaning. MY confidence is really low. I got the books but there are too many parts.

Big Norm



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