Range report.

[76 VETTE]

Hi.
Yesterday I tried my P08 for the first time at the range. (Had already tried it at the gunstore prior to buying it)
While everybody at the gunclub was shooting their handguns at 15 yards, I immediately started out at 25 yards, the distance I'm most familiar with. (I'm new at this club; switching at the beginning of this year after 6 years at another club).
Already some eyebrows were frowned...... 25 yards? with THAT??

I had brought with me a box of Sellier&Bellot (S&B) 124 grs FMJ and S&B 140 grs FMJ (flatnose) Subsonic. The 124 grs are my favorites in my CZ 75.
A friend had handloaded some mild 9mm's for me, also 124grs FMJ's.

The 124 grs S&B's seem a little to hot for my Luger, although a lot of guys here in the Netherlands use them in their P08's. The handloaded rounds were indeed somewhat milder, but accuracy was not as good as with the 124 grs S&B's. With both sorts the pistol cycled flawlessly; no problem.

Then I tried the S&B 140 grs Sub-sonic's. The only experience I had with them is letting my friend try them first in his CZ75. Seemed very mild he said; so into the Luger they went....

What a surprise; very mild recoil and no trouble placing the hits 'on the black' of the target.
After 15 rounds I was able to produce what you can see in the picture; 5 shots in a 2" group. Single-handed and with my somewhat 'older' eyes (for the ones of you familiar with Mauser K98k sights; I had to replace mine with Mojo-sights because my eyes just weren't able to cope with the original sights anymore)
Even with my 80's-series Colt GoldCup NM I will have to try my very best to get the same result.



You will understand that I was impressed by the result of this first outing; so were a lot of fellow 'pistoleros' who were using the likes of Sig P226's, some Glock's, Colt Gold Cup and H&K USP. Not one was able to duplicate my score and they were all shooting at a distance of 15 yards, mostly using two hands as well. (Not a good sign; when the members of your club are shooting this bad, you'd better arange some training) The smile on my face even grew bigger when they gathered round to take a good look at my Luger. Although I'm no expert... I was at that moment. Cool.

Offcourse there is a (minor)downside to this succes; every now and then a round refused to chamber correctly. It was stripped from the magazine but got stuck; head sticking out pointing upwards. I think the flatpoint bullets are to blame, or the not so clean feeding ramp, or a combination of both. If it happened it was with the second round of the (new) magazine.
Not a big problem; I could live with that, but plan on solving it nevertheless. Just as I am planning on starting handloading even milder ammo. have experience handloading .45 ACP's and .357 magnums so finding the perfect round for this gun will be no problem.

So the first try-out was a great succes and I am confident that the results can only get better.

Greetings from Peet.

[Steinar]

Congratulations with your Luger Peet! Sounds like a keeper

I also find Lugers more accurate compared to other pistols. Then again.. I mostly shoot with Lugers, and is therefore most comfortable with it's grip angle. ..talking about the grip angle.. I think that's the reason why your flat nose bullets are jamming from time to time. personally I only use round nose in my Lugers, not flat nose or HP. Not that it eliminates my jam's, but it reduces them quite a bit. Good luck with it, and nice shooting btw!

[Vlim]

Peet,

Congrats. I agree that the flatnoses may be too short to cycle properly. Perhaps a bullet more close to the original trapezoid shape will handle better. OAL is the most important aspect.

I recently showed a 1963 Swiss military manual to some of our 'P210' shooters. It clearly showed that the Swiss Luger outperformed the P210 on several points. Loved to see the look on their faces

Another trick you can use with not-too-good eyesight ,which no other pistol can do:

Pull the pistol towards you, bending your shooting arm, thus reducing distance between sights and eye. You'll see that while using this stance you will be able to improve on your accuracy. There is no need to shoot the luger with a stretched arm. A caricature postcard made in Switzerland in the early 1900's shows Georg Luger in this shooting pose, the rear toggle of his pistol only inches away from his face.

Disadvantage: cartridges dump on your head and in your collar.

[Steinar]

Didn't know Georg Luger had a shooting posistion like that.. thank you for the new info G.van Vlimmeren! I'm willing to try anything to improve my shooting, so will give it a try next time myself! ..no extra points for style when it comes to shooting

Perhaps this Leutnant is not so 'far off' after all.. with his bended arm. His grip however is a different matter.

[76 VETTE]

Originally posted by G. van Vlimmeren
Pull the pistol towards you, bending your shooting arm, thus reducing distance between sights and eye......A caricature postcard .... shows Georg Luger in this shooting pose, the rear toggle of his pistol only inches away from his face.

Could very well work out fine; I'll try it next sunday at the range.

On the other side; it's not something you want to get used to; more conventional built pistols could surprise you bigtime, when the slide is coming backwards towards your face.

Last month I heard a policeman tell the story about a female student of the policeschool who held her Walther like that; the rear sight an inch or so from her face. Result; a trip to the hospital to get her right cheek stiched up. :icon501:

Peet.

[LugerVern]

Peet

Thatâ??s pretty good shooting!

Keep an eye on your ramps for excess ware and look at the back of your breechblock when you clean your gun for the same thing.

You can try polishing the ramp a little, most lugers are pretty well done but if you can see serrations this could be part of your problem. If the bullet encounters resistance as it rides up the ramp the rear of the bullet tends to get pushed down by the momentum of the breechblock this causes the tip to jump up and then jam your gun.

You could just shoot your gun more also, more fun, many guns that have not been shot for long times will work themselves out and start to work fine.

Vern

[Ron Smith]

Peet,

That's great! It's always nice to dispell the non-believers. Especially when it's in their face. In most cases I can shoot better with a hand gun than a rifle.

I had a S&W 640 2 1/4" barrel in .357. We were out shooting with a friend who didn't have much experience with hand guns. I took out the 640 and started aiming at a small flat rock about 4-5" in diameter, that was laying next to a logging landing (flat spot on top of a hill). It was about 100 yds away. He snickered and said "What, You think you can hit that rock from here?" After I hit it the 4th time, he just stood there with his mouth open.

I later sold the pistol to him at his insistance and at a good profit.

Ron

[Steinar]

Good to hear that you guys are recruiting new Luger shooters! It's not very often I get remarkable good series.. But the few times I do, there is never anyone around to witness it

A little trix about the K98 sights, wich also appear in various military instruction manuals, is to light a candle and use it to darken the sights.