Re: Luger firing pin

[Big Norm]

I agree that with a gun that is 60 to 100 years old and handled by any number of shooters with different shooting experience, anything can happen. Broken firing pins, cracked or worn extractors and so on and so on. But to have Handguns Magazine label Winchester FMJ 115g ammo as a culprit does not sound logical to me.


I recently took a 1917 artillery that I had just purchased to the range and saw that the gun would not fully **** after shooting. If I moved the toogle back about an eighth of an inch I could feel feel it ****. I knew the ammo was good so I figured that the gun needed a good cleaning and some oil. Part of the cleaning is to disassemble the toogle, clean everything including the inside of the firing pin casing and put fresh lubricant on the parts. But lo and behold, I discovered that someone had jammed the breech block end piece into the firing pin too far by about an eighth or so of an inch. I was surprised that the gun would fuction at all. But it did. It all caught me off guard and so I did not notice if a possible consequence would be the firing pin being pushed out too far and into the bullets primer.


I have played around with the gun since then by cocking and dry firing it and everything seems to work smoothly and the end piece seats properly after numerous cockings. But I have not test fired it yet. But many people, I am sure, will jam the breech block end piece too far into the firing pin or cockeyed, and things then just won't work right. Its an easy thing to do.


Now my Luger did fire under the adverse placing of the end piece. Maybe the firing pin did protrude out too far from the breech block and I was maybe lucky that the ammos primer was not punctured. Its something that I will have to watch the next time that I live fire that particular gun.


My suggestion to my listening audience, would be to remove the end piece, carefully. (the firing pin spring could cause the end piece to shoot out and fly ANYWHERE AND FAR). Then clean the inside of the firing pins casing. And then apply a light coat of teflon spray into the firing pins casing. Then reassemble. Don't force the end piece into place. It should twist easily. I want to emphasis to be careful in disassembly and reassembly of the end piece because the spring can cause the end piece to fly away. I got careless and now have an end piece hiding from me someplace in my living room to prove it.

Big Norm