So im having issues with my luger

Miller854

Miller854

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So I decided to throw down the money and buy my self a Luger. Great price tag and its a mismatched pistol that had a barrel liner installed to make it restricted. Upper looks to be refinished at some point and made in 1937 and the lower looks like its in its original condition but I have no idea when it was made and the toggle is from a completely different pistol as well. I took it out to shoot and I have 4 magazines for it and used them all but almost every round was either a stove pipe or the toggle wouldn't close fully. I do not mind putting in some work to get this pistol working properly but I would like to hear from other more experienced Luger owners what the problem is with my pistol.
 
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Well, welcome to Lugers.
I've read that a lot of the difficulty is the angle of the magazine in relation to the bore, notice that is is much greater...I know....duh.
The magazine has much greater pressure to ensure that the round gets chambered on the toggles closing action. I've read ( and am skeptical of all Luger theories ) that a lower powered round will cause the toggle to be slower and strip the round effectively from the magazine.
What kind of rounds are you using? Lugers can digest ' hot ' rounds, the action is quite robust.
Personally I tried reloading at different rates of energy and different OAL. Never did find the ' Magic bullet' , although I was a fan of the nickel plated rounds. More slippery IMO. And easier to differentiate the Luger loads from the rest.
And someone will declare BS of course. The only thing that you can believe when it comes to Lugers, is that when someone declares theirs works fine with various ammo...that's BS right there.
Or else they shoot it twice a year, of course it " never fails "...hard to fail (or win ), when you never play.
PM me if you want and I'll get you the title of an E-book that is pretty helpful IMO
 
My friend at the range brings his prohib 1942 fully matching black widow for me to shoot. I tried all sorts of ammo through that gun as well as my reloads. It functions flawlessly and very accurate. There is a reason why every part on Luger is numbered and matching from the factory. As soon as some mismatched parts installed, that Luger will malfunction unless they are properly fitted, by competent Luger gunsmith. Even then some parts will not seat or move properly as they are beyond tolerances and should be discarded.
If you invested 1000 in this gun, you probably will need another grand to fix it. Trade it or sell it and get matching unit if you need to have functional gun.
 
Thanks for the reply, and I was shooting 115 grain and 124 factory ammo from winchester and american eagle. The fit between the upper and lower was really tight when I got it but after fireing its a bit better. I dont know if thats because it was just slaped together parts from what seems to be three different guns or the way they are suposed to be like. Also thanks for the tip on the angle of the cartriges I will have to look but three of the magazines are of new manufacture but not mec-gar.
 
I suspect that the mismatched parts may be your problem.

Keep trying the gun and if it doesn't improve you may need to take it to a gunsmith to have the parts fitted.
 
gewehr76 said:
My friend at the range brings his prohib 1942 fully matching black widow for me to shoot. I tried all sorts of ammo through that gun as well as my reloads. It functions flawlessly and very accurate. There is a reason why every part on Luger is numbered and matching from the factory. As soon as some mismatched parts installed, that Luger will malfunction unless they are properly fitted, by competent Luger gunsmith. Even then some parts will not seat or move properly as they are beyond tolerances and should be discarded.
If you invested 1000 in this gun, you probably will need another grand to fix it. Trade it or sell it and get matching unit if you need to have functional gun.
Click to expand...

That would be my suggestion as well . I suspect that is why the pistol came up for sale in the first place....
 
I'd agree that the mismatched parts not fitting 100% being a likely cause although the mags could be a contributing factor as well. I have an original mag for mine and one new MecGar that I got from Marstar. While both seem to run well I do notice the spring in the OEM mag seems to be a fair bit stronger than the one in the new MecGar. I've been using 124gr S&B in mine. I've read that Lugers prefer European loads to the North American target 9mm.

FWIW mine is a 1915 DWM, all matching except for having been re-barreled to restricted length.
 
Being that I've had other folk PM me requesting the name of the E-book to help diagnose their Luger issues; I thought I'd volunteer it as a public service.
Buy the E-book 2011 Gun Digest and the article is " The Return of the Krieghoff Luger " It goes into depth as to why Luger's are as unreliable as they might seem.
I'm glad the the 'Black Widow' is flawless, but for the rest of the Lugers...this may help. Hope so anyhow. Don't give up to fast on it, typically Luger's are not reliable...just a fact. You may be able to diagnose it and enjoy it as it should be enjoyed.
Cheers
Tok
 
found mine 100% reliable if used with full power 115gn ammo, as they where issued with. most north american ammo is loaded to a lower pressure then the stuff from the other side of the pond. Personally i'd have rather carried a luger over an issue 1911, as even rack grade ones could shoot far more accurately. My 1939 will shoot one ragged hole at 15 yards, and everything in the black at 25, limit being my eye sight with the tiny ww2 sights.

I do find magazines make a huge difference, and none of the repro mags work as well as originals. And feed lip condition is paramount, if they release the round early, they go straight up and jam.
 
Ken Waters acknowledged that Lugers are wonderfully accurate but quite dependent on OAL and bullet nose shape to function properly. He swings just a tad bit of weight in the firearms world IIRC.
C & L, no offence intended but you actually acknowledged that they are not 100 % reliable...as magazines make a huge difference.
A Luger is stupid accurate, I agree. Wonderfully designed firearms, but they were a flawed design from the get go. The Luger ( and it's magazine of course ) was not designed for a 9 x 19, but rather the 30 caliber bottlenecked round. Bottlenecks I can believe work very well...9 x 19, not so much.
I was going to use mine in a run & gun. Worked great when I first got it ( Rose colored glasses...could be, lol), but after experiencing a randomly occurring tendency for FTF, it got shelved in favor of the Steyr-Hahn. I sure could have used the Lugers accuracy on the Clays...but it is an enigma to keep working. So it got shelved.
Good for showing off, not so good for really shooting it. Like a 200 round session, moving under the clock really shooting it
IMO of course
 
Well I have since posting here installed a new barrel from dlask and got two new mec gar magazines. It still has some issues in rounds being fed at to high and angle and slamming into the gap where the extractor fits or the toggle not fully closing. If anyone has some experience id love it if you could chime in and give me your opinion.
 
I've got a matching 1936 and it does work flawlessly, well almost, maybe had two stove pipes in the last three years. Not ammo sensitive, but seems to like the higher power factory ammo best for accuracy. It was in great shape when I got it but I did spend a lot of time stripping it down, cleaning, and polishing all the parts (if you haven't done all the cleaning and polishing, I would do that first before you spend more money on it) I don't use the original matching mag but use mecgar's which work well for me so if you can get a hold of one, try it. I also use 124gr most of the time with some 147's.
 
My matching restricted 1942 has had the occasional jam or stovepipe (maybe 3 or 4 over 800 rounds) but only when it got dirty and it was really cold at the range........like -30c. Kept clean with a good lubricant it runs like a top. It even ran cheap steel cased 115gr crap that wouldn't run in any other 9mm pistol I own. (Sig 250 and M&P gen 1)
I hope it doesnt cost you a fortune to get yours running smoothly. Might be cheaper to dump it and buy a matching example.
View attachment 138916
 
FTE
? Faulty ejector leaf spring - I had to bend mine very carefully to have mine eject properly
-you can try cycling a dummy round to see if it is an extractor, extractor spring, or ejector leaf spring

?faulty extractor spring....pretty easy swap and a cheap part

-if you manually cycle a dummy round reliably, then the issue is likely not with the extractor/ejector system and possibly due to under powered round relative to the mainspring...or some other issue i'm not thinking of

FTF
-either mag spring issue or possibly mainspring issue...or i guess some frame fitting issue I dont understand
-try using a new mag (mecgar) +/- high power spring
- try using a higher power wolf mainspring


Feel free to pm me for more info....if you are close to Kingston we can meet up if you like.

I dont claim to be an expert at all with these guns....the above is the process I went through to get my luger working (all matching but new restricted barrel)
 
Good morning gentlemen,
Just a guess.....weren't these pistols designed to use the same ammunition than the submachine guns ?
Hence use high pressure ammo ?
French pistols were designed that way, for the 9mm submachinegun ammo used was on the hot range.
 
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