P08 Bullet help

Athrun[Zaft

Athrun[Zaft

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Oakville, Ontario
Hey there everyone,

I recently bought a real nice Luger, and I've been feeding her a steady diet of Winchester white box 115 grain ball ammunition, but it turns out she's a bit of a picky eater :p. I get quite a few failures to feed, and I was wondering if anyone knew of a more reliable brand of ammo. Failing that, what would be an appropriate COAL/bullet profile for handloading 9mm Luger, and where might these bullets be purchased?
 
Do remember that the 9mm Parabellum cartridge was introduced and issued with a TRUNCATED CONICAL bullet.

The common Round-nose was first issued late in 1915 following complaints by OUR side to the International Courts which accused Germany of violating the Hague Convention as regards expanding bullets for use against a Civilised Power. The charge was pure hokum but it kept Jerry from screaming too loud about the SOFT LEAD bullets in the .455.... which Our Guys insisted moved too slow to expand and hence did not violate the Convention.

The Germans replied with the redesigned RN bullet...... which has been giving headaches ever since.

Luger magazines were fitted to a particular gun at time of manufacture. If your mags are not numbered to that gun, inspect them to see what is where. Rounds should feed straight into the chamber with as little "jump" as possible.

Inspect your feed-lips carefully, as lots of problems can arise from the thin sheet-metal used to make these, especially after 70 or 95 years of use.

The late War-2 extruded mags are definitely the best. They are also expensive.

But before you start buying things, check the gun-mag combination over carefully and, if you are satisfied that it is okay, try different brands of ammo. US manufacturers tend to load the 9mm down a bit from the First World War specs.... and the Luger likes its dinner warm, although not too hot.

Sorry not to have a Magic Bullet, but that is the way it is.

Hope this is some help, anyway. Good luck!
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It would help if you would describe the failure to feed in detail.
For example is the next round jammed in some way, or is the toggle coming fully back and not ejecting the fired case cleanly.
One problem is that US ammunition was not powerful enough.
Submachine ammunition on the other hand is too powerful and will ruin your luger.
 
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She ejects fine, but the next cartridge doesn't want to feed. I've noticed two kinds of jams; one where the round goes too high and sticks out of the the opened toggle a ways, and another where the round jams into the chamber at the wrong angle. The magazine I'm using is a reproduction mec-gar model. Is there any way outside of casting to find these mysterious truncated cone bullets in the correct weight?
 
Post 2, Para 4: magazines.

FIRST thing you do is check to make certain that your Mag actually FITS your gun properly. A LOT of FTF are generated by mags not fitting correctly. DWM tried to minimise this by hand-fitting Mags to the guns. So we will attempt the same.

1. your Mag should lock up in the Gun as high as possible without touching the bottom of the Bolt.To TEST this, unload the gun and empty the Mag. Close the action of the gun. Now insert the Magazine into the Mag Well and slowly push it home. It will LOCK in place according to its PRESENT fitting. But is that HIGH ENOUGH? To check this, push UPWARD on the Magazine Base until the feed-lips of the Mag are felt to touch the bottom of the closed Bolt. There should be VERY LITTLE movement, a hair's-breadth at most. The MORE movement there is in this position, the greater the chance for a Jam.

2. Try a NUMBER of Mags until you find the tightest. This is the one to go for. If you can't source one that FITS, look for someone with a very light touch on the MIG and mod the one you have.

3. The correct TC bullet today is strictly a cast-your-own proposition, although Winchester loaded them into factory rounds until the early 1930s. MOST of the mouldmakers list a mould for the TC bullet and they, or something very like them, are commercially available at just about any place that handles handloading supplies. The LEE 90238 mould actually is very close to the original 1904 bullet in shape. Most shops handle the 90239, which is quite similar, in bulk boxes. Me, I'm getting a 90238 mould after I work through the rest of this carton of the others.

Hope this helps.

Good luck!
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Is there any way outside of casting to find these mysterious truncated cone bullets in the correct weight?[/QUOTE said:
The Winchester Ranger Law Enforcement line has a 147 grain truncated bullet cartridge. Don't recall what I paid but more than standard 9mm.
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