Seeking Help on Jamming Luger

[Drakejake]

Today I finally got my Luger back together after replacing a tiny broken spring. Out at the range I continued to have the problem which had developed before it broke: feed jams and failures of the toggle to strip a round from the mag. Today I had this problem with various mags, new and old, and four kinds of 9MM ammo. My thought is that the pistol is not fully cycling, i.e., the toggle is not going back far enough. Sometimes it goes back far enough to allow the front of the round to come up but the bolt/toggle blocks the rear of the round. On other firings, the cycle is so short that the bolt/toggle does not clear the round at all and it does not move up from the mag. Any suggestions? I was trying some +P ammo when the spring under the takedown lever broke. Should I consider using a weaker recoil spring or stronger ammo?

Thanks,

Drakejake

 

[dfariswheel]

First give the entire gun a GOOD cleaning and lubrication. Clean and lightly lube the magazine too.
When cleaning, scrub the chamber thoroughly.

Think it's clean? Clean it again anyway.

After cleaning, inspect the chamber for pitting, corrosion, rings, or anything else that might be in there.

Replace the mainspring with a STOCK strength spring. The Luger may malf if the spring is too weak OR too strong. NO "extra power" springs, and no weaker springs.

Try different ammo.

Try a different magazine. Failures to feed are very often magazine related.
Most available Luger magazines are either clapped-out old military issue, or modern replacements that were junk when brand new.

In the Luger as in most auto's the prime causes of stoppages are:
Dirt/lack of lube.
Ammo THAT specific gun just doesn't "like".
Bad magazines.
Springs too weak or too strong.

Last, in older guns like the Luger, it's possible it's just badly worn.

 

[wally]

Haven't shot my Luger in a long time but when I did it needed hot ammo to function which didn't make me want to shoot a 40+ year old gun all that much.

If I recall PMC was about the only factory load back then that was reliable in it, and my reloads needed to be significantly hotter than what I was typically shooting in my 9mm guns at the time.

--wally.

 

[Onmilo]

I haven't had a Luger in quite a while, need another one, can't afford it right now, but here are some suggestions.
1 Lubricate with grease, not oil. I like Tetra gun grease.
2 Buy a MecGar new manufacture replacement magazine.
MecGar produces an excellent replacement magazine that is designed to feed reliably in all the myraids of different Lugers on planet earth.
They really work, they just aren't 'original'.
3 GECO 9mm 124 grain FMJ ammunition.
This stuff is still available from several sources.
It is full power, German made, non-corrosive, and inexpensive.
This or Fiocchi 115 FMJ are the two best choices for Luger ammunition going today.HTH

 

[Drakejake]

Onmillo,

I have a number of the Mec-Gar mags for the Luger and they jam just like the others. By the way, I am not too strong on them because the plastic bottom piece on one of them broke for no apparent reason and I have heard another report of the same thing happening. One of the brands of ammo I used was Fiocchi and it did not do better than the others. The only ammo that stood out a bit was Blazer with the aluminum case. It did not jam as often as the Win, Rem, etc. It is lighter than standard ammo and might have risen from the mag faster (but I doubt whether that is the reason). I may have to try the S&B since several people have recommended it. I have ordered replacement mag and recoil springs from Wolff.

Drakejake

 

[Walt Sherrill]

The Luger I had didn't require hot ammo, but it sure needed good mags. I had to go through a number of them until I finally found some that worked properly. When I did, the feed problems went away. (A couple of the good ones were Mec-Gar... and one "original" mag from 1938.)

 

[Deles136]

When I got my Luger I did a very good cleaning and ordered stock springs from Wolff. The pistol now works well but some mags are a problem. I need to shoot some more before I have an opinion about ammo.

 

[wally]

The Luger I had didn't require hot ammo, but it sure needed good mags. I had to go through a number of them until I finally found some that worked properly. When I did, the feed problems went away. (A couple of the good ones were Mec-Gar... and one "original" mag from 1938.)

He said it seemed like the toggle wasn't comming back enough to pick up the next round. Is it closing on an empty chamber? My WaltherP22 will do this a lot with some recent lots Federal Champion ammo, switching to Remington Golden bullet cures the problem.

He said Fiocchi didn't seem to help, and he says he's tried new Mec-Gar mags so maybe he's got multiple problems. Maybe posting a photo of the failures would let us offer more specific clues.

--wally.

 

[StrikeEagle]

Additional help might be found at:

http://www.lugerforum.com/

 

[Onmilo]

I am not too big on the plastic bases on Mec-Gars but that is easiliy rectified with replacement wood bottoms from SARCO.
I have never had a plastic bottom break either and they worked flawlessly in the couple of Lugers I had pass my way.
I still have my Mec-Gars stored and waiting for another Luger.
I have to agree that this particular pistol has multiple problems such as piece part put together, improper fitting or improper springs.

A gunsmith needs to look at this one, the answers won't be found here.

 

[Drakejake]

Yesterday I received replacement recoil and mag springs from Wolff (fast service). I despaired of being able to insert the Wolff recoil spring and decided to cut one coil off of the spring that was in the Luger when I bought it. With difficulty, I managed to reinstall this modified spring. I also replaced one mag spring with a stronger one from Wolff. I will soon go out to the range with an original Mec Gar mag and one with the stronger spring and see what happens.

As I stated, I had the same problem with an Automag in .22 mag. The slide was not stripping the next round. With the help of friends, I determined that the pistol needed to use stronger ammo. With this ammo, the pistol worked fine. The weaker ammo was not forcing the slide to cycle completely. The slide was not going back far enough to allow the next round to clear the mag and be picked up. Because I do not want to use hotter ammo in this old pistol, I have decided to try a weaker recoil spring. I busted the takedown spring when I shot two or three rounds of +P in the Luger some months ago.

Thanks for the help.

Drakejake

 

[StrikeEagle]

Hello Drakejake!

Somehow I'm uneasy about cutting coils off springs, but I hope it works for you. But ya know... my experience with Lugers is that they're like fine instruments of some sort. And they respond to the light touch... the RIGHT light touch.

If normal fixes like springs, magazines, ammo don't work... it may be worth sending your gun to a Luger specialist. Not just a 'gunsmith' but a LUGER gunsmith. Most any Luger is worth decent money these days... worth good care.

And I do very much suggest you try the Luger Forum I mentioned earlier. Those guys know and love their Lugers.

Please do let us know how this shakes down for you!

StrikeEagle

 

[Drakejake]

See my range report under another heading. Cutting one coil off the recoil spring seems to have done the job. I used six mags with no jams. I did have jams with two other mags but I can live with that.

Drakejake