Looking at a Luger ... I know little.

[Waveski]

Pa Frank - Yes , I test fired with 115 gr. However , let's keep in mind the fact that I and others we unable to lock the toggle back (open) manually.

So here's what I think : I was excited to find an older Luger right there in my LGS , owned by a guy I can deal with. The price would have been scraping the shooter ceiling (850 ish) , but having it in hand rather than on a brokerage site helped me justify that. Now that I have learned of the need for repair , I get the gut feeling that the deal just isn't happening.

The world is full of shooter grade Lugers. Time to step back and reassess.

Thank you all for your input.

 

[RecoilRob]

The early Lugers did not have a magazine hold open....was introduced about 1914 and most guns were returned to be retrofitted but some were not. That pistol being mismatched might mean it doesn't have the latch installed, and if it's actually a 1917 frame it should be simple to install one if missing. I think. The latch could also be gummed up and might work OK after a good cleaning.

I use only cast 147's (that weight an actual 154'ish) in my 1916 Artillery and it functions 100% with them. Heavy bullets offer more momentum which is what actually drives the action and with fresh springs I'm not sure if mine would function with 115's.

 

[JT-AR-MG42]

I and others we unable to lock the toggle back (open) manually

A good cleaning should solve it.
That's better than a quirk of one of my Lugers.

I've been lucky and all three of my WWII Lugers are matching, but with only one magazine each.
Two are matched with the spare magazine and one, a 1937, with the primary magazine.

When I fire the 1937 with the original magazine, the toggle locks back with one round remaining in the magazine every time.
A pull to the toggle releases it to chamber and fire the last round, but the quirk is that the gun
works flawlessly with any other magazine.
And to add to it, the magazine from the 1937 gun feeds and functions fine in both of the other Lugers.

So much for matching meaning a thing! LOL

JT

 

[Pilot]

I have a shooter grade Luger, it is a 1941 Mauser that came back re-blued from Russia. It retains all the Nazi markings, and it a very accurate, and reliable shooter. I guess I got lucky, but in the 23 years I've owned it, it has never hiccupped even on my reloads whether they be 115 grain, or 124 grain. Leads, hollow points, everything feeds in this gun, even my light target loads.

 

[Glockula]

I got my 1917 erfurt 5 years ago. It is all matching but does not have all of the correct straw parts. It is amazing to hold it and think what it would have felt like carrying in WWI. I am a fan of Imperial Luger and I hope you can haggle this one free.

 

[Clark]

I got a 1917 Luger in 2013.
One of my father's artillery designs was a toggle action, like a Luger.
My father never made any money offering gun designs to Rock Island Arsenal.
The money was in responding of RFQs [request for quotation] from Detroit Arsenal.
A generation later I learned the money was in RFQs for F-16 electronics.
There was no money in the toggle, but it was interesting.