1912 DWM Luger

[JohnLizCas]

Good Morning,
Last night I took it to the range to shoot. Made sure I cleaned and oiled it beforehand.
I took two relatively new Mec-Gar mags designed for the P-08 along and used them.
I had many stovepipes and failures to feed also slide failed to lock back on last round.
Used both new and reloaded ammo.
Anybody have any ideas of what could be going on?

 

[James K]

Not even German magazines made for the P.08 will work all the time. Failure to lock back, though, means too weak ammunition.

You don't say what factory ammo you had; not all 9mm factory ammo is created equal and not all will work reliably in the Luger. Oddly enough, some European surplus 9mm won't work, but American ammo (Remington or Winchester), supposedly too weak, often works very well.

Can you get better magazines? Originals won't be cheap, but they should be better than the ones you are using.

Jim

 

[Jim Watson]

Many will say that US 9mm is loaded too lightly to function a Luger. I say that the original 1903 German ammunition was a 123 grain bullet at 1040 or 1090 fps which is sure not "hot." As one experienced source said, an overloaded Luger will malfunction in apparently the same way as an underloaded one.

One thing that helps a Luger, other than good magazines, is LONG loaded ammunition. A roundnose right at the SAAMI maximum length is a good place to start. From there out to the longest that the magazine will accept.