From: John De Armond
Subject: Re: 9MM ammo for a German lugar?
Organization: Dixie Communications Public Access.  The Mouth of the South.

erudnick@Pica.Army.Mil writes:

#Someone who used to be here on rec.guns sent me a personal note to
#the effect that a lot of Lugers used during WW2 had stiffer-than-
#usual recoil springs to accommodate the rather hot WW2 German ammo.
#Additionally a lot of Lugers were wartime guns, with perhaps less
#than ideal materials. These two factors IMHO contraindicate hot
#loads as a permanent fix, although it's a good thing to try for
#diagnosis of the problem.

#The only Luger I'd load hot regularly is a 1902 or 1920 carbine, but
#I still need my cars, so I don't have one yet :)

I have a pretty decent Lugar collection including an tanker's carbine :-)
My father started the collection by coming back from France in a body
cast :-( with a dozen or so lugars, including the carbine, tucked
away in it.  Many of my lugars are regular shooters.

While I don't disagree with the above, particularly the part about
substandard goods from the later years of the war, the biggest problem
I've ever had with poor feeding has been caused by rough chambers.
Since the lugar is essentially a blow-back mechanism, anything that
makes the shell casing grip the chamber walls more tightly will
affect extraction and cycling.  A lot of Lugars have, unfortunately,
not received the best of treatment and therefore the barrel and chamber
are corroded.

The solution in many cases is to polish the chamber.  I do so with
some crocus cloth wrapped around a dowel and driven by an electric
drill.  Properly done, this does not remove enough material to change
the dimentions of the chamber.  Still a good idea to check the
chamber with a headspace gauge and keep an eye out for backed out
primers and other headspace or large chamber indications.

John