P08 Lugers don't like hollowpoints and other false internet folklore on the P08

[Certaindeaf]

You just need to look around a little,I bought my 1916 DWM at the Portland gunshow for a little less than $1100,If you look around and are ok with a mismatched gun or one that has been refinished. Mine has a new barrel and has been reblued but it doesn't bother me, I bought it for the history and to shoot the crap out of it.

I hear ya. I'm more a $4-600 type a guy though, hence the Stoeger.

 

[The Heretic]

I would be happy if I could just get my replica to feed a full mag. It is fun to shoot, but it won't feed anything - holt, medium, cold, different mags. Maybe Velzey could make it work?

 

[Certaindeaf]

I would be happy if I could just get my replica to feed a full mag. It is fun to shoot, but it won't feed anything - holt, medium, cold, different mags. Maybe Velzey could make it work?

Try hotter ammo.

 

[The Heretic]

Try hotter ammo.

I did - the hottest I could find at the time - but I suppose I could try +P and +P+

 

[aksu747]

I did - the hottest I could find at the time - but I suppose I could try +P and +P+

You should,after making sure all the springs and such is in order,also try Mecgar P08 mags.
Usually if a P08 doesn't function it is magazine ,spring, or ammo related. Some ammo is too underpowered to work the action,such as Sig Sauer (expected better for the price and brand) 124 grain fmj,that was too underpowered to make my friends Taurus 9mm function or my P08. (Luckily I brought some other ammo that worked flawlessly)

No more Sig ammo for me though.

 

[Colts4me]

I did - the hottest I could find at the time - but I suppose I could try +P and +P+

Luger action requires a strong magazine spring, it's why the loading tool in the holster. A good magazine is difficult to load. Over time all the guns springs weaken and the gun will run with a weak magazine but if you change the toggle return spring to original then the magazine needs to have a heavy duty spring.

Lugers have a toggle action so there is no slide that slows down the action and allows the next round time to come up in the mag. When you start shooting lugers you must rethink how guns run, they are different.

 

[The Heretic]

Luger action requires a strong magazine spring, it's why the loading tool in the holster. A good magazine is difficult to load. Over time all the guns springs weaken and the gun will run with a weak magazine but if you change the toggle return spring to original then the magazine needs to have a heavy duty spring.

Lugers have a toggle action so there is no slide that slows down the action and allows the next round time to come up in the mag. When you start shooting lugers you must rethink how guns run, they are different.

It did not work from the beginning.

It is one of those stainless steel Mitchell replicas.

I have only put about 100 rounds thru it trying different ammo. I tried three different mags IIRC

I eventually gave up.

 

[Colts4me]

It did not work from the beginning.

It is one of those stainless steel Mitchell replicas.

I have only put about 100 rounds thru it trying different ammo. I tried three different mags IIRC

I eventually gave up.

Just opinion but it sounds like a timing problem. Lugers required lots of hand fitting and each part fitted to close tolerances. 30 luger or 9mm both worked well so if a copy isn't running it's probably not the ammo but the fit of the parts. Copies just look like a luger and a cheap price means they never did the fitting. You might someday get it running but the time and money wasted you could have bought a good shooter.

That is the fun of guns, get it to run and you will be happy with it. Right now I am working on a good copy of the BHP that doesn't run and its' fun working on it.

 

[tac]

I would be happy if I could just get my replica to feed a full mag. It is fun to shoot, but it won't feed anything - holt, medium, cold, different mags. Maybe Velzey could make it work?

The only P08 replica made was by the Mitchell company, and it was in stainless steel. Some shot well, others didn't. They folded.

Erma made two - the KGP38 in .38Colt, a 'kinda' Luger that actually wasn't too bad, looking something like a cut-down 'baby' Luger, and the awful-made-for Stoeger .22 version, with a tin toggle and a flyaway ejector....

Take your pick.

tac

 

[tac]

I know that none of you will listen to me, as I live here in UK where maybe ten people have a Luger, but I had mine from 1971 to 1996, and shot the snot out of them.

Over in USA, THE stuff they mostly like is the plain old white box 124gr stuff.

tac

 

[tac]

I did - the hottest I could find at the time - but I suppose I could try +P and +P+

Don't do it.

See my post about white box or Mitchell. If you have Mitchell and it doesn't shoot that, get rid of it.

tac

 

[41mag]

Mitchell company, and it was in stainless steel. Some shot well, others didn't. They folded.

that was true for the Mitchell High Standard and the Mitchell 1911 as well.

I haven't been around any actual P'08s just a couple clunky clones, one was Stoeger & the equally forgettable.

 

[The Heretic]

I got this years ago. It is a Mitchell but my understanding is that they were made by several different manufacturers.

I have not shot it in years and I don't want to sell it because I paid something like $600 for it and then they folded. I think Stoeger took them over but won't honor any kind of warranty/etc.

No one will pay me anywhere near what I paid for it, so I will just keep it until some gunsmith takes on the challenge. The money I paid for it is a sunk cost so I could either sell it at a severe loss or I could pay someone to make it work.

 

[41mag]

My interest in Mitchell was stimulated by their involvement with the High Standard copyright material.

There was at least 2 iterations in Texas of the 'Mitchell' company. One was better than the other, but my 'insider' source advises they both failed due to incompetent and flawed quality control issues.

 

[The Heretic]

I like it, it is fun to shoot until it jams, then it stops being fun - which is about 4 or 5 shots IIRC.

I have a thing for Lugers; when I was a kid on the farm we had a neighbor down the road with kids our age - they lived about a mile away. When they weren't doing their chores we would play WWII and they had this die cast zinc Luger that I adored.

So when Mitchell came out with the stainless shooter they sucked me in.

I guess I could go around mumbling 'pew' 'pew' - but it wouldn't be the same.

 

[Colts4me]

I like it, it is fun to shoot until it jams, then it stops being fun - which is about 4 or 5 shots IIRC.

I have a thing for Lugers; when I was a kid on the farm we had a neighbor down the road with kids our age - they lived about a mile away. When they weren't doing their chores we would play WWII and they had this die cast zinc Luger that I adored.

So when Mitchell came out with the stainless shooter they sucked me in.

I guess I could go around mumbling 'pew' 'pew' - but it wouldn't be the same.

"PEW PEW" doesn't cost anything

 

[The Heretic]

"PEW PEW" doesn't cost anything

 

[RickB]

Try hotter ammo.

Why would hot ammo help feeding? One of the great Luger myths is that they "need" hot ammo to function.

 

[Quartermaster]

This thread isn't going to change anyone's perception of the luger, good or bad. No one's going to rush out and buy one, or praise op for their *dilligent* soap boxing. What's the point of it?

 

[RickB]

This thread isn't going to change anyone's perception of the luger, good or bad. No one's going to rush out and buy one, or praise op for their *dilligent* soap boxing. What's the point of it?

Lugers are great guns, just like '63 Bugs are great cars; not a lot of people are going to run out and buy either.
Not sure that trying to help someone sort out a problem is "soap boxing"; advocating for what you think is a fix, or, against what someone else suggests, could be what we call "helpful".