Erfurt Luger Question.

I bought an Erfurt at the K.C. Show and noticed that the clip is extremely hard to remove and replace. Anyone know why this would be so? The clip looks good and is Erfurt proffed.The slide does also stay open with an empty clip. Is it a Quality factor? the Gun is a strong 98%. Any help would be appreciated! Anybody else had this problem? Thanks in advance!


Tim

I have one magazine that will work in my Erfurt Artillery and nothing else I have, yet the other magazines will work in my arty.


On a side note, I have two Nambu (Type 14) magazines and one works well, the 2nd I picked up later will not go into the magazine well without force.


Ed

I recently bought an Erfurt on which the mag would not drop free on pushing the mag release. It was binding about a half inch down from the top of the mag. It did not bind until that part of the mag tried to pass through the lower frame near the grip screws. Apparently someone had expanded the width of the mag, maybe in an effort to improve feeding of the last couple of rounds from the mag? Perhaps actually caused by a weak mag spring? Anyway, a little careful squeezing in a vice padded with fiberboard restored the original dimensions and the original function. The mag walls simply need to be narrow enough not to drag on the frame but wide enough not to drag on the cartridges. This was fortunately a quick fix on my mag but could be more difficult to achieve on some other damaged or "owner improved" mags.

[John Sabato]

With some old wooden grips where the screws have been overtightened and subsequently compressed the wood under the screw, the screw thread shaft can protrude into the magazine well and can hinder magazine movement...


-John

Both John and Bill have good possible solutions to your problem. This is not exclusively a Luger problem. Even on much more modern pistols, I quite often have to "reform" mag tubes, so that they will not drag, when going in or out of the frame. Tom h.

[BILL]

Some magazines are just not 'true' after shooting, loading/unloading, years of getting pounded around. These can be troublesome to fix but if you have a good solid magazine that works properly and a micrometer you can gently and gradually adjust the dimensions of the WWI type magazines. I have had some success at this but I also have several magazines that are 'retired' due to their out of tolerance specs.

The clip works in my 1939 42 code. upon inspecting the inside of the grips, I can see where the magazine follower botton is creating the slightest bit of friction. I tried another mag in the gun and it also goes in slow, albiet a tiny bit better. just something I'll have to live with, as I don't intend on shooting it much and don't want to alter an all original(except Magazine) gun. thanks for all your help guys.


Tim

[Orv Reichert]

I once saw an original armorer's luger mag tool. it was steel and slightly ovesized..[a 'mandrel' I think he called it.]


You shoved it into the mag after removing the base..it cleaned up the little dings and such..and you could beat on it, too.


Maybe someone needs to turn out such an item?..could be a market for such an item?


Orv Reichert