Cocking problem?

[lugerholsterrepair]

Situation; mismatched .30 Luger with rough, repro? sideplate. Commercial DWM, no date. Shoots right on the money to point of aim but will not **** when a round is fired. Only cocks when the toggles are pulled back by hand..Weird huh?

Jerry Burney

[Hugh]

Jerry,

There's an easy fix for the problem you mention about cocking when hand operated and not cocking when fired. I have fixed a dozen of these.

[Ron Smith]

Hugh,

What's the fix? I have run into this problem with my .30 shooter on occaision.

Ron

[Hugh]

Ron,

It's a trade secret, if I tell you I'll have to kill you

Polish the angled edge of the trigger lever as shown in the picture. Stone the top edge of the sear bar button to a rounded or angled profile as shown in the picture. I have shown for comparsion a before and after trigger lever and a normal sear bar on the left with several modified sear bars on the right.

[lugerholsterrepair]

Hugh, Thanks for the tip! The spring plunger on the sear bar rotates...How is the angle to stay in any one place? Thanks, Jerry Burney

[Hugh]

Jerry,

It may move a little bit, but should not rotate very far. The pin holding it in should keep it from rotating very far as it fits in the slot pictured below. You just have to stone further around, like the one shown on the right end in my picture of the sear bars.

[lugerholsterrepair]

Hugh, Thanks! I was under the impression this plunger rotated but from your photo it is obvious it does not..It is one of the few parts on a Luger that I don't commonly take apart. Small pin.
I do appreciate this! I will give it a try. Jerry Burney

[Edward Tinker]

Made a sticky as a learning tool

[apis mellifera]

Maybe I'm asking a completely obvious question, but would/could the unmodified parts (those pictured above) cause a trigger to not be reset? I posted a question about this (see below, with updated info) and before I go whittling on these pieces, I want to be sure I understand how they interact with each other.

1. Insert loaded mag
2. Work action, chambering round
3. Pull trigger
4. Gun fires
5. Gun ejects spent casing
6. Feeds next round
7. Pull trigger, but nothing happens. The trigger hasn't reset.

If I start again at step 2, it follows the sequence again. Since the trigger is rest during the first part of toggle motion and the gun does eject and feed properly, I'm lost as to what is wrong. Also, if I dry fire it and work the action with the trigger held back, it will replicate the reset problem. Any suggestions on what to replace/fix?

Many Thanks,
Matt

[Hugh]

Matt,

Yes, the above modification should solve your problem. Before making the modifications, be sure that the small plunger in the front end of the sear bar is moving in & out freely, if this is true and the action is still not working properly, then make the modifications.

[hqbmw]

Hugh,

Thanks for the fix information. It's very helpful. My question is " How do these parts work together and what is the modification correcting?" I hate to sound technical, but if I know how a system works, I will know how to troubleshoot or repair it.

Dumb-founded

Jack Hiles
Mesa AZ

[John Sabato]

Get Gerard Henrotin's e-book on the Luger Mechanicals... it has very good explanations of the relationships between the parts and excellent graphic illustrations.

[Hugh]

Jack,
What John said!!!

Actually, what the mod is doing is allowing the button to slide under the trigger lever.

[lboos]

Matt, i had the same problem as you [1 thru 7] . i took it to a gun show and talked to a luger dealer and told him of the problem. when he looked at the firing pin he told me some one had been messing with it and it had slight file marks on one side of the steps on the pin. he took a firing out of one of his luger,s to test it in my gun and dry fired it. and you could the firing pin click ea. time. where before it only click,d the 1st time. i bought a used firing pin from another dealer. took it home and replaced it. it work,s fine now. sorry diden,t mean to ramble on. new to luger,s

[jonnyc]

OK, what to do if the fix above, bevelling the edges of the trigger lever and disconnector, don't seem to fix the problem?

[gt40mki]

THANK YOU...made this much easier than I had imagined on my great uncles wwII 1917 trophy..although my dad get a little uneasy when I brought out the sandpaper...

[Condition Yellow]

Hugh,

Thank you so much for this sticky. I received my first Luger three days ago. I took it out today and experienced the exact same problems discussed here (no reset of the trigger when either dry firing or shooting). I polished the two parts you suggested, although I had to do so and re-install three times before the problem disappeared. I can also both hear and feel the firing pin drop with more authority now than it did previously. Two thumbs way up!

How common of a problem is this?

[FNorm]

Thanks, Hugh. Your fix worked perfectly!

[JIMHAY97]

How do you get the trigger lever out of the side plate to polish it?

[jonnyc]

If your side plate is out, you rotate the lever pin to unlock it, then pull it out front to rear. Make sure you return the lever to the plate the same way it comes out.