Odd Luger

[villiers]

I once translated a long report by a German gunsmith on the problems he encountered while attempting to get a .45 cal Luger to repeat. Apparently the .45 just does not provide sufficient energy to work the toggle action. The .45 cal Lugers delivered by DWM to the U.S. had to be fed with a specially loaded cartridge. Take a look at the Werle website mentioned above to see the video clip of his side loading .45 Luger. vAt least he´s got his to functiuon reliably.

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[Johnny Peppers]

The standard loading of the .45 ACP certainly contained sufficient energy to cycle the Luger toggle action. The ammunition used in the initial tests was standard Frankford Arsenal ball ammo loaded to a nominal 800 fps. The .45 ACP ammunition sent from Germany was loaded to a slower fps. In the tests Frankford ammunition was loaded to 10, 15, and 25 percent decreased pressure, and the pistol functioned perfectly. Most of the failures to feed involved the action not coming completely into battery with a new round. This happened with both the Frankford Arsenal ammunition as well as the Luger ammunition. Very little spring tension is remaining in the Luger action as the breech block moves completely into battery.
In the initial tests the Frankford Arsenal ammunition averaged 809 fps while the Luger ammunition averaged 763 fps.