HOLD OPEN LATCH WITH SPRING for P 08

[DaveN]

Story: discovered P08 missing Hold open latch and spring (HOLwS).
Found one ordered one it arrived.
Only lifts the latch about half way...not enough to engage bolt when mag empty.
Put HOLwS from friends P08 and it works on mine and mine not on his.
I fiddled with the spring and got the lift I needed and it worked.
But now the spring was too loose.
When I tried tightening the curled part on the spring it snapped.
Hence 2 more springs are on the way.
Just a note;the grove between the latch and the spring I noticed is 3mm wider(7mm) then the original part (4-4.5mm) and thought that could be the cause?

Can anyone draw any conclusions?

[Johnny Peppers]

Have you tried a different magazine? The magazine follower button lifts the hold open when the last shell is fired and the follower is all the way to the top. While Luger parts are mostly interchangeable, they are not entirely interchangeable. If the magazine is not latching far enough up, it isn't lifting the hold open far enough to work. Also try putting upward pressure on the bottom of the magazine to see if it will then work. You can do this by removing the barrel/receiver assembly and observing the hold open to see if pushing the magazine up then works.
I have one WWI DWM that the hold open won't let the toggle assembly lock back, but when the magazine is pushed up, it works. It is a non-matching magazine, came with the pistol, and looks good even though it doesn't function correctly.

[DaveN]

Thanks JP. I did try that and one of my friends actually pushed it too far and I think that's why the spring broke when I bent it back at the curled part of it. The button on the WWII mag that it came with has been filed or ground down about 1/4 so only 3/4 is pushing up. That would most likely be the problem. I'll play with the mag when I get the new spring. ~dave

Just a thought ........ I tried it with the slide removed. That other mag did work when I put it back together but then I tweaked the spring back and it broke. That other mag does not fit the mag well very good (too tight) so I may see about adding some metal to the button on the mag I have.

[Johnny Peppers]

Dave,
If the magazine it won't work with is the one with the button filed down, that is the problem. I checked several magazines, and the magazine button seems to have a nominal diameter of 0.349 to 0.353 (don't have a metric dial caliper with a fresh battery).
The spring keeps the hold open down, and would not have any effect on the hold open not coming up far enough.

[DaveN]

Yes it is coming clear to me now. Got the spring today and hope to remedy the situation soon.

[Johnny Peppers]

It is not the checkered area of the button that engages the hold open, but the larger diameter lower part of the button. The original Luger magazines did not have the raised area, and were called "flat button". For a later magazine to work in one of the early Lugers, the frame had to be relieved to allow the raised area to pass through into the frame. The full button was checkered then, but were a pain to load.

[DaveN]

JP, so what your saying is I would be better off finding an older mag as the four I have access to are WWII (2) or WWII (2)replicas .

[Johnny Peppers]

JP, so what your saying is I would be better off finding an older mag as the four I have access to are WWII (2) or WWII (2)replicas .

No. The later magazines are fine as long as the follower button has not been modified. If the diameter of the button is within the measurements I gave, it should work fine if the magazine latches up properly in the frame. As far as the repros, some work fine while others don't, as quality is good on some, questionable on others.
The early magazines are scarce as hen's teeth, and very pricey as they were used only in the first 900 or so Lugers.

[DaveN]

JP, I got a new spring and the only way it works is if I hold the mag in tight. But my friends does not work in mine either (though I did not try holding his mag tight for some reason). He seems to think it is internal with the gun itself. (mag catch) the mag button measurement is .333 and that's a guess as my caliper needs a battery too. aprox. 1/3 between 3and 4.

[Johnny Peppers]

Dave,
I still say it is the magazine rather than an internal problem, and unless someone has modified the mag catch, there isn't anything you can do there. Here is a picture of my LP08 that won't lock back with this particular magazine. You can see how much it likes fitting flush, and it only takes that amount to make it lock back.