DWM Malfunction. Help!

wyowillys46

Took apart a luger tonight and had a good look, a few suggestions for you.

1 Have you inspected the flat sear bar spring that holds tension on the sear bar for a break or loss of resiliency, as when toggle is pulled back to chamber a round the searbar moves inward due to pressure from the searbar spring causing the firing pin lug to engage against the searbar thus holding the firing pin spring under tension. Next the toggle flattens out and ready's the action prior to the trigger being pulled.

2 You may also wish to check the end of the curled up portion of the searbar spring to see if it is catching the rear of the searbar.

3 Firing takes place when you pull the trigger causing the searbar to move away from the slide releasing the firing pin to move forward against the cartridge.

4 The firing pin spring retainer holding the firing pin and spring in the breechblock turns 90 degree only and should lock in position unless worn out or damaged by turning the wrong way. Clockwise is the proper way to lock the firing spring pin retainer into the breechblock
and counter clockwise to remove.

5 Very important that you fully understand the action of the luger and please consult a gunsmith before proceeding with any of my suggestions as I do not wish any harm to come to you if something goes wrong.

6 Hope this info assist's you in your problems

Your description of the problem sounds like the firing pin is not able to move back when it contacts the sear surface, and that would explain why the bolt only goes into battery when you pull the trigger. The guide cannot work its way loose unless something is drastically wrong, and in the action, if the guide is not in position, some damage would probably occur, because there is no extra room behind it when the toggle is slammed all the way back in normal recoil. I can imagine the last shot before failure would have seen something get damaged, with the guide coming or being out of place.
Somehow the firing pin spring guide's shaft may be offset in the well, not centered, but against the side, and blocking the rear of the firing pin. The fact that you found the guide out of place suggests that something is not right in there, either the back lip of the pin tunnel keyway may be bungled, or the pin has something foreign in there with it jamming it, or the guide has its key worn down, etc. Check the inside of the frame where the back of the bolt / firing pin spring guide make contact upon full recoil, for a possible clue. Be sure there is nothing else in the well except the firing pin, spring, and guide. Before you assemble the toggle train with bolt into the receiver, check that the firing pin is free to be pushed back onto its spring, so that it is able to be "cocked".

The Luger action is easier to view, understand, and troubleshoot than almost any other gun. The Luger action is mostly linear, and right-angular, in contrast to the compound rotational action and camming of trigger and hammer which is usually hidden inside the lower frame of typical semi-automatics.