P08 Luger Disassembly & Reassembly (Easy and Fast Step by Step Guide)

Hello and welcome to another take down video by Legacy Collectables. I'm Kurt. I'm going to walk you through taking apart a Luger pistol, also known as PO8.

Removal of Side Plate

Remove the magazine and make sure the safety is off. Then you want to use the recoil or the little bit of play you see here between slide and frame to push the slide back and while doing so, push the takedown lever down. Now that the takedown lever is in the down position, you can remove the side plate. Now that the side plate is removed, you can separate the slide and frame. There you go. You have a basic field stripe of your Luger pistol.

Further Strip the Slide

To further take down the slide of the Luger, you're going to need a screw driver or we like to use a Luger tool, Luger tools were issued with Lugers back in World War I and World War II by the German military to further strip the slide. You want to remove the rear toggle thing.

You can use your fingers and push the toggle pin from right to left to pin and come out of the left side of the gun. Now you have the toggle assembly separated from the slide of the gun.

Remove Firing Pin from Breech Block

The breech block is the end of the toggle assembly which holds the firing pin. Firing pin spring and firing pin retainer. Next, we're going to remove the firing pin from the breech block. To do so, we're going to need our Luger tool or a screwdriver if that's what you choose to use.

Push down the groove of the firing pin retainer.

Twist as you Push down

Twist as you push down and this will release the firing pin assembly. Be careful not to lose your retaining pen and spring when you do this, because sometimes the springs are really tight. Now you can remove your firing pin assembly. Note that this firing pin is correct for a World War 2 Luger because it's fluted. These are what we call the flutes or the grooves on the end of the firing pin.

World War 1 Lugers won't have this feature. Now our slide has been field stripped.

Putting a Luger back together

I showed you how to take it apart. Now let's get this Luger back together. Start with the firing pin. Make sure the groove on the side of the firing pin matches up with the groove on the side of the breech block using your Luger tool or a screwdriver. You want to push down on the groove of the retaining pen, push down on the spring so that it gets below the surface of the breech block and twist slightly so the retaining pin locks into place.

Retaining Pin needs to be Fully Rotated

So I also wanted to kind of take a step back here and make an important point. The retaining pin needs to be fully rotated so that it slightly snaps forward. Otherwise you won't be able to get your gun back together. Notice that the retaining pin is now vertical within the breech block.

Get Takedown Lever back Inside the Frame

Now that that's taken care of. Let me show you how to get the takedown lever back inside the frame. Getting this takedown lever back inside the frame of the gun is difficult, to say the least.

I found that it was easier to apply pressure to the bottom of the takedown lever and kind of use that leg of the takedown lever as leverage to pop it back into place. So you see their kind of used a little bit of torque from the leg to get the takedown back inside the frame.

Getting the Breech Block back into the Slide

So here we go, I'm putting the breech block back inside the slide of the gun. And you want to line up the holes on the back of the toggle assembly to the holes on the back of the slide.

We find it easier if you keep the ears of the toggle pin flush. That way it's easier to line up the holes and then the toggle pin should just fall right into place.

Upper Assembly Now Complete

OK. So now our upper assembly is completely together. We're ready to attach that to the frame of the gun.

Lining Up the Coupling Link (Trick)

It's important that the coupling link on the toggle assembly falls into the proper place on the frame of the gun. A little trick that we use is we turn the gun upside down.

And this way we can ensure that the coupling link falls into the proper place on the frame. You see there we got the coupling link in place and now we can complete attachment of the slide to the frame. Now you're almost done.

Feel the Recoil between Slide and Frame

To make sure that you've done it right so far. You should again feel that tension or recoil or play between the slide and the frame, put the side plate back into place by first tucking under the right edge of the side plate into the frame and then dropping it into place.

You want to push on the barrel of the gun again, creating that tension. And as you do so, you can push the takedown lever back into place.

Place Magazine Back

You can put the magazine back into the gun and now you've completed reassembly of your Luger pistol. This has been another takedown video by Legacy Collectibles.

You’re Done! Nice Work!

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