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STENDA - - - stove pipes

GreyEagle
I have a STENDA acquired by right of passage - it was Grandma's bar gun from WAYYYYYYYyyy back in the day.

The recoil spring is sort of contorted, as is the firing pin spring.

This being a 'bar gun' I am guessing that it was in battery 100% of the time.

I took it out when my dad gave it to me - and when I fired it with FIOCCHI 32 auto / acp ammo it would fire once then jam with the empty case facing outwards.

The magazine is stamped MAUSER - - - and may not be the correct mag (?) for this piece.

Manual functioning also causes jams which include the empty not clearing and the new round not being chambered as a result.

I picked up an e-Gun Parts after market magazine, but have not tried it out in function fire.

Manually, it seems to feed - - -

I'm still leaning towards replacing the springs.

BUT - that is proving difficult / unless I get some BROWNELLS kits and have a go at it.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance!
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3 comments

Date Votes
  • rufe-snow
    Your pistol dates to just after the First World War, early to mid 20's. The failure you describe seems to be either, underpowered ammo, recoil spring to heavy, or dirty pistol that hasn't been cleaned in years? The Mauser mag, might be the cause of the problem also?

    I would clean and lube the pistol, very throughly and then try the new mag. To see if function improves. Not much you can do about the ammo, at this late date. The older European ammo the pistol was designed for, might have been hotter then the lawyer proof stuff thats on the market nowadays?
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  • beantownshootah
    Good thing your Grandma didn't have to shoot it!

    If you can't get the rounds to consistently cycle manually working the action sharply, then there is no way your gun is going to be able to do that when shooting.

    That's not an ammo problem, its a gun problem.

    Likewise, a weak mainspring shouldn't prevent you from cycling rounds manually, though if badly kinked it might prevent the slide from retracting all the way, and that could certainly affect reliability.

    Can you retract the slide all the way to the rear?

    Also, obviously, while a bad firing pin spring might prevent you from setting off chambered rounds, this also shouldn't affect extraction.

    I think a bad/wrong magazine is a fairly likely culprit for consistent feeding/loading malfunctions. Subtle alterations in lip angle can make a pretty big difference in reliability.

    So the first thing I'd try (since its so easy) is to just try the new appropriate magazine you have. Load the mag and see if you can get the rounds to cycle manually (keeping muzzle in safe direction, and finger OFF trigger!).

    Are the rounds chambering right? If so, the mag is probably OK, even if they won't extract properly.

    If this helps, THEN try shooting a few.

    Next thing to do is to break the gun down and clean it thoroughly, paying careful attention to the extractor, checking for dirt, corrosion, bending, etc. Re-assemble, then try manually cycling rounds again. If the extractor is bent, worn, or otherwise mangled, replacing it could fix your problem. You can also watch to see if the extractor will "grab" and toss a spent case.
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  • GreyEagle
    Thanks for the input!
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