My Hackensack Luger (Stoeger .22 Luger)

[sigp220.45]

Little 12 year old me wanted one of these Stoeger Luger .22s with a pure passion back in 1971. I never bought one through the intervening centuries, til this one called out from the oddball pistol case at good ol’ Cabelas.

I thought they usually went for more, but my GI Joe discount ($11) and 32 bucks in points from buying other stuff I couldn’t live without put this one well under my “200 bucks and under just buy it” limit.

It looks to be in pretty good shape. No box or extra mag. They took the trigger lock off so I could give it a good look-see.

Its chilling in gun jail til Saturday. Anybody have one? I’ve heard they can be finicky.

I have room for one more picture, so here’s Tito, one of the shelter dogs I walked today. I’m not sure if he’s named after the vodka or the dictator.

 

[Rick Sanborn]

I’ve got two of those, 4” & 5”. I’ve yet to find reliable ammo they like but I bought them for much the same reason as you did.

 

[DWalt]

I owned one for awhile, traded it off around 5 years ago. I even used it some in competition many years ago. I can't say anything bad about it. There was a target version made, it had an adjustable rear sight.

 

[2152hq]

Pretty good pistols actually in the Plinker dept.
They held up much better than the Erma P08 22cal version of about the same time.

IIRC they made the aluminum frame version from about 1969 to 1979. Then Stoeger marketed a steel frame version from 1980 to 1985/86.

A couple different versions of the alloy frame gun. Just different bbl lenghts.
The Safety jumped from the Left side of the frame in their Left Handed version pistol.
The Safe and Fire (S & F) markings were already marked/cast on the frames on both sides of most offerings no matter which version the gun was sold as.

Checkered walnut grips were standard but only for a short time then the smooth walnut grips took over.

Most of these guns like HS ammo and then even are picky about certain brand(s), bullet shapes, etc.
The mfg'r stated the gun functioned with both StdVel & HS,, and likely some do just fine. But the majority are HS ammo eaters.
Usually some tweaking to the mag feed lips is in order. Sometimes the feed ramp can use a polishing. The chamber edge can also sometimes use a very slight smoothing of the very edge of it to avoid the round from hanging up on it.
More of a burnishing than anything else. No heavy metal removal or change in shape.

 

[arjay]

I bought one back in the 70s and traded it off in the 80s when I needed a new motorcycle lol.I honestly can’t remember if it was a good shooter or not

 

[glenwolde]

When I worked in a gun store in the late 70's we sold those for $99 in a case with a spare mag. We had a lot of customers that liked to remove the sear bar retaining screw. It's directly above the trigger on the left side. Don't. There's no reason too.

It holds the sear bar to a pin on the trigger and it is a holy bitch to get the sear bar back on when it falls off because the screw was removed. We built a tool to do it.

 

[Golddollar]

I owned one for awhile, traded it off around 5 years ago. I even used it some in competition many years ago. I can't say anything bad about it. There was a target version made, it had an adjustable rear sight.

I had one of those target models once upon a time. I sold it, probably during a period of unemployment. I wish I hadn't.

 

[jmiles1960]

I believe I have spare factory mag for your Stoeger Luger 22. PM if you're interested.

 

[DWalt]

I normally used CCI .22LR SV. I do not remember any reliability problems with mine.

 

[robertrwalsh]

Everything I have heard about them said the steel frame ones were pretty decent and the aluminum frame ones were sort-of not. Never shot one myself. Never owned one either. They are, however, cool.

 

[Timothy2700]

For Pete’s sake folks give Tito a little air time as well. My vote is he doesn’t have a clue about Yugoslavia but is clearly looking for a mellow dad and/or mom who likes the vodka and his company. Look at those eyes.
Hat’s off for giving Tito some quality time.

 

[sigp220.45]

For Pete’s sake folks give Tito a little air time as well. My vote is he doesn’t have a clue about Yugoslavia but is clearly looking for a mellow dad and/or mom who likes the vodka and his company. Look at those eyes.
Hat’s off for giving Tito some quality time.

He is the sweetest old boy. He’s on the books as a chocolate Lab. I think there is something else mixed in there, but he sure did love to fetch a ball. And he did something I almost never see in shelter dogs - he would set the ball down so I could toss it again.

 

[DWalt]

Everything I have heard about them said the steel frame ones were pretty decent and the aluminum frame ones were sort-of not. Never shot one myself. Never owned one either. They are, however, cool.

They are cool. I liked mine (which had the somewhat crude smooth wood grips and the aluminum alloy frame) just fine. But after not shooting it for many years I decided to trade it for a Charter Arms .44 Bulldog. Mine still had its original box but no instruction manual. I found one of those later. Although it resembled a Luger, mechanically it was a simple blowback with a fake stamped metal toggle which resembled that of the real Luger. But it looked good. I would buy another at the right price. For one season I used it for shooting 50' indoor Bullseye competition. The fixed sights were fortunately dead on center hold at 50', and it did a creditable job on the range. Trigger could have been better but I got used to it.

 

[robvious]

maybe Tito is just one of the Jackson Five?
who's a good boy?

 

[sigp220.45]

I picked up the Jersey Luger today. Its in excellent shape with very little wear.

While it is technically a real Luger, there are plenty of differences with a vintage centerfire 1920 .30 caliber.

Wednesday is range day so I’ll see then if it actually shoots.

 

[DWalt]

Technically it is indeed a real Luger, as Stoeger had copyrighted the Luger name.

 

[glenwolde]

Technically it is indeed a real Luger, as Stoeger had copyrighted the Luger name.

Yes, Stoeger bought the U.S. rights to the Luger name around 1923 when they became the U.S. importer. They slapped a trademark on the name. Trademarks can be lost but they don't expire automatically.

One of the conditions of maintaining them is use. Use it or lose it. I have speculated that one of the reasons they made the Hackensack .22 Luger was to keep their trademark active.

There was also the center-fire U.S. made American Eagle Lugers Steger sold. In this article they say the U.S. made ones were manufactured in Houston.

Pistole Parabellum

Then there's this:

GERMAN LUGER™ P08

Gotta be the same origin.

 

[Engine49guy]

Had one many years ago,
Iirc it was finicky and got traded off.
Just saw one for sale near Tampa in the black Stoeger box with several spare mags for $300.
On a side not still have a stainless Aimco luger in 9mm, mines pre "Luger" stamp.
Neat gun, gonna have to dig it out and shoot it soon.

 

[CajunBass]

I don't think I've ever even seen one, but most any 22 is "cool." Well done OP.

 

[sigp220.45]

I took the Jersey Luger to the range today. Following the usually flawless advice of the internet I stocked up on CCI Mini-mags as several sources (probably the same guy in his bathrobe with different user names) said it was the best round for this gun. Well, they all went off, but the toggle stopped halfway down on 3 or 4 out of every mag and had to be bopped into battery.

I had a box of Armscor HV hollowpoints and every one required bopping.

I rooted around in the detritus at the bottom of my range bag and came up with about 40 loose Remington Thunderbolts from a long-ago spilled bulk pack. 40 grain LRN, lightly coated with Cheeto dust and dog hair. They all worked perfectly, no toggle-bopping required. Hit dead on at the point of aim in neat 2-3” clusters at 20 yards.

If its gonna be picky about what it likes at least it likes the cheap stuff.

Even when it was being a little fussbudget this thing was an absolute delight to shoot. I’m glad I got it.

P.S. I walked dogs yesterday and sweet Tito was still there.