Before shooting a P08 is there anything I should check in terms of springs or safety?

Thanks in advance

My grandfather gave me the one that he brought home, complete with the “spoils” paperwork. I cleaned it & took it straight to the range. There’s always the chance that I got lucky though. I would have it checked by someone familiar with them, if you have any doubts…

Disassemble, inspect, lube. Do a function check, check if safety works, feed a couple of magazines, (either do this outside or remove firing pin if using live ammo) clean and lube magazines. Look for the obvious cracks  ect. When chambering toggle should lock completely down. When shooting start with one round in the chamber. Fire, if it fires and ejects then put three rounds in the magazine, chamber, and fire. If there is a problem then you know its the magazine.

The above is good advice.  You won't know if there's any issues until you shoot it.  If you do have any issues and you think it's the magazines mec-gar makes very good aftermarket ones that work in just about all Lugers.   If you think it's a spring issue, there are spring kits you can buy.  Most of the springs are easy to change.  The mainspring is a bit harder but doable.

Depending on when the gun was made you may or may not be able to work the toggle with the safety on. The word "Gesichert" essentially translates to Safe.  So, if you can see the word, then the safety is on.

Put a layer of masking tape on the shoulders on the frame behind the toggles.  If the tape is cut when you fire a round, the ammunition is too high pressure for for the springs.

There is a tiny spring that holds the takedown lever in place, it's sort of a leaf spring. If it is broken like mine was, the takedown lever will move and the side plate will fall off when you shoot it. I was able to get a replacement from SARCO but it was a hand fit item. It's not hard to do but a little tedious to fit the spring. I would check that.