I just took my new Smith and Wesson Walther PPK .380 out to the range today to try it out. Mind you, this gun was made only 17 days ago, and I bought it new from Davidson's to get the lifetime replacement warrenty. I fired 100 rounds through it, 50 American Eagle FMJ, and 50 rounds of Speer Gold Dot JHP's. Out of the 100 rounds I fired, maybe 7-8 of them had FTF's, and surprisingly it had the most trouble with the FMJ. I talked to another Walther lover after I was done shooting and he told me he had many PPKs and that they all need a break-in period of about 500-1000 rounds. My question: Should I send back the PPK and get a brand new one costing me no money, or should I fire more rounds through it and see if it gets more reliable? I'd love to hear experiences from any other PPK or PPK/S owners out there.
First range trip with PPK
- Thread starter P99AS9
- Start date
Six Shooter Steve
New member
Dont send it back keep shootin it. you have heard correct, alot of PPK's have a very tight action and need to be broken in. In my expieriences with the ones I have had a few hundred rounds seem to do the trick. Congrats on the new piece, they are fine guns
Quality control
I bought a PK380 last week for the wife - she likes the P22 she shoots now.
When I got it home and took it apart for cleaning I noticed a couple of things:
1) The exterior of the barrel looked like it had already had a couple hundred rounds through it - blueing scraped up / scratched
2) left side of the chamber looked like it had been filed down - and they left it pretty rough
So I'm trying to make the same decision: Send it back (worried about getting a lemon they had to "make"work) or shoot and see what happens? How did your's come out of the box?
I bought a PK380 last week for the wife - she likes the P22 she shoots now.
When I got it home and took it apart for cleaning I noticed a couple of things:
1) The exterior of the barrel looked like it had already had a couple hundred rounds through it - blueing scraped up / scratched
2) left side of the chamber looked like it had been filed down - and they left it pretty rough
So I'm trying to make the same decision: Send it back (worried about getting a lemon they had to "make"work) or shoot and see what happens? How did your's come out of the box?
Six Shooter Steve
New member
Boy I would be a liitle concerned about that myself JD. I havent dealt with the PK380 before so dont know the quality on those. I do have a P22, and G22 of walther and they are of pretty good quality. The above gun bein a PPK oldschool design, they are a tank, and will last a long time. If your gun was supposed to be nib, I would be talkin to the shop I got it from.
Six Shooter Steve
New member
Did ya get the engraved model with the rosewood grips? Ahh I have one and its a dream to shoot! Good ole PPK's, hard to beat!
HisSoldier
New member
What kind of failures were they? I was getting three point jams with mine, so I blended in the point where the barrel ramp enters the chamber, just a tiny radius did it. No more failures.
Walther PPK/S
P99AS
I bought a new S & W PPK/S in Feb of 09 and had similar results as you. No matter what I did or ammo I shot I had a terrible time with failures to feed. My only rememdy was to finally sell it. I pity the poor sole who bought it. What a shame! It was very accurate when working. In .380 I now shoot a Keltec P3AT and have had no problems but the Keltec is definitely not a range gun like the Walther was. If you want to stick with a .380 try a Bersa Thunder .380. I've shot them and they are a great deal without all the problems. Nowadays I mostly shoot 1911 .45's.
Hal
P99AS
I bought a new S & W PPK/S in Feb of 09 and had similar results as you. No matter what I did or ammo I shot I had a terrible time with failures to feed. My only rememdy was to finally sell it. I pity the poor sole who bought it. What a shame! It was very accurate when working. In .380 I now shoot a Keltec P3AT and have had no problems but the Keltec is definitely not a range gun like the Walther was. If you want to stick with a .380 try a Bersa Thunder .380. I've shot them and they are a great deal without all the problems. Nowadays I mostly shoot 1911 .45's.
Hal
I have an Interarms vintage PPKS, and have had FTF issues with a few FTE's> Just this morning, I found the safety lever was dropping down into all, or partial safety position during fire, locking up the entire mechanism. I too graduated the feed ramp and chamber where they meet, and polished the ramp and chamber to a shine. That may have helped, but the safety issue has me stumped (as I mentioned in the Smithy). Every part ( extractor,plunger,spring etc) looks fine and spring tensions appear to be ok. ??????
Trooper Joe
New member
500 to 1000 rounds ???
P99AS9
Wow, 1000 rounds amounts to about $200 (assuming you can get 380 ammo for $20 a box of 50, and that is a big if.
I shot my newest PPK and it fed flawlessly (both FMJ and HP). Sent it back with a couple of safety issues anyway.
This doesn't make much sense that you need a 1000 rounds to get the gun to work correctly.
My new Sig 230 (which I purchased in the mid 90s after a stint with a troublesome PPK) fed everything with no problems even when brand new.
This latest S&W PPK/S as I mentioned, had a few safety issues, but did feed OK.
Good luck (but I do think 500 to 1000 rounds is really pushing the owner satisfaction envelope). I think S&W (ie., Walther) service would agree with me.
Troooper Joe
P99AS9
Wow, 1000 rounds amounts to about $200 (assuming you can get 380 ammo for $20 a box of 50, and that is a big if.
I shot my newest PPK and it fed flawlessly (both FMJ and HP). Sent it back with a couple of safety issues anyway.
This doesn't make much sense that you need a 1000 rounds to get the gun to work correctly.
My new Sig 230 (which I purchased in the mid 90s after a stint with a troublesome PPK) fed everything with no problems even when brand new.
This latest S&W PPK/S as I mentioned, had a few safety issues, but did feed OK.
Good luck (but I do think 500 to 1000 rounds is really pushing the owner satisfaction envelope). I think S&W (ie., Walther) service would agree with me.
Troooper Joe
OldShooter
New member
A friend bought a PPK in .380 and invited me for the initial shooting. Well, we had feeding problem right from the start. We broke it down for a careful inspection and good lubrication even though he had done that. The problems continued. I advised him to polish the feed ramp. He elected to send it back for service. It came back very quickly with a note that they had polished the feed ramp. From that day on it performed as it should. At no cost, that was better than using up 500-1000 rounds for "break-in".
in response to jdhiggin
I would either contact Smith or davidson's right away. I bought a Glock 22 from davidson's and the case hadn't been opened since it was sealed in Smyrna, Ga. (you can tell by the seal on the handle of Glock cases) The only two rounds she'd ever fired were the two test rounds at the factory.
I'm not familiar with Walther (yet
) so I don't know how they ship their guns, but if there's any sign of tamper, then I think it sounds like a call to Davidson's is in order, or maybe the FFL that Davidson's shipped it to, not Smith & Wesson.
either way, get that fixed, that doesn't sound right at all.
I would either contact Smith or davidson's right away. I bought a Glock 22 from davidson's and the case hadn't been opened since it was sealed in Smyrna, Ga. (you can tell by the seal on the handle of Glock cases) The only two rounds she'd ever fired were the two test rounds at the factory.
I'm not familiar with Walther (yet
) so I don't know how they ship their guns, but if there's any sign of tamper, then I think it sounds like a call to Davidson's is in order, or maybe the FFL that Davidson's shipped it to, not Smith & Wesson.either way, get that fixed, that doesn't sound right at all.
Walther, Interarms and the PPK American were great. The PPK/PPKS imports would sometimes function only with fmj ammunition as there wasn't much in the way of JHP ammo until a bit later. The stainless americans functioned with the full range of loads.
smith and wesson has had a great deal of experience getting their version of the ppk sent back because of reliability issues. (also safety issues that did not exist before the unfortunate association between Walther and S&W.) They should have the problem figured out by now and the only unknown would be whether or not they felt motivated to fix the gun. It would be better to have a skilled gunsmith look it over to see if he can identify the problem.
smith and wesson has had a great deal of experience getting their version of the ppk sent back because of reliability issues. (also safety issues that did not exist before the unfortunate association between Walther and S&W.) They should have the problem figured out by now and the only unknown would be whether or not they felt motivated to fix the gun. It would be better to have a skilled gunsmith look it over to see if he can identify the problem.