I'm a new owner - is what I experienced the first time firing it normal?

[Walther_PK380]

Originally Posted by heathenhawker

Just went over this in my introductory thread:
first time handgun owner

You're not supposed to manually load rounds directly into the chamber, this gun isn't designed for it.

Thanks, but that's not what I was doing. I was manually racking the slide to load rounds from the clip and it failed about 1 out of every 5 times doing that. It's even worse today than it was initially, and now two new problems have cropped up, I'm getting FTE's about 1 out of every 10 and about one out of every 15-20 times I can't cock the hammer with the trigger. This thing is a piece of crap... it's going back asap. Does anyone know if their customer service is open on Saturday's?

[searcher451]

The best we can say is that some PK380s are better than others. Here's the S&W information:

Smith & Wesson Customer Service/Support:

http://www.smith-wesson.com/webapp/w...&content=11001

Smith & Wesson email addresses:

qa@smith-wesson.com

or

customerservice@waltheramerica.com

By Telephone:

1-800-372-6454 (USA)
413-781-8300 (International)
Mon-Fri 8 AM-8 PM Eastern Time

By Fax:

1-413-747-3317

[ns66]

what's the made year? BB? BA?

[Walther_PK380]

The best we can say is that some PK380s are better than others.

Yeah it seems like it from what others have said. Hopefully it will be a simple fix and I'll be able to enjoy it once it comes back. The fit and feel of the firearm is so nice that it would really be a shame if it couldn't be fixed to work better.

Originally Posted by ns66

what's the made year? BB? BA?

Can you tell me where to find that? I can't find either BB or BA anywhere on the labels that are on the case, nor do I know where to look on the firearm itself.

[ns66]

it's on slide, right below ejection port, after "DE", it tells you which year your gun is made, BB is 2011, BA is 2010, it seems earlier years may have more problems

[Walther_PK380]

Thanks, it's a BB.

I took it back to the place I bought it (Gander Mountain) because they have an on-site shop, and I bought their protection plan when I bought the firearm. Anyway, they took it into the back and brought it back out to me about 10-15 minutes later and told me to try it out now. They didn't say exactly what they did, but I took it to the range and put 100 rounds through it... no more failed RTB, no more FTE, I did get 3 failure to fire's, all were from the second box of ammo and I suspect the ammo was to blame there. 2 of the three FTF rounds did fire on the second hammer drop, the 3rd did not, I ejected the round and hoped to look at it but when it ejected it ended up about 7' downrange so I couldn't get it back to check it out and make sure that the firing pin dented the primer cap. At any rate, I am much much happier with it's performance now.

[ns66]

glad it worked out for you, try fiocchi .380 ammo, it has been flawless for me so far as well as many others

[Walther_PK380]

Originally Posted by ns66

glad it worked out for you, try fiocchi .380 ammo, it has been flawless for me so far as well as many others

Thanks for the tip, I've been using PMC because it's the only ammo they sell at the range I've been going to. I'll look for fiocchi.

BTW, I've been out of practice for so long that I don't even know what a good score is anymore, but I was consistently shooting around 90-1 to 90-2 at 15 yards. Is that good or bad? I felt pleased with it at the time just because I have been so out of practice.

[nexus]

For target practice I use paper plates set at 21 feet. I consider that accurate enough for self defense purposes. I would also recommend finding a range or shooting club that holds a regular IDPA match and attending one.

[searcher451]

Just about any ammo out there is better than PMC Brass, IMO. Just as with a computer: Garbage in, garbage out. For range practice, you can't go wrong with Winchester white box or Remington green box FMJ.