I'm trying to convert my existing 9mm PPQ M2 15-round mags to 10-round mags because I live in the People's Republic of New Jersey. Per the law, the change has to be "permanent", such as by welding, rivets, or using epoxy, but I'd very much like to be able to disassemble the magazines after they have been modified, so that I can clean them or repair them as needed (such as replacing the springs when they wear out, etc.). So here's what I did...
I bought a single Walther factory 10-round mag with the dimples that limit the capacity to 10-rounds. I bought it from the Walther online store (ppq-m2-9mm-10-round). It cost $42, plus $14 shipping, and you can only buy one at a time, so the actual cost is $56 each. Yikes!
Since I'm not aware of another way of doing the 15-to-10 modification that still allows disassembly, I decided to emulate what Walther did. I put a "drop" of JB Weld inside the mag body at the same place where the dimples are on the 10-round mag.
This worked great, except the modified mag would only take 6 rounds, because the spring would catch on the bumps, rather than the ammunition itself. Struggling to see how my modification failed when the Walther dimples worked, I started swapping components. The followers, base plates, and bases are interchangeable, but it turns out that the springs are significantly different! The 15-round springs have 3 smaller coils at the top, and 4th coil is much larger. The 10-round springs start with smaller coils at the top, but the coils get wider gradually, with no big "step" at the 4th coil. Also, the 10-round springs have one extra coil at the bottom.
With the 10-round spring, both mags work as expected, and hold 10 rounds. With the 15-round spring, my modified mag holds 6 rounds pretty much every time, and the dimpled factory mag sometimes gets to 10 rounds (although you can hear the spring catching on the dimples and then sproing-ing loudly when forced past them), but sometimes gets hung up before you get all 10 rounds in there. And if loading the mag is like that, you know feeding problems are sure to follow, when the spring catches on the dimples and thus isn't pushing up on the follower consistently. That's a reliability issue no one needs.
Ok, so the obvious solution is to buy some of the 10-round magazine springs, and use those instead of the 15-round springs. But that is easier said than done, because I could not find the part number for that magazine anywhere. Earl's said they could order them from Germany for $18 each plus $15 shipping, but they wouldn't confirm that they would, for sure, be the special 10-round springs. I wasn't interested in paying that kind of money to maybe get the right spring. An email to Walther's customer support inbox went unanswered.
A phone call to Walther's parts department was helpful, however. It took them a loooong time, but they eventually tracked down that spring. The part number for the PPQ 9mm M2 10-round magazine spring is 2618257. They said it's a borrowed part from a P99 magazine. At any rate, they had them in stock for $7.50 each. I ordered 6 of them, and with shipping, the total was $58 (the price of a single 10-round complete mag). I haven't received them yet, but, assuming they are the correct springs, I'm cautiously optimistic that it will work.
Pictures showing the 10-round and 15-round springs side-by-side can be found here:
http://guns.dsttr.com/img/WaltherMags_15vs10_allparts_IMG_20180919_202946.jpg
http://guns.dsttr.com/img/WaltherMags_15vs10_spring1_IMG_20180919_203008.jpg
http://guns.dsttr.com/img/WaltherMags_15vs10_spring2_IMG_20180919_203027.jpg
The 10-round spring is on the left, the 15-round spring is on the right (in all 3 photos).
If anyone would like more details on how to do this modification (exactly where to put the drops of JB Weld and how big they should be, etc.), let me know, and I'll write that up. Otherwise, I just wanted to make people aware that the springs are different, and let everyone know what the part number is for the 10-round spring (and maybe see if anyone else has tried this already).
Cheers,
Dave
I bought a single Walther factory 10-round mag with the dimples that limit the capacity to 10-rounds. I bought it from the Walther online store (ppq-m2-9mm-10-round). It cost $42, plus $14 shipping, and you can only buy one at a time, so the actual cost is $56 each. Yikes!
Since I'm not aware of another way of doing the 15-to-10 modification that still allows disassembly, I decided to emulate what Walther did. I put a "drop" of JB Weld inside the mag body at the same place where the dimples are on the 10-round mag.
This worked great, except the modified mag would only take 6 rounds, because the spring would catch on the bumps, rather than the ammunition itself. Struggling to see how my modification failed when the Walther dimples worked, I started swapping components. The followers, base plates, and bases are interchangeable, but it turns out that the springs are significantly different! The 15-round springs have 3 smaller coils at the top, and 4th coil is much larger. The 10-round springs start with smaller coils at the top, but the coils get wider gradually, with no big "step" at the 4th coil. Also, the 10-round springs have one extra coil at the bottom.
With the 10-round spring, both mags work as expected, and hold 10 rounds. With the 15-round spring, my modified mag holds 6 rounds pretty much every time, and the dimpled factory mag sometimes gets to 10 rounds (although you can hear the spring catching on the dimples and then sproing-ing loudly when forced past them), but sometimes gets hung up before you get all 10 rounds in there. And if loading the mag is like that, you know feeding problems are sure to follow, when the spring catches on the dimples and thus isn't pushing up on the follower consistently. That's a reliability issue no one needs.
Ok, so the obvious solution is to buy some of the 10-round magazine springs, and use those instead of the 15-round springs. But that is easier said than done, because I could not find the part number for that magazine anywhere. Earl's said they could order them from Germany for $18 each plus $15 shipping, but they wouldn't confirm that they would, for sure, be the special 10-round springs. I wasn't interested in paying that kind of money to maybe get the right spring. An email to Walther's customer support inbox went unanswered.
A phone call to Walther's parts department was helpful, however. It took them a loooong time, but they eventually tracked down that spring. The part number for the PPQ 9mm M2 10-round magazine spring is 2618257. They said it's a borrowed part from a P99 magazine. At any rate, they had them in stock for $7.50 each. I ordered 6 of them, and with shipping, the total was $58 (the price of a single 10-round complete mag). I haven't received them yet, but, assuming they are the correct springs, I'm cautiously optimistic that it will work.
Pictures showing the 10-round and 15-round springs side-by-side can be found here:
http://guns.dsttr.com/img/WaltherMags_15vs10_allparts_IMG_20180919_202946.jpg
http://guns.dsttr.com/img/WaltherMags_15vs10_spring1_IMG_20180919_203008.jpg
http://guns.dsttr.com/img/WaltherMags_15vs10_spring2_IMG_20180919_203027.jpg
The 10-round spring is on the left, the 15-round spring is on the right (in all 3 photos).
If anyone would like more details on how to do this modification (exactly where to put the drops of JB Weld and how big they should be, etc.), let me know, and I'll write that up. Otherwise, I just wanted to make people aware that the springs are different, and let everyone know what the part number is for the 10-round spring (and maybe see if anyone else has tried this already).
Cheers,
Dave
