[TomB7777]

Hi all. I'm new to this forum. I've got an Interarms Walther PPK/s 380 in Stainless Steel I purchased back in the late 1980's. I haven't carried or shot it a lot because it always seemed to have reliability problems with feeding ammo. I never spent a lot of time or money trying to find which brand of ammo it preferred as I have other handguns for carry and protection. I have mainly tried Blazer, FMC and WWB hardball amo through it in the past.

My wife has been on me lately to get rid of it if it isn't reliable, but I hate to ever turn lose of a gun once it's mine.

I read through the advice in several threads here on this forum. Ordered some Tetris gun grease and Focchi FMJ ammo and went to the range yesterday for another try. I put 49 rounds through the gun with no problems whatsoever. The 50th and last round I was planning to fire had a failure to feed.

Should I just chalk this up to the gun beginning to run out of lubrication after 49 rounds fired and assume that for a carry often, shoot seldom pocket handgun it is reliable for the first several mags I maight need to put through it? Or should I repeat the test with some S&B FMJ ammo I purchased? Or does the PPK/S need a trip to the gun smith for a throat and polish job on the feed ramp? Thanks in advance!

 

[David the Gnome]

My Smith & Wesson built PPK/s has never failed to fire, feed, or eject. I know the latter year Interarms had some issues. A quick polish job on the feed ramp couldn't hurt and you might want to have the springs in those mags (and in the gun) checked out by a competent gunsmith. 20 years of use (or dis-use) can really mess with a guns reliability.

 

[ADP3]

Ditto on David's advice. Try a Q-Tip with Flitz Metal Polish on the feedramp. Stuff a paper towel in the mag well so you keep the polish away from the internal parts especially the mag catch and a cleaning patch down the bore to keep it out of the chamber. Remove the slide hold open and polish away. You won't take away any significant amount of metal just polish off any rough spots. A Dremel is faster but I quit using them on guns when I got carried away on a Colt .38 Super many years ago-expensive mistake. It's much easier to take metal off than put it on. Wolff springs would be a good insurance policy also. I just stay with factory weights myself.
Best Regards,
ADP3

 

[banddr2]

Another thing to consider is the extractor, sometimes these get gunked up under the hook and doesn't allow the rim of the cartrige to slide underneath. I use a tooth pick to clean mine, and in more serious cases it may need some polishing under the hook. The best way to tell if this is the problem is to remove the slide and try to manually slide the rim of a case underneath it to see how much resistance there is .

 

[153]

All the previous advice was very good.

First get new springs - Wolff factory replacments,

Clean the pistol, especially the breech, extractor.

If the feedramp is really rough, have a gunsmith polish it - he can change out the springs too.

That's a nice pistol a little TLC should bring it up to snuff!

 

[mm6mm6]

A late 80's Interarms Walther should be just fine. Mine has never had any problems. I fire FMC ammo, Winchester Silvertips, Cor-Bon and Glasers without any problems. I got a free box of some very long hollowpoints (I forget what brand they were) and there was no way they would feed. Just looking at the rounds, I knew they were really long.

Previous advice about super cleaning and polishing the feedramp is excellent.

Any hardware or giant home repair palace can sell you some very fine polishing sandpaper for a dollar or two. You can wrap it around a pencil eraser and gently polish your feed ramp.

 

[Hickok]

My Interarms was a total jammer. Three different brands of FMJ, and two brands of HP's, and it would jam consistantly. Failure to completely chamber the round and close the slide. The feedramp was the problem.

 

[TomB7777]

Update: I followed the advice in this thread.

Lightly sanded the feed ramp with fine sand paper just a little.

Thoroughly cleaned the gun paying special attention to the ejector using a toothpick to get in the cracks.

Used the metal polish recommended to polish the feed ramp and ejector.

Ordered new springs from Wolff and replaced the recoil and mag spring. The old recoil spring was the original and about one inch shorter than the new spring when uncompressed. Also, the old spring was not tight around the barrel, the new sprin has to be twisted on.

I ordered Tetris gun grease and thououghly greased the slide then used Remington teflon oil spray on the gun.

I shot it today with 20 rounds of Federal Hydroshocks and 25 rounds of S&B FMJ's with no problems whatsover. Thanks to all for the helpful advice!

 

[Deputy]

Tom: Cool!!! That's great news! It's really neat when you can fine tune your own gun without going to a gunsmith. The guys in this section really know their stuff about getting the pocket Walthers running good. Glad yours is working now.

Dep



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[David the Gnome]

Glad to hear everything worked out. Sounds like you have yourself a brand new gun again!

 

[SELFDEFENSE]

Now you have the perfect response for the wife.

 

[TomB7777]

This may end up being my wife's carry gun. She took her CHL class three weeks ago and is waiting on her license. We rented a Khar PM9 last Friday when we went to Family night at the local range. She likes the Khar, but doesn't want to spend any money on a new gun. She likes the size and feel of the PPK/S, but not the way it jammed on her in the past. On our next family range visit, she'll try out the PPK/S again and see if it runs okay for her.

I would rather keep the PPK/S for me and buy her a new Khar, but it's hard to argue with my wife sometimes. At least she is geting her license and will start carrying regularly.

 

[Deputy]

Tom: Make sure the wife likes the way the PPK/s feels. She doesn't need to fire a whole box of 50 to evaluate it. Some folks report discomfort when firing the PPK/s. But as long as she can fire a full mag without discomfort, she should be okay.

Dep



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[KeeperoftheH]

Tom, I had the same problems with an Interarms PPK/s I picked up this summer (wouldn't feed more than four rounds without some kind of failure, no exaggeration), and the combo of feed ramp polishing and new springs took care of all reliability problems. Just curious, but did you replace the extractor spring? The recoil and mag springs helped a lot, but the extractor was the last piece of the puzzle for mine.

 

[TomB7777]

Didn't replace the extractor spring, just the mag and recoil springs.

We went to the range again last Friday. They have Family nights on Friday where the whole family can shoot on the same lane for the price of one. My wife tried three mag's of S&B FMJ and had three FTF's. The last one she was unable to clear the failure by herself. I was out in the waiting room with our two youngest, so can't say for sure what happened, but my guess is limp wristing. She is a small lady, barely 5' and about 95 pounds. I shot it after her and went through five mag's in short time with no problems.

She now says she wants to carry my S&W 638 with the Crimson Trace laser grips. Two months ago, she coudn't pull the trigger without great effort. Friday night at home she was dry firing the 638 like it was nothing.

My main CCW's are a S&W 642 (now that my wife has laid claim to the 638) and a Colt 1911. I will never get rid of the PPK/s, but it will probably become a safe queen for a while until the kids are older and take my snubbies with them.

 

[MGMike]

In the past, where exactly is the feeding cartridge caught when the stoppage occurs?

M

 

[TomB7777]

I'm not sure exactly where the feeding cartridge was getting stuck. I suspect on the feed ramp.

 

[PanaDP]

I'm not sure exactly where the feeding cartridge was getting stuck. I suspect on the feed ramp.

I don't have my PPK right in front of me but I believe there is a joint partway up the feed ramp. Mine wasn't quite perfectly lined up (the catch was maybe only a couple hundredths of an inch, I would guess) and with some ammunition, the bullet would catch on the joint. I smoothed it out very carefully myself and polished it and haven't ahd a problem with any ammo since.

 

[MGMike]

I'm not sure exactly where the feeding cartridge was getting stuck. I suspect on the feed ramp.

Well, it DOES make a difference in the diagnosis. Take it to gunsmith-- that's what he gets paid for. No point in warehousing a malfunctioning pistol.

M