[Squall67584]

I just got a PPK/S last week, and after 4 hours of trying, I can't get the slide to lift off. I've looked over the vague field stripping instructions and though it doesn't say that the safety lever has to be engaged, the pictures look like it, however even when trying it that way I can't get it off. I've even tried putting the gun in a vice and using both hands to pull the slide back and up, but it just won't go up. I'm going to call Walther tommorrow and see if they can do something about it. Has anyone else ever had this problem before?

 

[mm6mm6]

That's very odd. All of my PPK's just lift right off when the slide is pulled all the way to the rear with the trigger guard pulled all the way down. Sorry I can't help....

 

[zonadrill]

There have been similiar posts with the same problem with some of the s&w ppk/s. Send it back to S&W.

 

[mdnitedrftr]

I had the EXACT same problem when I bought my PPK/S. I brought it home from the store, tried to field strip it, couldnt get the slide off. I brought it back to the store, they sent it to S&W for me, and a month later I got my gun back in working order.

 

[Squall67584]

I called Walther's customer support line today and asked them about the issue. The guy told me to fire 200 rounds or so through it to break it in and the slide should then come off. I'm going to do this later in the week and hopefully the slide will come off then.

 

[mdnitedrftr]

Good luck. I wonder if that would have worked with my gun....

 

[jehzsa]

fire 200 rounds or so through it to break it in

And for a more specific estimate, call Miss Cleo. Just in case it comes out to 203 or perhaps 223.

So now we know that it cannot be 100 or 300. So 200 is the bottom line. So to be on the safe side, 249 should be the limit. Not 250 because that would round-up to 300. Roger! 200-249. But just in case 249 doesn't quite cut it, do take with you the full 5 boxes.

 

[Ramoel]

As I recall reading somewhere, the problem is the recoil spring won't compress far enough to let the slide lift off. The spring is actually slightly too long and when fully compressed the coils touch each other and it's too long. The pounding of the 200 or so rounds probably beats the coils enough that it will compress far enough to take it apart. They must have a 400 pound gorilla at the factory that assembles the guns to overcome the long spring.

 

[MLB]

I thought the front of the slide would contact the block on the triggerguard before the spring was fully compressed. My block showed a small amount of peening when I first used it. Had to file the sides back down to flush to allow the trigger guard to pull down freely. I never had issues getting the slide off though.

 

[Squall67584]

Well, after taking it to the range, I had to send it in to S&W. The customer service rep was very friendly and helpful, and S&W paid for the shipping. Now I've got to wait for it to be sent back...

 

[MGMike]

The problem is not the recoil spring. Good spring design never allows a spring to "go solid" (i.e., all coils in contact) before the limit of travel is reached; this would cause premature spring failure. The PP series springs have plenty of room for compression.

The problem is that the frame or slide was not machined exactly to spec. Without comparing every dimension to the drawings, it's impossible to pinpoint the discrepancy, but the net result is that when the trigger guard (which is itself a spring that serves as the slide buffer) is moved out of the way, and the slide pulled back as far as it will go, the front edges of the slide rails do not quite clear the back edges of the frame rails to allow the slide to be lifted up.

Somebody at S&W probably caught hell for that.

 

[jwh]

The problem is not the recoil spring. .

It might well be the recoil spring. I recently bought a PPK/S and could not get the slide off. S & W wanted me to return the gun but I got them to tell me how they get the problem slides off and how they resolve this issue. To get the slide off when having this problem you must rack the slide in a punching motion with a lot of force as opposed to steady pressure. You then need to use a belt sander on the ends of the spring to flatten it a small amount. It seems the tolerences were just a little to close in some cases.

jwh

 

[MGMike]

Then they should fire their spring engineer. Neither Walther nor Interarms ever had that problem.