Walther PPK Failing to Chamber to the point of Double Feed

4516 Views 12 Replies 11 Participants Last post by 44hunter45, Dec 7, 2018

stockjock

Discussion Starter · Nov 30, 2018 (Edited)

Hello, first post here.

I'm a former San Diego Police Officer and recently got my CCW after they loosened requirements here in San Diego. Because I was not retired (not enough service time), I was not automatically granted CCW when I changed careers and went to work for a major Wall Street firm. As a side note, nice that the San Diego Country Sheriff Gore has finally allowed most good citizens to carry concealed. Rare in anti-gun California, at least in the larger cities.

Anyway, one of my former off-duty weapons was a mid-1980's Walther PPK .380 (Interarms) in stainless. I think I bought it pretty late in my law enforcement days and barely shot the thing at all. Prior to that, I had carried an S&W Chief's Special Model 60 5-shot revolver.

Did my CCW firearms qualifications a couple of weeks ago and while I was rusty, I could still hit the target pretty well. It did chew up the webbing of my hand a bit, however.

However, I had a couple of problems with my PPK. It was constantly jamming and basically failing to chamber to the point of double feed.

I contacted Walther, concerned about this issue, as one obviously needs their weapon to be reliable. Walther basically blamed it on the reloads, which were brass cased FMJ rounds made by LAX ammunition.

My firearms instructor (former USMC machine gunner, U.S. Federal Marshal and SD County Sheriff) insists that he's not had any issues with the ammo and blamed it on the PPK.

Anyone familiar with problems like this and/or solutions? Walther suggested I shoot some approved factory ammo, which I haven't gotten around to doing just yet. But definitely concerned about a potential lack of reliability based on the failing to chamber issue.

Any thoughts or suggestions? Thanks in advance!

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1 - 13 of 13 Posts

OmegaJB

· #2 · Nov 30, 2018

The PPK's can get a little finicky with ammo and trying another couple of brands could help.
The only ammo that seems to give me issues are round tip FMJ's which is what the LAX ammo is if I'm not mistaken.

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

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Jimbo80

· #3 · Nov 30, 2018

A huge percentage of the problems on the range at work are ammo related. We have had so many issues with reloads they are no longer allowed. The .380 I had was very reliable but it was an Ulm gun. I suggest before you have anything done try a couple of different brands of ammo. I'll bet you find one that's reliable. For HP I have never had Silvertips in any caliber not work.

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Scouts10

· #4 · Nov 30, 2018

PICKEY, pickey, pickey !
if you didn't use it, you didn't find the proper acceptable diet.
time to think variety !

There has got to have been a thread on proper dietary ammo ? ( to keep the pipes clean )

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7tcu

· #5 · Nov 30, 2018

I just went thru the same problem. I solved it by going to Speer Gold Dot bullets, along with making sure the spring in Mags were installed in the correct orintation. After correcting the spring problem I had no more problems. Good luck with yours.

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Wildtoad

· #6 · Nov 30, 2018

First, give the PPK ( and the magazine(s) ) a very good cleaning if you haven’t already, and make sure you can drop a round into it and have it fall out when you hold the gun upwards. If it sticks, keep cleaning. Next, use one of the brands suggested by Walther and see if it improves.

I used to have all kinds of problems with the PPK I bought at a gun show, sent it to Walther for diagnose and fix (twice) and now it rarely has an issue.

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XRing

· #7 · Nov 30, 2018

At risk of being the master of the obvious. Years ago was it OK? If so I would be patient and try the following.
If so the clean and lube. I would use synthetic gun scrubber and then break free clp
What ammo did you use years ago.
Tried some fmj from different manufactures.
Fight the urge to polish ramps etc.
If still not feeding right. And you can disassble the slide. Take apart and clean the extractor channel and extractor. Lube with breakfree.
Also disassemble and clean the magazines.
Also just sitting the springs should still be ok.

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MGMike

· #8 · Nov 30, 2018

Without first-hand examination, the following are just guesses. The LAX ammo probably doesn't have enough poop to drive the slide back far enough or with enough authority to ensure positive ejection, so the fired case isn't thrown clear before the gun tries to load the next round. Hence, your so-called "double feed" (I dislike that term; it's a mechanical impossibility unless the shooter manually interferes with the cycle.)

The other possible cause is that you might have succumbed to internet "wisdom", which is to replace the recoil spring with a new (stronger) one, whether it needs one or not.

M

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halfmoonclip

· #9 · Dec 1, 2018

Carefully put the PPK in a rug in your safe. Go straight to a gunshop, and buy a Glock 42.
And eschew the cheapo reloads, for either gun.
Some pretty decent, factory, loads are out there for only a little more money.

Moon

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Lczamorac

· #10 · Dec 6, 2018

I have a Walther PPK/S .380 from Interarms, I never had problems using FMJ munitions from Remington or Winchester. A few months ago I used some ammunition manufactured in Philipine and he gave me the problem he describes. I recommend trying out the ammunition that Walther recommends before sending your PPK for review.

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44hunter45

· #11 · Dec 7, 2018

7tcu said:
I just went thru the same problem. I solved it by going to Speer Gold Dot bullets, along with making sure the spring in Mags were installed in the correct orintation. After correcting the spring problem I had no more problems. Good luck with yours.

Ditto this. The Gold Dot is super carry ammo and my Interarms stainless PPK/S loves it. For practice ammo I use the CCI Blaser 95 grain FMJ.

After much practice I have learned to make handloads which my weapon likes consistently. I will hopefully be posting more later on how I do this.

To add to the quoted post. Make sure your recoil spring is installed with the open end toward the muzzle, the smaller end toward the breach.

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halfmoonclip

· #12 · Dec 7, 2018

.44, I will be curious to hear about your loads. I went thru' this years ago, and never did find a load that would run 100 straight, tho' hand fatigue may have been an issue.

My current, standard load (runs in the 42, and the Walther) is 3.2/Bullseye/95gr JHP @ 895fps. It has run 100% in limited shooting in the Walther.
Moon

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44hunter45

· #13 · Dec 7, 2018

halfmoonclip said:
.44, I will be curious to hear about your loads. I went thru' this years ago, and never did find a load that would run 100 straight, tho' hand fatigue may have been an issue.

My current, standard load (runs in the 42, and the Walther) is 3.2/Bullseye/95gr JHP @ 895fps. It has run 100% in limited shooting in the Walther.
Moon

Moon,
I don't want to hijack this thread, but I find that my PPK/S will digest a lot of different pressures of loads, so long as I am extremely careful that the finished product is absolutely as small in diameter as factory loads that function well. I wrote a book here and then deleted most of it as this is not my thread.

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