Broken Walther P99 mags... HELP?!

[petro]

Evening all -

Got a small problem and I'm hoping someone can help. I am an LEO in the SE PA area. My department requires we qualify with non-issued weapons we would like to carry. So we go to the range to qualify last night.

The range is very cold, and has a concrete slab floor, which is probably frozen, as the range building is not climate controlled, and it's winter. We won't get into the qualification, but the upshot is that the combination of the cold air temps, cold concrete, and cold mags did a number on the plastic floorplates of all 3 of my 15 mags as they hit the concrete.

Shattered every one of them

Now, only the floorplates were destoryed. The springs are fine. In a fit of rage, I also threw out the locking piece and the follower. I kept the springs.

Question is, does anyone know where I can get replacement internals for the mags?

 

[PT1911]

why did all 15 of your mags hit the concrete floor?

 

[LibShooter]

In a fit of rage, I also threw out the locking piece and the follower. I kept the springs.

If your fuse is that short, maybe you should consider another line of work.
Just Kidding. Sort of.

Question is, does anyone know where I can get replacement internals for the mags?

Gun shows are great for situations like this. Haunt the little tables around the edges. Ask questions. You never know what kind of cool stuff you'll find. The guts from some S&W mags will probably fit in the Walther mags, too.

Good hunting!

Does the Smith&Wesson lifetime warranty cover a Walther P99? If so just send 'em. They won't ask any questions.

 

[kingpin008]

PT1911 - I'm assuming that the OP didn't have ALL 15 mags with him. Pretty sure he's got 15 total, three of which he was using at the time.

To the OP - why not get in touch with Walther? It seems to me that unless you're 20 feet tall and were shooting in the arctic, those mags shouldn't have shattered. They might give you a little bit of a talking to for letting them drop like that, but they'll probably be willing to replace the parts.

 

[petro]

Yeah.. I didn't read the post well.... Only 3 mags there, and they were the 15 round capacity each. Sorry for the confusion.

Training dictates that as we reload and fire, mags are not placed nicely in a pocket or held.

We fight like we train, so we train like we fight. In a real gun battle, you shouldn't take the time to place your mags, just eject them to the ground, floor, whatever. In an active firefight, and empty mag is useless and not worth further attention until it's over. So they get dropped freely to the ground while the next mag is inserted, seated and reload is over.

I have looked at the Promags, but I've heard they can have some reliability issues.

Thanks for the other suggestions. I will look into them, especially the S&W contact. I'll let ya'll know...

 

[9mmepiphany]

good luck, but i think this is going to cost you some money.

even if they (S&W or Walther) decide their baseplates shouldn't have shattered and replace them, they'll be well within their rights to charge you for the locking piece (pretty cheap) and the follower (not so cheap)

you might take a look at the original magazine manufacturer Mec-Gar, but i don't think they sell parts...only complete replacement mags

LibShooter mentioned it somewhat in jest, but you might take a looking into anger management too...it only gets worst, take it from someone who did the job for 28 years

 

[denfoote]

Call Earl, he'll help ya out!!!

http://www.carlwalther.com/p99.htm

These guys may be able to help.

http://www.waltherpistols.com/

Here's the web site to a gun shop in Deutchland.

http://www.germanguns.de/exportindex.htm

German Guns

Emil - Kuttler - Str. 11

phone: +49 (0) 7622 68 17 89

Fax: +49 01212 59367 9037

They do have Walther parts.

Hope this helps.

79689 Maulburg

Germany

 

[lechiffre]

beretta 92 internals and base plates will fit. capacity will be reduced by one or two rounds.

 

[axeman_g]

Call Carl Walther as stated by denfoote....

He will have new floorplates, followers and locks.

If not I would call S&W and see what they have for their SWP99.

 

[SharpsDressedMan]

Buy some cheap 10 round mags for training and glue some rubber to the bottoms. Then save your 15 rounders for duty use (after getting replacement bottoms, etc from the places recommended above).

 

[wild cat mccane]

Earls is a rip off.

They charge a ridicious amount and require a 25 dollar min.

Call Smith & Wesson. I ordered a back strap from them. 14 dollars deliverd. Would have been 17 plus shipping plus more to make the 25 dollar min. Shipping does not count for the 25 dollar min.

Crap.

 

[wild cat mccane]

Edit, people are giving bad info. S&W is the USA distributor for Walther.

S&W has REAL Walther P99 parts. All P99's come from Germany to S&W. To be sold by S&W.

Every P99, PPS, P22, G22, blah blah part can be ordered from S&W for cheap, and this is the equivalent for any American to buying directly from Walther.

Earl's is independent. Not part of the Walther set up. If your P99 breaks you send it to S&W, not Earls.

S&W has both SW99 and P99 stuff.

 

[petro]

As I look back at the whole thing, I was more dissapointed than anything else. Rage might be the wrong word. Yeah, dissapointed and embarrassed are better.

I will be calling and checking all the other suggestions too. Thanks everyone.

 

[searcher451]

Call WaltherAmerica's customer service deparatment (S&W) and explain the situation. A few years ago, some bad mags for the .40 P99 hit the market; Walther replaced all of them for free. If you explain your situation, they will take care of you. Go to Earl's at your own peril. He wants $20 for a finger-rest floor plate for a P99. S&W charges $2.04 for the same part. Also beware of the recommendation for Germanguns.de. We've been getting lots of reports of issues with service and trustworthiness there from folks on the Walther Forums.

 

[fastbolt]

I agree about calling the Walther America folks (S&W).

Yes, there was an issue reportedly experienced with some 99 series butt plates breaking when being dropped onto hard surfaces several years ago. The plastic formulation was reportedly changed to one more resistant to impact damage according to what we were told in armorer classes.

Let whoever you talk to know you need the butt plate catches as well as the followers. They may, or may not, have some sympathy and feel inclined to reward you for your temper tantrum by replacing the followers and butt plate catches in addition to the butt plates which broke at no charge. (Walther's warranty is 1 year, although if your gun is old enough to fall within the earlier butt plate issue they would probably replace them at no charge, especially if you tell them it's a LE off-duty weapon.)

Dropping magazines onto a hard surface (concrete) does risk damage to the magazine assembly. Pretty obvious. Yes, most realistic training stresses certain desirable tactical and strategic practices ... but that doesn't mean it won't still risk damage to equipment like magazines. Perhaps some shooting mats/pads, or inexpensive carpet remnant sections, appropriately positioned, might prove prudent.

Don't think that Walther is the only company to have experienced this issue with the mags they ordered for their pistols, either.

Perhaps some dedicated training mags might be in order. Ask your agency if their use is permissible for qual purpose. Different agencies can easily mean different policies, practices and procedures.

Depending on how old your mags are in the first place, you might want to consider getting some new mag springs while you're at it. S&W recommends that mag & recoil springs are replaced in dedicated LE/Gov weapons either every 5,000 rounds fired or every 5 years (when mags are left fully loaded/carried). I heard the same recommendation given in 3 SW99 (P99) armorer classes over the years.

FWIW, I've been told on a number of different occasions by different folks from the factory that although Mec-Gar is the manufacturer for the mags used in both the Walther and licensed S&W versions of the 99 series, that the mag springs specified by S&W were intentionally ordered to be stronger than those specified by Walther. This is why armorers were generally told not to switch mags back and forth among the different manufacturer's models, but to use those ordered produced for each of the manufacturer's for their specific models.

 

[Sonny Boy]

WATCH OUT FOR THIS GUY:

http://www.germanguns.de/exportindex.htm

German Guns

Emil - Kuttler - Str. 11

phone: +49 (0) 7622 68 17 89

Fax: +49 01212 59367 9037

79689 Maulburg

Germany


Hi. Normally my first post is a how is it going, nice to be a new member and looking forward to posting here, but I saw RED when this came up on a search and I wanted to save someone money and aggravation. I sent him money in August last year and still have no package and no refund.

He will not accept credit cards only wired funds and for good reason. He accepts your money, then ships an empty package to you with your name, and address incorrectly spelled so it never gets delivered. He then sends you a copy of a recipient from German Postal showing that he sent it to you and claims it was lost by USPS and it is not his fault.

Complain and he puts you on his "BLACK LIST". Look and his black list and ask yourself why would he have such a long list of bad customers???

This is my first post here, but I post mostly on Calguns, Glock Talk and a few others. Sorry to be such a drip but you are taking a big risk to order from Claus.

Here are a few links to other threads:
http://www.e-gun.net/profile.asp?profUser=germanguns
http://www.waltherforums.com/showthread.php?p=83914#post83914
http://www.calguns.net/calgunforum/showthread.php?t=238345
http://glocktalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1142370
http://www.waltherforums.com/showthread.php?t=11218

Send emails to his black list people and see the response. Most have the same problem, but several paid by CC and when the product did not come, they cancelled the CC charge and then Claus posted them on the BLack List.

I am now in contact with the German Postal Service and my Congressman to get my matter resolved.

 

[Storm]

Definitely call Walther USA. Also, CDNN frequently has factory P99 mags at very good prices.

 

[Sonny Boy]

Ran a search on Claus's name and found this:

John A. Adams‎
By [email protected] - Aug 30, 2007
Claus Chowanietz is not to be trusted. I made a bank transfer from the U.S. for the amount of $2800 USD to purchase a Schmidt&Bender 5-25x56 PMII from germanguns.de He has the money.....but I did not get the rifle scope. Claus Chowanietz has not answered any of my e-mail inquiries about this matter for months, but was quite chatty up until he received my money. He did not offer any tracking information when he sent me an e-mail stating that the item had been shipped. I am in contact with the appropriate German authorities....and law enforcement there are looking into this matter. Searching the Web by typing in Claus Chowanietz....and/or germanguns.de, I have found many others cheated by this man. Both in America, and abroad. Do not wire money, or send money orders....they are difficult to track. Use a credit card.....‎

maps.google.com
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful? Yes - No - Flag as inappropriate
Claus Chowanietz is fraud‎
By Pavel - Jan 16, 2010
I have not received my order from this person. He has not answered for my e-mail about it. Pavel, Moscow, Russian Federation‎

maps.google.com