The Wiry Irishman
Member
I have an Interarms PPK that I've put somewhere in the vicinity of 1000 rounds through. For most of the time I've had it, the internal slide stop engaged on an empty mag. Recently it has stopped doing this. It still runs reliably, and upon playing with it, there's a 16th, maybe an 8th of an inch of slide travel between when the slide can strip another round off the magazine and when the slide stop engages, so I'm assuming that the slide is no longer coming back all the way.
Any ideas about what could be causing this? The only things that have changed physically with the gun are a quick polish of the feed ramp and a noticeable decrease in the strength of the recoil spring. The previous owner said he had about 400 rounds through the gun, bring the total on this spring to 1400 or so - how long are these springs supposed to last, and is there any way a weak recoil spring could cause the slide to not come all the way back? I would think that it would be just the opposite, that it would make it easier to come back all the way. Its not a weak mag spring, I just bought two new ones that have the same problem. I don't think its ammo, either, as I've run everything from WWB to hot SD loads through it, and if I remember correctly, it was locking back on WWB when I first got it. I was lubing with Slide Glide, and wondered if that was too viscous, so I tried running it soaked in CLP as well as with a minimal amount of CLP and the problem persists. About the only lube option I haven't tried is just slathering it in Slide Glide. I'm not limpwristing either, if you limpwrist this gun it will fail to feed.
Now that I think about it... Is it possible that a weakened recoil spring could cause the slide to move back too quickly, bouncing off its rearmost position and coming forward before the follower is high enough up to engage the slide stop? Since the gun doesn't strip another round off the mag until 1/16 - 1/8" forward of where the stop engages, that could be enough time for the follower to pop up another round so it still feeds and fires reliably.
Any input would be appreciated. Thank you.
ETA: Upon re-reading I found my wording might give the impression that the slide does not lock back at all. When I insert an empty mag and manually pull the slide back it works fine. The problem occurs when firing the gun.
Any ideas about what could be causing this? The only things that have changed physically with the gun are a quick polish of the feed ramp and a noticeable decrease in the strength of the recoil spring. The previous owner said he had about 400 rounds through the gun, bring the total on this spring to 1400 or so - how long are these springs supposed to last, and is there any way a weak recoil spring could cause the slide to not come all the way back? I would think that it would be just the opposite, that it would make it easier to come back all the way. Its not a weak mag spring, I just bought two new ones that have the same problem. I don't think its ammo, either, as I've run everything from WWB to hot SD loads through it, and if I remember correctly, it was locking back on WWB when I first got it. I was lubing with Slide Glide, and wondered if that was too viscous, so I tried running it soaked in CLP as well as with a minimal amount of CLP and the problem persists. About the only lube option I haven't tried is just slathering it in Slide Glide. I'm not limpwristing either, if you limpwrist this gun it will fail to feed.
Now that I think about it... Is it possible that a weakened recoil spring could cause the slide to move back too quickly, bouncing off its rearmost position and coming forward before the follower is high enough up to engage the slide stop? Since the gun doesn't strip another round off the mag until 1/16 - 1/8" forward of where the stop engages, that could be enough time for the follower to pop up another round so it still feeds and fires reliably.
Any input would be appreciated. Thank you.
ETA: Upon re-reading I found my wording might give the impression that the slide does not lock back at all. When I insert an empty mag and manually pull the slide back it works fine. The problem occurs when firing the gun.
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