PPK/S misfire woes

[schneider38]

I just picked up a 380 ppk/s-1 (SW) the other day. Took it to the range this afternoon and put about 300 rounds through it. I have no problems whatsover in regards to feeding, no jamming. However every so often it would misfire and I would have to pull the trigger several times to get it to fire. This happened about 20 times or so. I thought maybe I got a batch of ammo with hard primers however it happened with all three brands of ammo I was using.

When I arrived home, I gave the gun a good cleaning, and inspected the innerworkings of the slide, and didnt find anything out of the ordingary with the firing pin, it travels nice and smooth through its channel. So I moved my attention to the hammer, I figured maybe the hammer isnt hitting the pin hard enough. I tried to acess whether or not the hammer spring is adjustable but couldnt figure it out unless I took the whole mechanism apart, which I really didnt feel like doing.

So my question is, is there a way to adjust the tension of the hammer spring on the ppk/s or does anyone else have any idea why this may be happening?

Thank you

 

[redneckrepairs]

Short answer is the only adjustment for force of hammer strike is a stiffer spring which will also degrade the double action . I would suggest you contact S&W customer service . The issue could be caused by a lot of things , but Smith should take care of you with a polite phone call . I had a german ppk/s re blued and had similar issues for a bit , but me and the smith that blued it worked it out ( it seems some salts residue did not get fully taken off the channel for the hammer drop/safety , and while i thought i was getting it off safe , i was not getting full flip and it created just enough of an issue for a sporatic problem .

 

[Plink]

Having S&W take a look at it might be the best bet. It could be insufficient firing pin protrusion or an internal problem. If it's just a spring, they'll swap it out, or maybe send you a new one if they can diagnose the problem over the phone. Good luck! They're fun little guns.

 

[Onmilo]

redneckrepairs suggestion would be my guess too.

There may be a burr on the safety switch that is interferance with the firing pin.

 

[Jim K]

If the gun is new, having Walther USA check it out might be a good idea. But if it is used, be aware that cutting the mainspring (hammer spring) is a common way to reduce the DA trigger pull. A lot of folks can't handle the DA, cut down the spring, and then when the gun misfires, they dump it. A new spring always corrects the problem, but the heavy DA pull is back.

This is a perfect case of a light hammer requiring a heavy spring. It takes a certain momentum to fire a primer. Momentum is velocity times mass, so if the hammer is light (as it is on the PP/PPK) the spring has to be heavy to provide the speed.

Jim

 

[schneider38]

Thanks for the suggestions. This gun was purchased new, however I am open to the posibility of some sort of hammer spring mality.

I called S&W and they were no help at all. I outlined my trouble in a very friendly manner and all the guy said was send it in. I informed him that I waited a month and a half for the gun and didnt wish to send it away for another month or two. All he could say was send it in, wouldn't give me any insight or anything.

Since I live in NJ, this weapon is purely used for amusement and not carry purposes. That being said, I will put another couple hundred through it next weekend and see how it goes. Who knows, maybe the hammer was fit tightly and needs to be broken in.................

 

[schneider38]

Needless to say I have been a bit troubled by the missfiring problem. And as stated previously I wasnt to happy with Smith and wesson's reccommendation to just send it in.

So, I loaded up another 300 reloads this weekend and headed out to a local indoor range the other day.

The first hundred rounds I suffered a few misfires however after that I noticed fewer and fewer misfires. The last 150 rounds saw not a one. I also noticed the hammer moves much more briskly and puts a distinctly deeper depression in the primers.

So I would imagine that the hammer was fitted tight at the factory and just needed to be broken in.

I plan on heading out to the range again next week and put another 300 through it to make sure the problem has remedied itself.

 

[theHeretic]

As with any machine, firearms frequently have a break in period. I’m pleased that your PPK/S seems to be working well.

Should you need to fine-tune the action, Wolff carries a wide selection of reduced and extra power springs for the Walther. This is preferable to cutting the spring. The standard hammer spring is 20 lbs. I have a 16 lb spring in my 30+-year-old PPK/s that has never failed to fire. [Changing the spring is a relatively easy process on this weapon.]

 

[Onmilo]

Thing is, that pistol should have never left the factory in that rough a condition to begin with.