Slide cracked on my Walther P22 today.

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Well, he isn't the original owner either. Many warranties stop after the original owner sells the gun. And, it's past a year anyway. That's better than I thought you would get.
 
At first when I saw this on the 3.5" barrel it was very disheartening. Usually you hear about it happening to the 5" because it slams into the counter weight. Well I dont own one but I bought one for my wife. I showed her this and she said..."but I really like the gun". I was set on trading it in for something safer for her, but she wants to keep it. In jest she said "Ill just have to wear a face mask when I shoot it." So were keeping it. hell if it only cost $50 for a slide that is not bad. However I will be keeping a CLOSE EYE on it for stress fractures!!!
 
Punisher,
I too was watching for the stress cracks. I always checked prior to my outings just to be sure. Never saw any. I remember looking for them that morning & didn't see any. It wasn't like the gun blew up either. I was having FTF problems when I first bought it. Not often but they bugged me so I polished the feeding ramp & never had another FTF issue. That morning I shot 3 mags then I started to have FTE problems. Every other round would be a FTE. I shot another mag through it & it was then I noticed the cracked slide. It actually still shoots but I'm not willing to take a chance.

The $50 they charged me was for a complete slide. Front & rear sights, extractor & firing pin groups & saftey levers. I'm pretty stoked about it actually. I thought it was gonna be a stripped slide & I'd have to install the stuff from the bad one.

As far as abusing it, I will admit I put it through the paces, one & two rapid mag dumps etc sometimes, but I never threw it around or used it as a "Throw it in the jockey box" type gun. I'm one of those overly clean & oil guys. I have just as much fun grabbing a beer or "two fingers of whiskey" after a day of shooting & clean my firearms. My wife says I spoil my firearms, I just take care of them ;^)
 
Damn thats an odd spot for it to crack. I thought it would be on the other side where the chamber is exposed more and the slide is thinner. Most of them crack around the muzzle beacase i'd say 90% of the cracked slides are on the 5" with the counterweight.
 
Just thought I'd give an update to this. So I started this thread on Nov 14th. I ordered the slide from S&W around the 1st of Dec. They told me it was backordered 8weeks outs. So the 1st week of Feb came & no slide. I called S&W & they said it would be another 8 weeks because their shippment from Germany was being held up. The 1st of Apr came & no slide. I called S&W again & the CS rep told me that the shippment was in & my slide would ship in a week. YEAH!!! 3 weeks go by &.....You guessed it, NO SLIDE!! I called S&W AGAIN last Tues & asked what's up? BACKORDERED 8 WEEKS!!! I said "WTH???" I was told by a CS rep 3 weeks ago my slide was in & would be shipped in a week, now your saying another 8 weeks!! Total BS!! I asked to talk to a supervisor because something isn't right. The supervisor called me back an hour later, apologized for the inconvinence & offered to replace the pistol free of charge. I told him I really didn't want to go through the hassle of doing a transfer through my FFL & would just like my slide ASAP. If he was willing to replace the slide for free, I'd be happy.

Amazingly 8 weeks turned into 4 work days because today I found a Fedex box on my doorstep with my new complete slide & 2 new mags. I'm not sure how to feel about this? I'm happy to finally have my pistol in working order after 4.5 months but I really feel I got the run around from S&W. As I've stated before here, I have 7 22a's & a couple M&P15's. When I ever needed CS for these weapons, it was fast!! I realize the P22 isn't a S&W pistol but it has their name on it & I feel the CS should be just as fast & diligent for it. To be told it was another 8 weeks out & then get it 4 days later after raising a fuss makes me think something fishy was going on. It might be some time before a make another S&W purchase. I don't think I'll ever buy another P22 after this experience.
 
K-Rod

Something about the squeakiest wheel gets the most oil comes to mind. I think you did a great job in staying on top of S&W to honor their replacement offer to you. They probably did have difficulty getting the replacement parts from Germany; still no excuse for them to drop the ball in terms of CS by not keeping you updated with an accurate assessment of what was really happening.
 
I considered buying a P22...but the slide cracking stories scared me off.
I ended up finding a French Unique 22lr pistol at a gun show...all steel, beautifully machined, and about the same size as the walther. Single action. $125, private sale, no paperwork, no tax...
I've had a blast with it, and it has been 100% reliable. Dates from the 1960's.
 
I must be the luckiest guy on the planet! I bought a P22 when they first came out and shot at least 20K rounds thru it before I sold it (wish I had never sold it) and the guy I sold it to two years ago is still plinking with it every weekend! It has never had one problem with breakage and also has been super reliable and accurate. As long as I used fairly hot quality ammo it never even jammed or anything bad either.
 
You turned down a free brand new replacement?

I suspect S&W offered it to you because they were just going to pull the slide off it and figured they might as well make you happy and offer you the whole gun. After multiple critical parts failures, numerous trips to S&W and a bunch of free mags, S&W finally replaced my P22 and I am real happy with the "indestructable" version they sent me. But like others have said, the P22 is made by a company that makes airguns and now thay make the "Colt" .22 A.R., which I hear they are having problems with as well.
You said you have several S&W M&P 15's, any of them .22? S&W had major problems with the extractors blowing off and firing out of battery in the first production models, they handled that problem very quickly and efficiently and sent all rifles back with a free mag, just goes to show, guns can leave the factory with problems/weakpoints that the manufacturer is unaware of, but once they become aware its up to them to handle it in a way that keeps thier customers happy and doesnt damage the reputation of the company. Glad it worked out for you, if your still not happy, I have no doubt you would easily recoup your money and probably even make a little more than you paid.
 
Sorry to hear about that situation it really sucks and I hope that if my P22 ever has these problems that I can manage to get a free slide out of it but if not $50 seems reasonable enough.

My P22 has worked great so far, it was made in 09.
 
wow, this seems to be a common issue of sorts for this pistol. i actually dropped my p22 slide on my tile floor from about 3ft while cleaning it once. i was paranoid due to the broken slide issue and it being made of potmetal or "zinc" when it slipped out of my hand i was scrambling grabbing all the way to the flloor to save it......when it hit the floor it bounced a couple times. it seemed to survive though, but i have a fairly low round count through mine no more than maybe 500-700 rounds or so.

mine hasn't been without issues though. it had to go back to s&w for the trigger bar ears...and the job they did left not much left....but it came back working and hasn't failed since...so i'm not complaining. it's a problematic pistol out of the box...mine failed the first shot. accuracy is poor, but for some weird reason i like this pistol and would buy another one if mine fails.........i know makes no sense...i just like the p22.....
 
Good to hear the full story; thanks for the update.

I think you made out all right. But that is a lot of damned waiting. I probably would've called CS after the first 8 weeks and the ensuing run-around. I bet your first slides got shipped to other squeaky wheels. ;)

I would have taken the new gun though.
 
A friend's Walther P22 had the exact same thing happen after he had only had it for a few months : ( He got it repaired but traded for Browning Buck Mark and is better now!!! : )
 
In my opinion the best reason to use zinc is to pass the savings on to the customers, cheap construction makes for an affordable gun for the customer in normal circumstances. This just isn't the case with several modern pistols with well respected names on them, they make the gun as cheap as possible (construction materials) and still sell it for $300 or more.
 
Do t get me wrong, I really enjoy this little pistol. Once I worked out the "Quirks", it's been a fun plinker. It's not gonna win any matches but it can make a beer can jump around a bit. Just the whole experience with S&W has left a bad taste. As I said, their CS service has been great with my S&W firearms but the the experience with the Walther was kinda like the fat kid getting picked last at kick ball.
 
The P22 slides are made of zinc alloy, pot metal crap because it's light and cheap.......helps the .22 cycle (being lite).
Click to expand...

Aluminum is much lighter, and a much stronger type of pot metal. Neither have any place in a quality gun in my opinion.

In my opinion the best reason to use zinc is to pass the savings on to the customers
Click to expand...

Now there's positive spin for ya. :D

Junk is junk, any price is too high.
 
Had a big groundhog in the garage yesterday. I grabbed the P-22 we keep in the kitchen drawer by the back door and resolved that situation in a hurry. There are several .22's around here but none get used as often as the little Walther. My Grandkids try to wear it out every time they come over and it just keeps plugging along. Best investment I've made in a long time. One of the few guns I actually figure I've got my money's worth out of already.
 
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