Trouble with Walther P22's

[Baneblade]

My wife and I each have an OD green Walther P22 with the standard barrel. They are 3 years old and have had about 1000+ rounds each. Both have the same issue, failure to return to battery. After firing, the slide only returns to a half-way point and has to be tapped forward to finish loading the next round.

I have tried every type of bulk ammo I can find. Remington, Federal, Wildcats, high velocity, standard velocity. Everything has the same problem. On another thread someone specifically said their P22 eats the Golden Bullets without any trouble and that is what I normally use. I average 2 failures out of 10 rounds. I clean the guns after each shooting trip, but it happens whether they are clean or dirty.

Does anyone know if there was a problem with the P22's from a couple of years ago? Has anyone else had the same problem?

 

[yongxingfreesty]

i have done 400rnds without cleaning and it still shot like a champ. i was shooting mini mags and i have the comp at the end of the barrel.

dont know what else to tell ya, but send it back or have a smith check it out.

 

[trueblue1776]

Sounds like classic dirty pistol to me. If you could find a spring just a little bit stronger it would help, I have no idea if after market springs are available for the P22.

 

[valor1]

It is a hit and miss. Both old and current production show some occassional lemons most of the time. Well, what manufacturer doesn't?

 

[Steve C]

If everything works fine for 8 rounds then something is going wrong the other 2. Something is slowing the slide down and preventing it from cycling properly. Common causes I can think of are:
1. Dirty pistol - dirt and powder fouling slows the slide down.
2. Too strong a magazine spring holding the rounds too tight in the magazine. Usually this is for first rounds out of a fully loaded new mag.
3. Shooter retarding the slide. Usually caused by laying a finger or thumb against the side of the slide.
4. Too weak a slide spring, usually after many 10's of thousands of rounds.
5. Improper assembly of the pistol.
6. Not enough lubrication of the sliding parts.

 

[budder]

I had a similar problem at first, but then it went away. Now, the only problem I have is that the slide won't lock back after the last round . It will extract, but the slide stop just isn't engaged.

 

[papabear47]

My wife had a problem with ejection because she did not have a firm grip.Once she used a tight grip everything was fine.

 

[varoadking]

My wife had a problem with ejection because she did not have a firm grip.Once she used a tight grip everything was fine.

Bet that put a smile on your face...

 

[evan price]

Baneblade:
When they jam, is it on returning to battery after feeding a fresh round from the mag? If so, is the round stuck on the feedramp?
I use Golden Bullets or Federal Bulk in my P22. I have fired over 1500 through mine. The only problem I ever had was that when dropping the slide on a fresh mag with the slide release, the slide would not go all the way into battery (the round would nose-jam on the feed ramp). When I slingshot the slide instead of using the release, it would never have a problem. After about 1000 rounds that problem went away; however when I took it down to the nuts and bolts for a major cleaning right around that time I soaked everything in a tub of Ed's Red to the point the gun was physically oozing oil everywhere, then wiped it down. Now the slide goes back and forth like oiled glass.
I have issues here in Ohio with humidity and using weapons outdoors in wet conditions like a sudden storm. For that reason I oil the living crap out of my guns, especially before storing them. I do notice that I have far fewer problems involving feeding or function than a lot of other folks do, maybe the fact that I like everything oily helps.
For a stopgap test, try taking your recoil spring and measure the uncompressed (free) length. Then try to carefully, evenly stretch it out so it is about a half-inch or so longer than it was. If that solves your problem, order a new spring for both pistols.

 

[greener]

I haven't had that problem with mine. I have had a few difficulties in getting the slide to close completely without a push on the first round. I clean with breakfree and oil with Hoppe's very lightly. Some folks seem to like moly lubes and I will try that. I live in central Virginia, which sometimes has humidity problems. Other problems that have been reported are the barrel nut working loose and some of the screws coming loose. These are solved with loctite. On some models, the trigger bar ears are sharp and can gouge the slide. Mine is in transit from Smith & Walther because it had this problem and at less than 1k rounds it looked like this
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n159/greener6/slide.jpg

I'm waiting to see what customer service did with the pistol. I may be into disassembly and some polishing.

 

[Levan9X19]

I have buckmark .22 for almost 5 months. Shot 600-700 rounds of all kind through it with no issues. Failures are common with cheap and old russian ammo but only failures to set off primer on old cartridges and few stovepipes. I clean pistol properly after each session and have had zero problems with new cartridges.
I suggest youto give to your P22 good clean and proper lube job. If failures will continue to occure try to use new recoil spring.

sometimes my Buckmark fails to lock the slide open but this is not critical issue for plinker

 

[kart racer]

Check the screw on the right side of the reciever and the barrel nut.If either is a little loose it will cause those problems.

 

[spencerhut]

My P22 is a box to S&W.

I was having the same problem. Man it pissed me off. I finally put it in a box and sent it home and asked the nice people at S&W to make it behave.

 

[Wedge]

Check the screw on the right side of the reciever and the barrel nut.If either is a little loose it will cause those problems.

There are actually 2 screws. Only one can be seen with just field stripping. You need to remove receiver from frame (two drift pins), degrease, dry, loctite both (blue-removable), reassemble. Use a dry lube, or at least a lube that dries dry (in other words don't use regular oily gun oil).

 

[Northslope Nimrod]

My vote is for a good cleaning and use Rem Oil with Teflon.
I loved shooting my P22. One of the funnest guns I've owned, but I sold it because I like my guns to be type I can hand down to my kids. Fun gun, great warranty, but not built to last forever.

 

[Baneblade]

Maintenance is not a problem. Both guns have been thoroughly cleaned and I have tried heavy oil (clp) and a lighter oil (RemOil) and still have the same problems.

To answer a previous question, the failure occurs on the firing cycle as the slide is returning to battery and loading the next round. The round has cleared the feed ramp at the point of failure. With an empty weapon, I can slowly manipulate the slide and cause it to stick in place approximately 1/2 forward. The serial numbers on both pistols are pretty close together (just by coincedence) which is why I had asked if anyone knew of a specific problem with the pistols.

I have checked the bushing and it is tight, but I have not checked the screw on the right side. Thanks for that tip, I will try that out this weekend.

Thanks for the pics on the one pistol, both of mine are showing some similar wear, though not to the same degree.

 

[Bula]

I had the same trouble with mine. I'd clean the heck out of it, oiled it, different mags, tried EVERY type of ammo--NO GO. It was just a POS. Not very accurate either (when it did shoot). The only gun I've ever GIVEN away. I knew not to expect Match Grade accuracy but, my rugers and Buckmarks can really out shoot the P22's. Send it back, get it 'fixed' then buy something else.