Walther PPQ Problem

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10-10-20, 19:34
dirkmagurk

Walther PPQ Problem

I took my PPQ M2 4” 9mm out today for a friend to try and discovered an issue I’ve never seen before. He was consistently having failures to fire i.e. he pulled the trigger with no bang and no indent on the primer. I then fired the pistol without issue using the same ammunition. Once I observed him firing I realized he was riding the trigger to reset, he is a competition shooter and uses Glocks with this technique without issue. So I then fired a magazine while riding the trigger to reset and encountered the same failures to fire with no primer strike. I’m curious if anyone has had or heard of this happening with the PPQ series?
10-10-20, 20:10
extremist

Quote:

Originally Posted by dirkmagurk

I took my PPQ M2 4” 9mm out today for a friend to try and discovered an issue I’ve never seen before. He was consistently having failures to fire i.e. he pulled the trigger with no bang and no indent on the primer. I then fired the pistol without issue using the same ammunition. Once I observed him firing I realized he was riding the trigger to reset, he is a competition shooter and uses Glocks with this technique without issue. So I then fired a magazine while riding the trigger to reset and encountered the same failures to fire with no primer strike. I’m curious if anyone has had or heard of this happening with the PPQ series?

Many hundreds of rounds through my PPQs and never seen this. Done trigger reset drills and use for precision shots, never had an issue. Discuss with Walther America?
10-10-20, 21:23
63Qcode

I have two PPQ M1`s , 9mm ..... one has almost 3,000 rounds through it with zero issues from day one and the other has a little over 1,000 rounds through it , also with zero issues . Also several schools with them .
Next time out , I`ll try riding the trigger to reset and see what happens , but I don`t normally ride the trigger to reset . Also , you might want to go the the Walther Forums site . There is a lot of knowledge there and some very helpful guys .
FWIW , I have an APEX trigger assy on one of the guns , the one with 1,000 rounds and it`s been dead reliable .
10-10-20, 22:21
Sikiguya

I don’t think it is a problem with the gun. You hadn’t had an issue with it. But if it bothers you, add the Apex trigger. It shortens the reset.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
10-11-20, 08:02
dirkmagurk

Thanks for the replies, a google search of Walther PPQ failure to fire pulls several threads covering the same issue. I’m not too concerned since I never have or intend to use this pistol for anything other than range play. I’ll contact Walther this week and see what they say though.
10-12-20, 08:39
HCrum87hc

I have had 3 PPQs, but haven't had this issue. I don't make a habit of it, but I have taken some precise shots by slowing riding the reset and then instantly pulling through the wall. Contact Walther. Their CS has been great in my experience. I haven't contacted them regarding any issues, but I once lost the plunger that holds the rear sight adjustment screw in place when changing the sights. I reached out to them to purchase one, and they sent me one free of charge within a couple days.
10-13-20, 14:01
sundance435

Quote:

Originally Posted by dirkmagurk

I took my PPQ M2 4” 9mm out today for a friend to try and discovered an issue I’ve never seen before. He was consistently having failures to fire i.e. he pulled the trigger with no bang and no indent on the primer. I then fired the pistol without issue using the same ammunition. Once I observed him firing I realized he was riding the trigger to reset, he is a competition shooter and uses Glocks with this technique without issue. So I then fired a magazine while riding the trigger to reset and encountered the same failures to fire with no primer strike. I’m curious if anyone has had or heard of this happening with the PPQ series?

I'm not following - if he's riding it until it actually resets, then there shouldn't be an issue and I don't know how that would happen if it actually resets. Sounds to me more like it's not actually resetting, but maybe there's some tactile feel that creates that impression, which I've encountered on some guns, though the actual reset point is usually easily distinguishable.
10-14-20, 22:46
MistWolf

Quote:

Originally Posted by dirkmagurk

I took my PPQ M2 4” 9mm out today for a friend to try and discovered an issue I’ve never seen before. He was consistently having failures to fire i.e. he pulled the trigger with no bang and no indent on the primer. I then fired the pistol without issue using the same ammunition. Once I observed him firing I realized he was riding the trigger to reset, he is a competition shooter and uses Glocks with this technique without issue. So I then fired a magazine while riding the trigger to reset and encountered the same failures to fire with no primer strike. I’m curious if anyone has had or heard of this happening with the PPQ series?

When the slide of the PPQ is in a certain position, pressing the trigger will prevent the striker from cocking as the slide and barrel move into battery. If the shooter resets the trigger when the slide is in that position, the result is a dead trigger.

To find that spot, cock these PPQ. Pull back on the slide until the barrel just drops out of battery and you feel the spring tension spike. Press and hold the trigger and let the slide forward again. The PPQ wil be decocker. You may have to play with it a bit to find that spot.

I believe Walther has addressed the issue in newer PPQs. I handled several PPQs at the Walther booth during the 2019 SHOT show and couldn't get any to decock.

If the trigger goes dead from riding the reset while the slide is in any other position, there is a problem with the pistol. If that's the case, contact Walther.
10-15-20, 06:20
dirkmagurk

Quote:

Originally Posted by MistWolf

When the slide of the PPQ is in a certain position, pressing the trigger will prevent the striker from cocking as the slide and barrel move into battery. If the shooter resets the trigger when the slide is in that position, the result is a dead trigger.

To find that spot, cock these PPQ. Pull back on the slide until the barrel just drops out of battery and you feel the spring tension spike. Press and hold the trigger and let the slide forward again. The PPQ wil be decocker. You may have to play with it a bit to find that spot.

I believe Walther has addressed the issue in newer PPQs. I handled several PPQs at the Walther booth during the 2019 SHOT show and couldn't get any to decock.

If the trigger goes dead from riding the reset while the slide is in any other position, there is a problem with the pistol. If that's the case, contact Walther.

Wow. Thank you for that information! My pistol does this easily, once it’s slightly out of battery and I pull the trigger it decocks. I’ve never heard of this before but see it as a problem, if a fight goes to the ground or under stress an out of battery contact shot is attempted. Then it would require racking the slide while fighting to be able to fire again. I tried to replicate this on every other pistol make I have on hand and could not. Maybe this is a reason these pistols aren’t in wide use with LE/MIL. The trigger is amazing and makes shooting accurately almost effortless but it will stay a range toy for me. Also, I tried calling Walther but the wait time currently is too long for me considering I don’t use this pistol.
10-15-20, 13:45
glocktogo

I never replicated this issue on the range with live ammo except when attaching my Evo9 can to the PPQ Navy I have. There was a known issue with Navy models that Walther USA now has a "fix kit" for. Essentially, the slide would almost go into battery while riding the reset, but not quite. As soon as you released the trigger, the slide would move fully into battery. But unless you replicated it from slide lock with a dummy round while watching the slide very closely, you wouldn't see it.

I did a full analysis and ultimately determined that from the factory, the extractor hook on my example was too long. It over-engages the rim and pushes the sharp edge of the extractor into the brass at the groove. If you dropped the slide on one dummy cartridge several times, it would seriously chew the brass up in the groove. By applying all the tension of the extractor spring onto the sharp tip digging into the groove, it was retarding the slide travel just enough to prevent 100% lockup.

There was absolutely nothing wrong with the extractor spring tension or barrel/slide/frame lockup, the extractor hook was just overkill. So I took as many different headstamp examples as I could find and measured them all at the groove. After determining a nominal min-max groove depth, I very carefully removed a few thousandths from the extractor hook length, then rounded the bottom a bit more and polished everything up. The tip of the hook still reaches the groove on the narrowest brass I could find, it just doesn't apply as much pressure to it. It stopped shredding the grooves on my dummy rounds.

Once I got the length/tension correct, this 100% eliminated the reset/lockup issue under recoil, even with the suppressor attached and using my powder puff match loads, which is a 147gr flat nose at 900fps. I did order the "fix" kit from Walther and as stated above their CS is excellent, but I haven't bothered to install it and it's in the original case with everything else they come with.

That's just an anecdotal example of one, but Walther Forums had a long thread on PPQ Navy reliability issues, and no one had figured out the actual issue I identified until I posted it. For a much more technical response, I looked up the original thread and where I started posting (memory is fuzzy because this was over 5 years ago. Start at Post # 266:

https://www.waltherforums.com/thread....36528/page-14