PPK/S concern

[Hman]

Greetings all,

Unfortunately my first post is about a problem. I have purchased a Smith & Wesson made Walther PPK/S and have ran into problems with the slide scratching the exterior of the chamber. Specifically the exposed parts of the chamber/barrel that show from the round ejector port. The scratches are more pronounced on the oposite side of the barrel. I use Break Free cleaner/lubricant on the weapon but it seems to still develop scratches. I'd hate to have purchased a pistol with a defect that defaces the weapon every time I use it.

Any Ideas of a cause/fix?

Thanks
-Hman

[Bill DeShivs]

That is normal wear.

[Mosin_Nagant_Fan]

All pistols do that, my FEG I currently own and Makarov I sold did that.

[LDBennett]

The only way to keep a new gun pristine is to not shoot it. Guns wear and eventually wear out. The pressures they handle are in the tens of thousands of pounds of pressure per square inch (inside the cartridge). They have only metal to metal bearing surfaces without roller or ball or even bearing metal (bronze) working surface like you would find in most other mechanical systems. Steel on steel gauls and scratches or just wears.

You can minimise the effect by cleaning the gun thoroughly after every shooting session. Lube the gun with the correct lubes for the metal of the gun. Make sure that surfaces that run against each other are lubed. Stop mid session and lube again if the shooting session is much more than a couple of hundred of rounds. Keep grit out of the gun as it gets between the surfaces and un-necessarily scratchs the parts. Use real oils and greases, not bore or metal cleaners, as a lubricant.

LDBennett

[delta13soultaker]

Smith & Wesson, Walther PPK/S...I took some pics of mine so you can compare. Round count is a couple thousand and wear/scratches are indeed very present. No more than any other pistol I have though...so if yours is defective so is every semi-auto handgun I own.

First pic is left side of barrel.

Others are of barrel portion exposed by ejection port.

I tried pointing out the deep scratch on the upper barrel caused by the slide, but the camera will barely focus enough to see. It's deep enough to snag skin on my fingertip though.

[Hman]

Thanks for the reply fellas. Kind of takes a little bit off my mind, I was just a bit worried as I have only put 100 rounds through it and it looked like it was dinged up pretty badly.

Thanks again!

[Winglebeast]

i just bought a new PPK and took it shooting today and while cleaning i noticed the first maybe 1/8 of rifleing is worn. looks like where the bullet first engages the rifleing.

is this normal? was i useing bad ammo? please help me out here guys

[delta13soultaker]

Sounds like some heavy fouling. Soaking the bore in a quality solvent a few hours and scrubbing with a brass brush will likely polish your bore back to a mirror finish.

In the meantime though it is not abnormal. Should not cause you any problems.

As long as you're using factory ammo in the correct caliber or handloads you trust, I wouldn't worry.

[Winglebeast]

im not so sure, i only shot 50 rounds of factory ammo, and that was the first 50 i ever put through it. it definately seems like wear to me

[LDBennett]

Winglebeast:

Are you confusing wear with the transistion from the chamber to the rifling?

That transistion is a sloped surface so the bullet enters the rifling smoothly. If it were not so designed the bullet would snub into a mini shelf and that shelf would act like a cutter as the bullet moved across it. That would slow the exit of the bullet and the pressure behind it would skyrocket, hurting the gun. All the guns I have ever seen have this ramp from the chamber to the top of the lands.

If you shoot exposed lead bullets (exposed on the other surfaces of the bullet, not just the tip) that are not covered by a gilding metal or a coper plating then lead gets stripped off the bullet and fills some of the grooves of the rifling. You can minimize the effect by shooting a handfull of full metal jacketed bullets at the end of the shooting session. Then when you clean use a bronze brush to scrub the bore. Only use bronze or brass brushes (NEVER STEEL) and don't change their direction in the barrel until they have exited the barrel (push or pull one way all the way through the barrel). Sometimes if the leading is bad enough you have to use a lead remover cloth (see you dealer). And in extreme cases you may have to pick it out of the rifling with a dental pick (last resort!).

LDBennett

[JLA]

LD beat me to it, the wear you are seeing is probably the throat of the barrel where the rifling ramps up from the chamber. if that wasnt there youd be experiencing poor accuracy and extremely high pressures.

[Winglebeast]

i sure hope thats what im looking at. i was just confused because it wasnt as shiny or polished as the rest of the barrel, and havent seen it any any of my other wepons.

alli shoot is FMJ, so im sure its not lead scrapeings.


we will see i suppose