As I am sure many of you know S&W manufactured Walther PP and PPK pistols from 1999 to 2005 under license from Walther. There were some design changes made by S&W, and I recall that in the past there had been some posts about reliability issues with the S&W guns.

On April 1 I purchased a used stainless .380 PPK with a bit of trepidation based on what I have read/heard. While I have never had a problem with any used gun I have bought in the last nearly 60 years, sure enough this one is a lemon! In ca. 70 rounds I have experienced 2 light strikes and a dozen or so cases of the hammer following down. In every case the hammer was stopped by the "Safety Strut" about half-way down. The safety strut is one of several parts added or modified by S&W, and appear only in the S&W guns! Go figure, a design that had been virtually flawless for 65 years they thought they could improve! I strongly suspect these "improvements" were the root cause of the reliability issues.

My questions to those of you who did buy a S&W Walther and had issues with it is:

What specific problems did you have?

Was S&W able to repair the gun and eliminate the problem, or were there still issues once you got it back?

Did you have the S&W parts replaced with Walther parts, and did this fix your problems with the gun?

Note: Walther USA Lists the S&W specific parts on their parts list. I have not yet asked if I can replace the S&W hammer and associated parts with Walther parts. S&W modified the hammer, hammer strut and hammer strut spring, and added the safety strut and safety strut spring to the revised hammer. Other than these all other parts shown by Walther are the same for all manufacturers..

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Gunsmithing since 1961

There were some warranty repair/recall issues with the Smith Walthers. I don't recall the specifics, but you might check to see if yours is/was involved . . .

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Wisdom comes thru fear . . .

Recall info - Page Not Found - Walther Arms

Send the pistol to Walther and let them take care of it. - Page Not Found - Walther Arms

I have been hearing about reliability problems with the Walther PP family of auto-loaders ever since I decided to buy my first on back in the 70s.

In my mind, Smith and Wesson fixed my biggest complaint about the PP family when they extended the tangs so that those of us with fleshy hands no longer get slide bite. I went right out and bought both a PPK and a PPK/s.

They have been perfect, but I bought mine new.

Is is possible that your used PPK has had a bad trigger job? Perhaps the previous owner did it or had it done.

Either way, a hammer following forward sounds like a sear engagement failure. Perhaps it is a bad original part or perhaps an unskilled tinkerer.

Unless you have a skilled gunsmith near you, I would send it in to the Factory and let them have at it.

By the way, never again, and I mean NEVER buy a gun on APRIL 1st.

Purchased a used S&W Walther SS 380 in about 2006. It was part of the recall so I returned it to S&W for the recall repair. Did not shoot it prior to sending it in. Turn around time was two weeks. Took it out to shoot it and it functioned flawlessly with hard ball ammo of all brands. It would not consistantly feed or function with any of the 6 different brands of hollow point ammo I tried in it. Sold it off the next week.

I have read some opinions that .380 is best with ball ammo even for SD. It has to do with the HP's clogging with clothing and not enough speed and energy to overcome it. The ball ammo tends to "bore through" without as much loss of velocity.

My Smith/Walther is fine for me and I love it.