New purchase, slide stuck - PPK

[SeanPwnery]

I thought I'd throw this out here in case any of you own one of these. I picked up an S&W made Walter-PPK today for a carry piece. It is brand new in the box, nothing indicating ever being used aside from the test-casing in the box.

This was my first semi-auto so I asked my local to show me the ins and outs of it since I come from revolvers (my most recent being the 629 Competitor). He was explaining how to strip it down and lo and behold... he couldn't get the slide off.

I've been trying more or less the entirety of the evening since I'm home with it, and I can't for the life of me get the slide off either. Their gunsmith is off on Monday's so they told me to bring it by tomorrow if I was unable to get it apart myself.

Anyone else ever run into this? Just to see if I had "girly hands" they brought out a PPK-S which I was able to take apart with relative ease... all I know is, Bond wouldn't have had this problem.

 

[.455_Hunter]

New S&W PPK series pistols can be quite tight when new. Lube it up and take it to the range- 100 rounds should fix the problem and get it broken-in.

 

[VTHokiesDuckHunter]

+1

Also if I remember right, there might be some kind of trick here but it's been a while since I stripped a PPK.

Have you looked in the maunaul well? Magazine in or out? Trigger released?

 

[blujax01]

Pulling the slide back just so far then dropping the trigger guard can be quite tricky. This may help:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ueH4KqEDFdg

And strictly speaking it's spelled "Walther" and pronounced "Valther".

Fine choice in a carry pistol. I will own one before all's said and done.

 

[Doubless]

I hate to sound like an idiot, but my PPK/S doesn't have to have the slide pulled back for the trigger guard to drop. I drop (disengage?) the trigger guard and then pull the slide fully to the rear and off the frame.

Have you tried doing it this way?

 

[SeanPwnery]

Thanks for the replies so far... I'll try to answer them all at once here...

* I can drop the trigger guard at any time (before or after manipulating the slide) - even the manual says to pull the guard down and aside after engaging the safety.
* The magazine is out
* I can't feel any binding during the entire travel of the slide, though I think I can feel a notch where it should start to pull upward even though it wont
* I can only pull back the slide about 3 or 4 times before my hands start to hurt squeezing on the very new and very sharp grip surfaces on the sides of the slide - the slide pull is REALLY tight right now, I'm thinking somewhere in at least the 30-40 pound pull range.
* It is rather frustrating when you try the 2nd or 3rd time and the darn trigger guard pops back into place and catches your shirt

I wrote my local and asked him if I can take a few days and put a few dozen rounds through it first to get things broken in before worrying about the first field strip - we'll see how that goes.

 

[klausinak]

I sometimes think that the recoil spring on my PPK/S used to be a leaf spring on a 5-ton truck, yes it's very stiff. It should wear itself in enough to be do-able. I also know your pain on grabbing the slide, not a lot to hold on to. A few 'tricks' I've come up with: 1.) drop the trigger guard and push off to one side so it hangs up on the frame. & 2.) I've found that having the safety engaged doesn't hurt my hand nearly as much as when it's on 'Fire'. Still, it's definitely not the gun for a person with arthritis .

 

[VTHokiesDuckHunter]

I did a quick web search. Two things came up a few times- fire it 100 times or so and it will loosen up. Several guys did this.

A couple sent theirs back to S&W that took care of the problem.

 

[CAJUNLAWYER]

And strictly speaking it's spelled "Walther" and pronounced "Valther".

Has somebody told Walter ?
And in my 58 years on this planet-although you may very well be correct-I've never heard it called a Valther. But then again I'm a gut who still finds myself calling the rifle "SAY-ko"

 

[wittmeba]

Might try some graphite powder lubrication on both sides of the slide/frame and work it a few times.

http://pdf.textfiles.com/manuals/FIREARMS/walther_ppk_ppks.pdf

 

[Forsmithers]

CajunLawyer,
The letter W is pronounced like "vay" in German. That's where Valther is coming from. Outside of Deutschland the rest of the world knows it as a Walther.