# Walther PPQ Range Report



## Craigh (Jul 29, 2016)

Well, I went to the range on Tuesday and suffered two failures with my favorite defense handgun, the Walther PPQ M2 9mm. One failure was all mine, but I can also blame a little on design. During double tap drills, I ejected my only 17 rnd. magazing on the ground half full. I'm not sure how it happened other than my shooting thumb somehow pushed the release. I thought I might have trouble with this because others have claimed it too, and my older grip pattern put my thumb close to that release. I'd changed to a higher thumbs forward grip to avoid this but somehow in the heat of the drill, it happened. I love this gun too much to give up, but if I can't train out of it, I'd just have to trade it in on the M1 version and buy new magazines. The M1 version has the paddle release on the trigger guard. Regardless, that was a "me" failure.

The second failure was a gun fail to feed and this bothers me more. It was a clean gun, halfway through a magazine, and my favorite defense round, the Speer Gold Dot 9mm +P 124 grn. The bullet hung up with the hollowpoint against the side of the chamber and the rim against the slide, the whole thing slightly to the left of the feed ramp. I just glanced to see this then went into a Tap and Rack drill where it cleared and fired the remainder of the magazine.

I'm going to have to look at that feed ramp with my macro cameras to see if there's any burrs I can't see with my old diabetic eyes. If there is, I'll polish a little deeper than I initially did which was a very mild hand polish. I'll also run maybe 50 rounds of Hornady JHPs through it too. The Gold Dots measure just slightly longer than the Hornady's do. The gun is still in break-in period, but I take failures very seriously in a defense pistol. I'd all but sent the jury home on this handgun, now they will have to deliberate again for a time. This is the first and only failure on the PPQ.

On the positive side, the gun has literally the sweetest trigger I've ever enjoyed on a striker fired weapon. It's allowing me to make some very accurate and tight groups. Very nice and a pleasure to shoot.

Thanks for reading and take care.

Craig


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## rustygun (Apr 8, 2013)

That's why we practice. Hope you get it figured out.


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## Blackhawkman (Apr 9, 2014)

I polished a feed ramp for a friend who has a PPQ. I polished the ramp with a CraTex tip on a Dreml tool. I went REAL careful & slow. This helped ALOT. My friend also went to a hollow point bullet with a smaller ogive. This too helped the problem alot. Friendy also adjusted his sizing die on his progressive loader too. Now he just practices without any issues, and I still go with him to shoot. I already know all the cuss words BTW! Hope this helps?


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## pic (Nov 14, 2009)

Craigh said:


> Well, I went to the range on Tuesday and suffered two failures with my favorite defense handgun, the Walther PPQ M2 9mm. One failure was all mine, but I can also blame a little on design. During double tap drills, I ejected my only 17 rnd. magazing on the ground half full. I'm not sure how it happened other than my shooting thumb somehow pushed the release. I thought I might have trouble with this because others have claimed it too, and my older grip pattern put my thumb close to that release. I'd changed to a higher thumbs forward grip to avoid this but somehow in the heat of the drill, it happened. I love this gun too much to give up, but if I can't train out of it, I'd just have to trade it in on the M1 version and buy new magazines. The M1 version has the paddle release on the trigger guard. Regardless, that was a "me" failure.
> 
> The second failure was a gun fail to feed and this bothers me more. It was a clean gun, halfway through a magazine, and my favorite defense round, the Speer Gold Dot 9mm +P 124 grn. The bullet hung up with the hollowpoint against the side of the chamber and the rim against the slide, the whole thing slightly to the left of the feed ramp. I just glanced to see this then went into a Tap and Rack drill where it cleared and fired the remainder of the magazine.
> 
> ...


Great report, thank you. I'm assuming your failure to feed came after tha mag fell out. Did you alter your grip afterwards? 
After the double taps is it the third round that you had an issue? Coulda been the magazines failure to properly keep up with the speed of the double taps, been there myself, I wouldn't focus on the feed ramp, the mag needs to bring that next round into position with the correct angle. Rounds need to cycle up through the magazine properly, manufacturers need to focus more on quality magazines
so many possible things could have been the culprit. Been hereing very good reviews on the ppq trigger.
you will find the issue , please post after you've nailed it


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## Craigh (Jul 29, 2016)

Blackhawkman said:


> I polished a feed ramp for a friend who has a PPQ. I polished the ramp with a CraTex tip on a Dreml tool. I went REAL careful & slow. This helped ALOT. My friend also went to a hollow point bullet with a smaller ogive. This too helped the problem alot. Friendy also adjusted his sizing die on his progressive loader too. Now he just practices without any issues, and I still go with him to shoot. I already know all the cuss words BTW! Hope this helps?


Yes, I worked on the feed ramp this morning with a Dremel/conical felt tip and Flitz, my favorite jeweler's polish. I don't believe I actually removed any noticeable metal, but there were two very slight burrs I could feel on the left side of the feed ramp. They are gone now.

Using my calipers, I found the Gold Dot 124 grain rounds to be slightly longer than other JHP or FMJ in 124 grain in the five other brands I have on hand (PPU FMJ, Federal Independence FMJ, Hornady TAP JHP, American Eagle FMJ, SIG Sauer V-Crown JHP). As a side note, this is the first time I used Independence and 100 rounds were flawless, clean, and soft shooting; a pleasure to use. They were a Black Friday sale item and I wish I'd bought more than the two boxes. Federal leases the old Independence MO. government munitions factory and assembles them there. They are basically identical to Blazer Brass, another Federal company. Recommended. :smt1099

The Sig Elites are like flying Dixie Cups with a fairly wide hollow point, but have been flawless. They are just normally a bit expensive and the wideness of that opening somehow bothers me. Still, they have also been flawless from my Ruger LCP and LCP II in 380.



pic said:


> Great report, thank you. I'm assuming your failure to feed came after tha mag fell out. Did you alter your grip afterwards?
> After the double taps is it the third round that you had an issue? Coulda been the magazines failure to properly keep up with the speed of the double taps, been there myself, I wouldn't focus on the feed ramp, the mag needs to bring that next round into position with the correct angle. Rounds need to cycle up through the magazine properly, manufacturers need to focus more on quality magazines
> so many possible things could have been the culprit. Been hereing very good reviews on the ppq trigger.
> you will find the issue , please post after you've nailed it


I'm pretty sure the failure to feed was on the second round of a double tap drill. That said, I just don't believe it was the cause. The way the round was stuck looks more like it caught on something. The hollow-point was poking into the side of the chamber slightly above and to the left of the feed ramp. The rear of the brass or rim was holding open the slide. The round was level and aimed forward. The Tap and Rack drill moved that stuck round into the chamber where it fired. This magazine was indeed the 17 rnd. magazine I ejected to the floor, so you may have a good point there. I will further investigate this magazine. In fact, just this morning I noticed a rattle when shaking it which I'd not heard before. I'll take it apart and let you know. In the mean time, that mag is not going to be used. Walther uses Met-Gar magazines and I've always liked that company. I like seeing that "Made in Italy" when I get a new pistol. I know they used Met-Gar.


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## pic (Nov 14, 2009)

Craigh said:


> Yes, I worked on the feed ramp this morning with a Dremel/conical felt tip and Flitz, my favorite jeweler's polish. I don't believe I actually removed any noticeable metal, but there were two very slight burrs I could feel on the left side of the feed ramp. They are gone now.
> 
> Using my calipers, I found the Gold Dot 124 grain rounds to be slightly longer than other JHP or FMJ in 124 grain in the five other brands I have on hand (PPU FMJ, Federal Independence FMJ, Hornady TAP JHP, American Eagle FMJ, SIG Sauer V-Crown JHP). As a side note, this is the first time I used Independence and 100 rounds were flawless, clean, and soft shooting; a pleasure to use. They were a Black Friday sale item and I wish I'd bought more than the two boxes. Federal leases the old Independence MO. government munitions factory and assembles them there. They are basically identical to Blazer Brass, another Federal company. Recommended. :smt1099
> 
> ...


x

i remember back in the day if you were using an auto feeder , the ammo was hardball. Hardball was strongly recommended for reliable feeding purposes.

todays auto feeders supposedly are more reliable .The populous Never used hollows, they weren't to be trusted. The nine was the penetrating round and the 45 the knockdown round.

My little beretta px4 I notice ,40 cal shoots fine, but I notice when manually emptying a magazine separated, not inserted into the pistol , I notice what I call bullet lag, the brass raises up first before the actual bullet. If something like this is occurring we'll get a nosedive into the feed ramp . This issue is very hard to determine. I usually notice the lag when the magazine is full or almost full.
My opinion on this issue I had ,it was either a weak spring or a faulty follower design. 
Merry Christmas to you Craigh,
pic

:smt1099


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## Craigh (Jul 29, 2016)

Yes my friend, I used to have a couple of, believe it or no, McCormick mags for my 1911a models which for some reason would nose dive the first or second round. If I only loaded five rounds, not problem. They were brand new so I took them back and traded for Wilson model 47 mags which I still have today. 

As far as hollow points in autoloaders go, I've been using them successfully since the mid 1970s. I started using them in my Sig P220 circa 1976. It never once failed even with those old Speer flying ashtrays, you might remember. For the next couple of decades, I mostly owned 45s and revolvers. I've had many 1911 handguns and it was my carry gun for a lot of years. Even in the 1970s I loaded hollow point in them without issue. It hasn't been until recent years, I've moved to a number of various 9mm so it's relatively new to me. Maybe smaller calibers are more finicky about hollow points. I hope not. 

Merry Christmas to you too.


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## Craigh (Jul 29, 2016)

*Followup for anyone interested.*

Ok, I went back to the range and fired 50 rounds of Speer Gold Dots 124 grn. 9mm +P rounds with no issues. I fired 30 rnds of Hornady Critical Defense 115 grn with no issues. I then put 100 rounds of Federal Independence 124 grn. FMJ through it with no issues. I prefer 124 grn over 115 grain in defensive 9mm and thus want to practice with the same weight. I'd purchased the 115 Hornadys because I'd had that FTF with the 124 grn Gold Dots and wanted to make sure I had enough defensive rounds at home. I had hundreds of Gold Dots but not a whole lot else except for 20 Sig Elites. I had to get the Hornadys in 115 grn because I don't think they're made in 124 grn.

If I get no more failures with the Gold Dots, I'll move entirely back to them and keep the Sigs and Hornadys in case of emergency. I might get 100 rnds of another hollowpoint backup round to go with them. I shot up a box of Magtech Bonded Hollow point 124 grn rounds in my S&W Shield and seem to like them. Their hollow point opening is not so wide. I see some for only $16.79 at Cheaper than Dirt so maybe order them today. They are out of Independence so I'll try Magtech for a couple of hundred FMJ as well. They're only $11.89 per 50 rnds.

Finally, I found out what the rattling going on in the 17 rnd PPQ magazine was. I totally dismantled and checked every aspect of that magazine, and there was nothing wrong. What caused the rattling sound was that I failed to fully charge it so the spring was pushing a little harder on half of the double stack making the rounds on the other side move a little when I shook it hard. I'd put only 16 rnds in it thinking I'd put in all 17. Those slightly shorter 115 grain Hornadys had a little room to move back and forth on a few rounds. That was it. I cleaned the mag, then loaded it every which way possible and observed this rattling and how it happened. Nothing for me to worry about, so I'm back to square one with a single FTF with Gold Dots in around 500 rounds now. I think I'm going to forget and forgive at this point and keep my eyes open. It's now out of break-in so I will not allow another failure unless I can figure out what made it happen, reproduce it and fix whatever it is.

Thanks


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