S&W Issues Recall for Walther PPK/PPKs Models

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FrankZappa

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S&W Issues Recall for Walther PPK/PPKs Models
This is dated today 2/20/09

http://www.smith-wesson.com/webapp/w...ectionId=10506
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Smith & Wesson has identified a condition that may exist in certain PPK and PPK/S pistols which may permit a round to be discharged without the trigger being pulled. When the manual safety is disengaged, Smith & Wesson’s Product Engineering Group has determined that the possibility exists in certain firearms that lowering the hammer may cause a chambered round to fire.

This recall applies to all Walther PPK and PPK/S pistols manufactured by Smith & Wesson from March 21, 2002, until February 3, 2009. The Serial Numbers of the pistol subject to this recall are as follows:

BAB 0010-BAB 9999
BAC 0000-BAC 9999
BAD 0000-BAD 9999
LTD 0000-LTD 0499
PPK 0001-PPK 1500
BAE 0000-BAE 9999
BAF 0000-BAF 9999
WLE 0001-WLE 0459
BAH 0000-BAH 9999
BAJ 0000-BAJ 9999
BAK 0000-BAK 9999
REP 0026-REP 0219
BAL 0000-BAL 5313
BAM 0000-BAM 1320
 
Thanks, I had already searched for it myself and filled out the recall request. One of my guns was hit (the PPK) but not my PPK/S. The PPK/S had a serial number of LTD06XX. :)

Thank goodness I always decocked it over a bucket of sand next to my safe. It could have apparently gone off at any time while doing so.
 
I would be willing to bet that it is an issue with an individual piece. They probably have had a couple of failures of a particular piece made by a particular supplier and they have to recall all of the pistols that incorporated them to be safe.
 
I have one of the BAH series PPKs.:(

Form filled out and UPS pre-paid billable stamp and shipping instructions requested.
 
Am I reading the report correctly as to believe the issue is that the guns were firing when using the decocker on a live round due to a faulty firing pin block?
 
Thats what I thought, heck I don't even use the de-cocker or the safety, what am I worried about?

DESCRIPTION OF THE HAZARD: Smith & Wesson has identified a condition that may exist in certain PPK and PPK/S pistols which may permit a round to be discharged without the trigger being pulled. When the manual safety is disengaged, Smith & Wesson’s Product Engineering Group has determined that the possibility exists in certain firearms that lowering the hammer may cause a chambered round to fire.
 
Well POOPIE, I gave mind to my grandaughther, now she's gonna be upset I have to send it back. Wonder what the turnaround will be.
 
Let's try to reserve this thread for discussion about the recall.

Divergent rants on the geopolitical theories of gun-buying decision-making and the ethics of name licensing, etc are fodder for other threads.
 
For those of us who are sending our PPK's in, are you guys marking your guns in some way to ensure you get your actual gun and all its parts back? I was thinking of writing my initials inside the frame/slide with a sharpie just to make sure they don't accidentally send me the wrong slide, or at least if they do I'll know. I just remember reading a couple threads during the Ruger LCP recall about people getting the wrong slide back with their guns. My PPK is new and has about 100 rounds through it, I have carried it numerous times but the gun still looks brand new.
 
"When the manual safety is disengaged, Smith & Wesson’s Product Engineering Group has determined that the possibility exists in certain firearms that lowering the hammer may cause a chambered round to fire."

That doesn't sound to me like the gun is firing by the hammer falling as in engaging the safety, it sounds like disengaging the safety after engaging the safety and dropping the hammer on the block of the safety. I can't understand that. How could you lower the hammer after disengaging the safety?

But again, for the record, if you like your PPK series gun lower the hammer with your thumb as the safety drops it, as the safety takes a beating dropping the hammer on it and they have been known to break. I don't know if that pertains to modern S&W guns, but what's it hurt to baby it? The guns that had broken safety firing pin blocks were made long ago in Germany and France, so I can't believe it's related.
 
Walther recall

I tried to fill out the S&W on-line recall form, and it won't accept my serial #. I bought new in December,2002. My serial # is 3XXXBAB. Does the recall affect those with the suffix BAB rather than the prefix BAB? Also, mine is a PPK/s-1 model. m I finally figured out what I was doing wrong on the on-line S&W recall information form. I was putting dashes in the phone number. Tried it with a dash, and it took it with the BAB as a suffix. I got an immediate confirmation number.
 
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When you submit your serial number try the letters first: BAB3xxx. That's the way it appears on my gun and it submitted just fine.
 
should have finished reading. I don't know why they listed the letters at the end. As I understand it the letters represent a batch and the numbers further specify the gun. Pre, Suf,... they only use one set of letters.

Is anyone else super excited about getting a gun back with a punch mark in it? Good grief.
 
The description of the problem is a bit mysterious. I'm not sure this is the answer but...

If you use the decocker to bring down the hammer you will find that the trigger is locked back. If with your thumb you then pull the hammer back, you will find that it can be pulled all the way back and will never catch (because the decocker is engaged. If you were to let the hammer go at this point it would travel with full force and strike the block that is just barely holding it back from the pin. Could it be that this force could (1 out of 100000 times) create enough of a shock to jar the pin and discharge the weapon?

If on the other hand you use the decocker to bring the hammer down, and then take it off safe to release the trigger forward, and then return it to safe...you will notice that the hammer cannot be pulled back and thus exerts much less force on the firing pin block if released from essentially a half-cock position.

I am just offering a guess here...not even sure it's a good guess.
 
Walther recall

I just got off the phone with a S&W customer service rep, and he says the 3 letters in the serial number can be either a prefix or a suffix.
 
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