Second report on new Walter PK 380. . . help!

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Prof Young

New member
Third time out I put 100 Factory loads (Winchester) through it and 140 reloads (all Winchester primers).

The 100 factory loads ran without a hitch.

There is something about my reloads that sometimes this gun likes them and sometimes not. And it may even be the same cartridge. (Mind you the first 100 reloads I put through this gun ran like water as well.)

I can pull the trigger on an FTF for or five times and it still fails. Put that same cartridge in a moment later and it fires just fine. I don't get it.

On the FTF, when I go to eject them it takes quite a bit of force. Can't be an expanded shell as it didn't fire. And when I examine them there is a faint strike mark off center. See attached pic.

I can't figure out what it is about my reloads that would cause this strange on again off again malfunction in the gun.

Oh and these reloads run like water through my sig without a single glitch.

Help and suggestions would be much appreciated.

Live well, be safe
Prof Young
 

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  • 380 light strike.JPG
    380 light strike.JPG
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Are you sure the added force needed to eject them isn't from having to work against the mainspring as well as the recoil spring?

This isn't exactly helpful but since walther is owned by Umarex more often the not the "walther" pistols that have the most issues and have the three crowns proof marks are built by umarex out of their factory using walthers name to market them. These afaik are not designed by walther and most have had issues upon release.

More of a PSA if you were unaware but If you FTF continues or worsens I would box it up and ship it back. I dont use many reloads but i've never had an issue in a gun. If a gun works with factory ammo it works with reloads has been my limited experience.

Also look for the stag horn if you want a honest walther gun. The PPS comes to mind compared to the pk380.

I am sorry to hear of you woes. having a new non working gun is the worst best of luck fixing it!
 
It could be the casing size if its once fired brass. I got some reloads from a local company. Would not chamber on most rounds through two different glock 19's. Ran perfect through a S&W shield. Maybe the gun is not going 100% into battery.
 
G.barnes said:
Maybe the gun is not going 100% into battery.
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Agreed, and I'm wondering if the reason is that some of the bullets are not seated deep enough and are hanging up in the rifling.

I suggest taking a couple dozen of the suspect reloads, field-stripping the pistol, holding the barrel with the muzzle end down, dropping each cartridge into the barrel, and then attempting to spin each one. They should spin easily and with equal force. If a particular cartridge hangs up, the bullet may be contacting the rifling because it is not seated deeply enough, or the case may be oversize or distorted.
 
dropping each cartridge into the barrel, and then attempting to spin each one. They should spin easily and with equal force. If a particular cartridge hangs up, the bullet may be contacting the rifling because it is not seated deeply enough, or the case may be oversize or distorted.
Click to expand...

This is a very good tip; part of the plunk test. :)
 
Note: I am not a gun smith and have never claimed to be.

The picture shows the primer strike off center for sure and MAYBE a little light (I dunno for sure). An off center primer strike by itself is NOT necessarily a problem…it does run factory rounds just fine after all. When you eject and reload a cartridge the firing pin is going to hit a DIFFERENT area of the primer…maybe this is why it goes off. When you keep pulling/squeezing/pressing the trigger without ejecting the round the firing pin is still going to hit on the same spot. Maybe it’s the old classic combination of your primers not being fully seated and a light firing pin strike?

The hard to eject part may be as Venom 1956 says, you are pulling the slide back against BOTH the mainspring and the recoil spring…you know because the gun is NOT cocked anymore because you pulled the trigger and the round did not fire.
 
I agree with the plunk test. It sounds to me the reason its hard to pull the slide back after the FTF is because the bullet (not sested deep enough) has made contact with the rifling and has wedged (think swaged) into the barrel.
 
Thanks for suggestions and . . .

I bought this gun without doing enough research. It does get a lot of mixed reviews.

I'll try the plunk test, but . . . while I don't put ever round of reload into the case gauge, I do every ten or so and they all have fit in the 380 case gauge just fine not needing any force for extraction. They fall out when I up end it.

And yes my reloads all run fine in my other 380, a Sig p238.

I need to call their customer service and see what they say.

Thanks again for all the thoughts and help. I'll let you know what happens.

The one upside, and I won't go into all the details to explain, but the one up side is that I'm becoming convinced that is it is safe to carry my sig with one in the chamber, the hammer cocked (it's SA only) and the safety on.

Live well, be safe
Prof Young
 
I'll try the plunk test, but . . . while I don't put ever round of reload into the case gauge, I do every ten or so and they all have fit in the 380 case gauge just fine not needing any force for extraction. They fall out when I up end it.
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This is what is great with the plunk test... your testing the round in your specific chamber. The only thing that is going to have the exact dimensions of your chamber is... the chamber of that barrel. :) (I understand that a gauge should be the standard but its just not the case... no pun intended)


Are you crimping your rounds? When you seat the bullet there will be a slight buldge, 99% of the time you don't "need" to crimp for the round to function. If I had the problem you were describing, I would check to see if a crimp or more of a crimp would help.

I need to call their customer service and see what they say.
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My guess is they will tell you to only use factory rounds or it will void your warranty. Technically that will solve your problem since factory rounds are working.

Your reloads are not working, but factory rounds are working. :confused::rolleyes:
 
+1 on crimp. When I first started reloading I didn't do it and wondered why my reloads didn't run worth a hoot.

Started crimping and haven't had a problem since.

Sent from my SCH-R970 using Tapatalk
 
Almost sounds to me like your bullets are not pushed far back enough in the case. They are so long to put the pistol slightly out of battery, maybe by a mm or half a mm. The firing pin can still release but not fully. Would also explain them being hard to eject, they are partially engaged in the rifling and don't want to come out.

I am not a reloade so take it with a grain of sugar
 
Could be but . . .

Pilot, that could be but my reloads fit in the case guage just fine so . . . .?
I gave up and sent the gun back to Walter. We'll see how it shoots when I get it back.

Live well, be safe
Prof Young
 
The bullets are not fully seated or have the wrong ogive. With the bullet not seating, the cartridge case won't fully seat and the breech won't fully lock. The failure to fire is proper; as a safety measure the gun won't fire unless it is fully locked. The off-center (actually high) primer strike is normal since the barrel is not it the locked position. If the bullet is oversize or not fully seated in the case or the wrong shape, it will jam in the leade (the part of the barrel just ahead of the chamber) and extraction an unfired round will be difficult.

So, check both the bullets you are using and the loading practices.

I doubt there is anything wrong with the gun.

Jim
 
If you ran 100 rounds of factory through the gun plus 140 rounds of reloads, that's a hellofa lot of firing without cleaning the chamber. A dirty chamber will allow the gun to feed the round, but may not allow it to chamber completely. Many autos will allow a slightly out of battery condition to complete the firing sequence (allow the hammer or striker to function). Your pic shows an out of battery condition.

Expecting a gun to function through 240 rounds is a lot...especially with a relatively new gun. I suspect that it's a cleaning problem, first and foremost.

Another potential problem is too much crimp, allowing the case to drop too far into the chamber; creating a headspace problem... auto rounds should be "crimped" only so far as to remove any case mouth flaring done to ease bullet seating. Using a case gage allows you to test for two conditions: overall case/seated bullet length: short or long.

Don't know what gage you're using but my Wilson has an integral 'step' which tells the complete tale: short or long. Too, I'm not familiar with Walther's barrel...if it has a hood, similar to a 1911 barrel, a plunk test will tell you, roughly, if the assembled round is too long, short, or if the bullet is being forced into the rifling lands before complete chambering. The Walther may not allow this type of test...

HTH's Rod
 
rodfac said:
If you ran 100 rounds of factory through the gun plus 140 rounds of reloads, that's a hellofa lot of firing without cleaning the chamber... Expecting a gun to function through 240 rounds is a lot...especially with a relatively new gun.
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While your theory certainly has some merit, Prof Young's posts don't specify the order in which he fired the factory ammo vs. the handloads. If the pistol choked on the handloads while clean and fired the factory ammo while dirty, the problem most likely isn't caused by crud buildup.
 
But . . .

But would not an oversized or over crimped bullet still fail to fire on the second attempt?

Here is the basic order of events.
FTF on some reloads.
Load up some factory and they run fine.
Shoot the same reloads that were FTF and they also now run fine.
?????????????????
Live well, be safe
Prof Young
 
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