Re-Barrelled PPK Break in period?

Hi All,

I havn't brought my PPK to the range for the last 6 months since i was quickly frustrated with failure to feed and occasionally a failure to eject.

I dont mind losing the lock-back-on-empty feature. I really just want a reasonably pleasant gun to shoot, and of course keep the cool-factor.

If i went ahead and bought a .380 ejector, would it fit in my PPK without the need to fit/adjust/grind/magic?

Gunzik, i took your original advice and ordered the factory .380 spring, which helped ALOT, but still didnt take away all the FTF and FTE.

Thanks,

-Tony
 
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clk1 said:
Upload your photos to photobucket then copy the IMG code and paste it to your narrative.
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Cool, thanks!

Excuse the lube in the picture, i took it quickly before i went to work today. It's a 65' PPK (i have original box and paperwork) as well as the name of the german police officer that carried it before it was exported to canada. So it has some history!

And honestly, even with the extended barrel, i get SO many comments when i go to the gun club like "i thought those were extinct!?"

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gunzik said:
If you know how to take these pistols apart, pull out the safety and remove the firing pin and loaded chamber indicator. Then put the safety back, and you can safely test the loading, cycling and jamming of live ammunition. Cycling a pistol you know will jam, with live ammunition and the firing pin / indicator (also sticks out and can jam and hit the primer) in place, is irresponsible to say the least. If you have snap caps, you may or may not be able to recreate the problem. Most snap caps are slightly undersized, which may result in feeding those successfully but not real ammo.
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It was indeed a .380 conversion.

I do know how to remove the firing pin by rotating the safety partway and removing the pin but i shall have to look up how to remove the chamber indicator pin. There are a few good tutorials online that helped me remove the firing pin and clean it out.

If i do find that there is a burr on the firing pin hole, how would you go about rectifying that? Is it as simple as carefully using some sandpaper and a toothpick or is this a job that needs to be rectified profesionally.
 
You can reach the breech face with the slide off. Popsicle stick and emery paper will do the trick, depending on how bad the burr is you may need a small file. All the hardware places sell sets of needle files for under $5 that will be fine for occasional use.

Don't file into the holes, file or work the emery paper across them to make the face flush and smooth again.

Burrs are rare but do happen. From your description, you have a problem with the ejector, and yes, replacing it with the .380 ejector will fix the problem if there is no burr on the breech face.

I will build a little work holding fixture for the ejector, since my last efforts were "freehand" art vs. carefully measured science, and I'll give the ejector geometry one last try and a few more victims. I don't think the ejector on a .32 PP or PPK can be re-shaped to work reliably with .380. The ejectors will still need re-shaping with my magazine channel cutting scheme, so I'll need the fixture anyway. If I get one working, I'll be crowing about it.
 
gunzik said:
You can reach the breech face with the slide off. Popsicle stick and emery paper will do the trick, depending on how bad the burr is you may need a small file. All the hardware places sell sets of needle files for under $5 that will be fine for occasional use.

Don't file into the holes, file or work the emery paper across them to make the face flush and smooth again.

Burrs are rare but do happen. From your description, you have a problem with the ejector, and yes, replacing it with the .380 ejector will fix the problem if there is no burr on the breech face.

I will build a little work holding fixture for the ejector, since my last efforts were "freehand" art vs. carefully measured science, and I'll give the ejector geometry one last try and a few more victims. I don't think the ejector on a .32 PP or PPK can be re-shaped to work reliably with .380. The ejectors will still need re-shaping with my magazine channel cutting scheme, so I'll need the fixture anyway. If I get one working, I'll be crowing about it.
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Any idea where i can find a .380 ejector?? Numrich doesnt have them in stock..

Will i need to do any work to the frame, or is the .380 ejector a direct replacement geometrically that will fit?

Also thanks for the help
 
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I'll check my supplies. You can also grind or file away the offending part of the ejector, a picture of the difference between the two ejectors should show you what needs to go on yours. The frame doesn't need modification, unless you want to use modern .380 mags with the ribs, made to work with the new style of ejector.

Tradex (click banner above) had them for cheaper than Numrich, worth a call. Western Gun Parts (Edmonton) has them from time to time.
 
gunzik said:
I'll check my supplies. You can also grind or file away the offending part of the ejector, a picture of the difference between the two ejectors should show you what needs to go on yours. The frame doesn't need modification, unless you want to use modern .380 mags with the ribs, made to work with the new style of ejector.

Tradex (click banner above) had them for cheaper than Numrich, worth a call. Western Gun Parts (Edmonton) has them from time to time.
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Hey gunzik,

If you could check what you have that would be great. I'm not really interested in cutting slots in my frame for the modern .380 mags. I saw that tradex has the 7.65 ejectors for 25 bucks which seems to be a great deal. I've actually been to their store and they're a good bunch of guys willing to help. I bought my father some 9mm browning long ammo for a model 1907 husquvarna that was impossible to find for fathers day last year.
 
So i tried a test:

1) remove firing pin
2) polish breech face with 2000 grit and a popsicle stick
3) put one round in the magazine and attempt to chamber round
4) round hangs up 3/16'' before being fully seated and chamber closed

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with firing pin still removed
1) remove ejector and spring assembly
2) put slide back on gun without ejector or firing pin
2) attempt to chamber 1 round from mag
3) round still gets stuck about 3/16'' from being fully seated

what the heck!!! help!!
 
This needs to go back to Barry. I can't imagine what is wrong but if you can't feed ammo without firing pin or ejector (loaded chamber indicator?) then either the barrel has not been "relieved" enough for ammo to feed, the chamber is really dirty, or there's something wrong with your ammo. My PPK and PP .380 pistols don't hang up even with very slow and deliberate feeding of ammo.

The "ramp" could be too sharp, which jams the bullet into the top lip of the chamber where the cartridge should headspace on the brass case ... What do the bullets you are using to test feeding look like? Are they damaged or chewed up anywhere?
 
I'm using brand new factory sellier and bellot .380 (which is all I can find available on Halifax).

What do you mean by relief? Maybe this has something to do with it not being a factory barrel? I can imagine Barry had to machine one for me during the conversion but I'm not sure..
 
Took the walther up to the range this weekend. Fired 25 shots, here is what i found.

Before going to the range:

Here is a picture of how it would hang up when i loaded a round through the mag.
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-Polished the bottom of the ejector lip with 2000 grit where i found some burrs
-Polished the breech face with the same 2000 grit taking care to keep the popsicle stick flat.
-Liberally oiled the chamber, ramp, ejector and breech face, it was all pretty wet.

At the range:
Loaded 2-3 bullets at a time with no hang ups, the gun cycled fine and locked back on empty.

Could it be that Barry machined the gun and didn't take the time to clean up burrs and machine marks? I dont know much about gun work but i would expect after paying a couple hundred bucks to have a classic firearm machined, this would all be taken care of..
 
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