Our club has a pair of Walther P22's in inventory which see a lot of use with our novice shooters. (I couldn't begin to estimate the round count, but it's certainly several thousand.) While I generally like Walthers, I've been quite disappointed with the P22.
Over the past two weeks both of our P22s have developed a serious problem with firing "out of battery" (i.e., firing with the slide only partly closed). I haven't seen this problem mentioned elsewhere, and wanted to alert other P22 owners to the potential for injury. (We've seen two instances where a substantial portion of the cartridge case was split, and fragments were blown out of the chamber area.)
The breakage appears to stem from problems with both the slide and the trigger disconnect. The only slide rails are two small inserts at the back of the receiver, near the hammer: the front of the slide simply rubs across the top of the receiver... and one consequence of this is that the bottom of the slide grinds against the slide stop during recoil. It appears that the slide stop is made of a harder steel than the slide: in both our P22s, the slide stop has eaten away a long, rough groove on the bottom-left edge of the slide. Due to significant play in the trigger mechanism, that groove is now allowing the trigger to reset with the slide half-way open: this allows the hammer to drop if the trigger is squeezed with the slide partially open. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera with me this evening: I will attempt to post pictures early next week.
I would strongly recommend that P22 owners check their pistols. This can be done without disassembly:
One last tip for P22 owners: check the screw on the safety selector to ensure it's tight... it can vibrate loose. This results in what appear to be misfires and/or light firing pin strikes: it's actually a result of the safety partially engaging as the recoil knocks the selector switch around. (This can be particularly frustrating to diagnose.) There should be a little resistance when moving the switch between "Fire" and "Safe".
Over the past two weeks both of our P22s have developed a serious problem with firing "out of battery" (i.e., firing with the slide only partly closed). I haven't seen this problem mentioned elsewhere, and wanted to alert other P22 owners to the potential for injury. (We've seen two instances where a substantial portion of the cartridge case was split, and fragments were blown out of the chamber area.)
The breakage appears to stem from problems with both the slide and the trigger disconnect. The only slide rails are two small inserts at the back of the receiver, near the hammer: the front of the slide simply rubs across the top of the receiver... and one consequence of this is that the bottom of the slide grinds against the slide stop during recoil. It appears that the slide stop is made of a harder steel than the slide: in both our P22s, the slide stop has eaten away a long, rough groove on the bottom-left edge of the slide. Due to significant play in the trigger mechanism, that groove is now allowing the trigger to reset with the slide half-way open: this allows the hammer to drop if the trigger is squeezed with the slide partially open. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera with me this evening: I will attempt to post pictures early next week.
I would strongly recommend that P22 owners check their pistols. This can be done without disassembly:
- Make sure the pistol is unloaded and pointed in a safe direction;
- Close the slide;
- Insert an empty magazine;
- #### the hammer;
- Pull the slide back 1/4" (i.e., you should be able to see the chamber);
- Squeeze the trigger.
One last tip for P22 owners: check the screw on the safety selector to ensure it's tight... it can vibrate loose. This results in what appear to be misfires and/or light firing pin strikes: it's actually a result of the safety partially engaging as the recoil knocks the selector switch around. (This can be particularly frustrating to diagnose.) There should be a little resistance when moving the switch between "Fire" and "Safe".
