What ammo to use in Walther P1

cote_b

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So I took my P1 out to the range the other day and shot it for the first time in a while. I was using UMC 115 grain and I swear, I couldnt hit jack schitt. Maybe its me, but at the same distance ( probably 10-15 yards) I was shooting really nice groups with my Colt Trooper. The bore on this Walther is minty too. Is it the ammo maybe? What ammo are you guys using in your P1's? Would 124 grain be a better choice? Or something heavier?

What do you guys think?
 
Unless something awful happened to your Walther, it should shoot well. I believe 124-grain bullets were what the gun was designed for. But as a general rule, any handgun might perform with a lot of variability with different kinds of ammunition. Also, it probably would help anyone responding to your post to be able to see what your targets looked like ("jack schitt" is pretty descriptive, but not very informative). There may be some patterning that would help explain what's going on.
 
I had 3 friends ( new shooters) with me at the range and we were shooting at paper disk targets that were about 12 or 14 inches in diameter at a range of about 12 yards probably, and we each fired 5 rounds at our respective targets and of the 20 rounds total fired, we landed 1 hit on the targets. And this was after we had used my Colt Trooper and Ruger Mk.2 Target and each of us landed every single hit on the paper.

Last time I had the Walther out, probably in August, I seem to remember being able to shoot it fairly well. Could it be the fact that it was about -22 and the cold bore was changing the POI?
 
I suppose the very cold temperature might have made a difference at first, but after a magazine was fired, the gun should have been at a reasonable temperature. The 115-grain bullets may be the problem. If it were mine, I'd look the thing over very carefully for damage to the frame, chamber or barrel, and if none is found, I'd try different brands and weights of cartridges. I don't think you should use any "Plus P" loads in that gun, but 124-grain loads might help. There's so much different handgun ammunition -- especially 9mm -- that it's really hard to know what will work best without just trying different loads. Also, early P-1s were made like the P-38s, but with an aluminum alloy frame. Sometimes cracks showed up in the frame in heavily used guns, and Walther introduced the hexagonal pin behind the locking block in later P-1s and the P-4s to protect the frame. If your gun doesn't have that pin (mine is one of the Manurhin-made P-1s and doesn't have it), you probably should look at the frame, just to be sure. Most likely, the type of ammunition is the problem.
 
Yeah mines an '80s production P1 with the Hex pin. I think my next step is to get some 124 grain and heavier FMJ and see what happens. I wont be using any +p in this, even with the hex pin.
 
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