[1917-1911M]

There is an O ring thread back in the history somewhere. #83 I think....but I might be off. Danko regular rubber O ring, plumbing dept Lowes. Not a rare thing. All you do is slip it over the guide rod and recoil spring making sure it isn't too far rearward where it would interfere with pressing the take down lever up. All of this is shown in the O ring thread.

Winchester is weak ammo. Shoot fine from rifles and will probably work in a 5" barrel P22. Shoot em unless you can swap.. A bulk, inexpensive ammo that works very well in these pistols are the Remington Golden Bullets. They are about as inexpensive as you can find. CCI is excellent ammo and more expensive.

Yeah the P22 could be made better but it can be made to function 100% and I wish Walther would offer better sight options and get rid of the zinc and change to aluminum. The concept for the pistol is exceptional....execution only about 90%. My Smith M&P compact had the barrel replaced twice....still an absolutely horrible rifled effort and I gave it away. The Ruger SR 22 is likely a very nice pistol, had some issues too but is not designed to be entirely broken down....which I would have to do with any .22 I purchase. These two follow the design concept of the P22.

New captive recoil spring assembly...QD model. Fits older P22s fine if you drill the guide rod hole in the end of the slide out slightly to 1/4". Thread on that too somewhere nearby.

 

[aboyer]

1917,
Thanks for the response. The next time I am at the gun shop, I will have to look at the decocker. If the parts are drop in then it would be quite easy but maybe not worth the price of the new parts.
Although I have only put about 250 rounds through my P22, I too am used to decocking the hammer as is.
I will be stopping by Home Depot on my way home from work tonight to pick up some O-Rings and to Wal-mart to get some 40 grain ammo. Hopefully they carry the Remington Golden Bullets....if not, I think I saw them at Dick's.
And then over the weekend try out both to see how the P22 works with the ammo and O-ring mod.

Thanks for the O-Ring picture. After re-reading the O-ring thread that is what I thought you were describing. I already put a Galloway Captive Recoil Spring in my P22. The first time I field stripped it, the recoil spring shot across the room.

Thanks,
Antonio

 

[1917-1911M]

The RGBs are 36 gr hollow point....at least all of the ones around here are. They pop out of there like a CCI mini mag. .22 ammo performs differently in short barrels vs the rifle barrels the specs are based on. Faster primer, faster powder....who knows....all I know is there is a difference and the plating keeps the barrel from leading....they are smoky though compared to CCI. Fired a bucket of them, 1,300+ rounds a week or so ago and every one fired. 1917

http://www.rimfirecentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=435677&highlight=

Buffer thread....I need to put the pictures back in it.

 

[aboyer]

Stopped at HD and got the O-Ring and then Wal-mart to pick up some CCI Mini Mags and some RGBs. Going to head to the range on Saturday so I hope it runs flawless with these rounds. I will report back.

 

[1917-1911M]

Have fun and safe shooting. The O ring should slide up and down the recoil spring but it doesn't have a lot of extra slop. If you have fired a P22 quite a bit you will be able to tell that the impact of slide is softer. A little light oil like Rem Rem Oil on the guide rod and O ring won't hurt anything. Moly powder works fine also. 1917

 

[aboyer]

I just got back from shooting. Ran 110 rounds of CCI 40 grain Minimags and had one FTE and one FTL (not in the same magazine). Ran about 150 RGBs and no issues at all. Went back and ran 100 or so of the Winchester 555s and had lots of the same issues that I was having before. Looks like I will always be purchasing RGBs. Thank you for all of the help.
My friend who was with me ran about 50 rounds of the RGBs and I he is now in the market for a 22. He really liked the P22 but he wants to try a few others. Next time out he is going to rent a few 22s and then pick the one he likes the best of them.
Regards,
Antonio

 

[1917-1911M]

Yepper, a round that is powerful enough to reliably cycle the slide solves many a problem and the even better news is the RGBs are Remington's bulk, inexpensive ammo. They are a very common round around here. Those big packs of 535 were $6 back in 2007 at Academy. I still have a stack of em. Better shoot them all one day soon and load up on some more. Actually, now I have stacks of the buckets of RGBs. Takes a serious amount of loading and shooting to empty one of those in an afternoon. 1917

 

[aboyer]

Last night I got some range time in and noticed that the slide of my P22 didn't hold open after the last round was ejected. What is even stranger, this was happening to my HK VP9SK also. My Creed firing the same 9mm rounds as the HK held open after each final round.

I stripped the guns last night to clean them and the mechanisms to keep the slides open after the last round move freely so I am not sure why the slides weren't staying open on either of these 2 guns.

In the P22, I was firing both CCI Mini Mags and RGBs. No other issues with either of these rounds.

Any ideas as to why the slide wan't holding open?

 

[1917-1911M]

The slide has to move almost all the way rearward for the slide stop to be able to catch it in the catch notch.

1. Insert your empty mags into the empty P22, cycle the slide and watch to make sure the follower is pressing the stop arm up reliably and catching the slide. Obviously when firing this happens much faster so the follower has to move up very quickly and press the stop arm up into the slot. Short strokes will not be caught. Hand dragging on the slide or interfering with the stop arm can keep the arm from moving up.

2. A dirty magazine can have the follower get too stuck up to move or move fast enough. Clean those mags....and that means the inside of them.

3. Inspect the rear of the stop arm...is it still square and not rounded off where it engages the hardened pin?

4. Is the hardened pin still in good shape that is pressed into the slide, not damaged or rounded off.

The tiny spring inside the grip presses the stop arm down and is no consequence regarding this issue. If it is broken or missing it might allow the arm to bounce up and catch the slide before the magazine is empty.

Short stroke, dirty magazine...particularly the follower, hand on slide or slide stop arm. A cleaning and quick inspection of parts should sort it out. 1917

 

[aboyer]

Thanks for the tips. I will strip them again tonight and check all of these things.

 

[aboyer]

I looked at all of the items that you listed and as far as I can tell, everything is in good working order. I did clean the magazines but they really weren't dirty. So I think my next step is the next time I am at the range, I need to see where my thumbs are when I am shooting. Maybe I am resting my thumb on the slide release and this is keeping it from allowing it to spring into action when the mag is empty.

 

[1917-1911M]

Over the years some new owners moving from a larger pistol have reported that they did have their hands on the slide or stop arm...which is why I mentioned it. The most common problem is ammo that isn't strong enough to blow the slide all the way rearward. You can get case ejection and still not have the slide move rearward enough. Limp wristing this light pistol can also cause a loss of recoil energy. If you put an O ring in there make sure it has some lubrication on it. 1917

 

[1917-1911M]

I will have to look at the decocker. If the parts are drop in then it would be quite easy but maybe not worth the price of the new parts.

Thanks,
Antonio

The parts aren't exactly drop in. The QD hammer has shorter hook heights and the breech block must accommodate the decocking lever and the safety drum is different. So, at least three new parts would be needed plus the decocking lever. 1917

 

[Dogukan]

Begin by marking your breech block where you want your ramp to be located. I've chosen to place the ramp over the rear 1/2 of the guide pin hole. I moved forward of these marks as the file bit into the metal. This will minimize the length of drag over the stock breech bottom while leaving the metal over the retaining pin plenty thick.

Here the ramp has been filed that will guide the hammer up and onto the borrom rail which will cock it. 0.030" of material has been removed from the rear of the breech by use of a small triangular file. The stock breech is 0.270" thick at the rear work area, the cut for the firing pin is 0.087" deep which leaves a solid metal thickness of 0.183"....I'm filing off 0.030" which could have been less but that leaves 0.158" of solid steel at the rear of the breech. Over 1/8". May not sound like much but these parts are pretty small to begin with.

Here the breech block has been loosely fitted into the pistol. Nothing has been polished at this point. Earlier I had filed the safety bar along with an old already old style modded breech and it still worked fine but I had some new breech blocks and I wanted to file these properly for this mod. The previous safety still looked good so I stuck with it rather than file into another one until I find out if the safety will break or have other problems. Notice that I did not file into the area where the safety rotates. I filed it while in the pistol. Then cleaned it really well. Removed it and cleaned it some morebefore reinstalling in a second pistol. I calipered both and nothing has changed over the years.

Pictured is the slide installed with the hammer just being cocked by the material left over the guide pin hole. The hammer will drag over appx. 1/4" of breech block rail. This is necessary to cock the hammer.

Pictured is the hammer under the re-profiled safety. You can see the gap at the left of the hammer. I actually have more gap than is necessary but that is because I filed the safety for one pistol and the hammer that was on it and then swapped the part to another pistol. The fit would be better if I weren't swapping parts around and I will save this safety to go back on the other firearm when I am sure this mod works as well as I think it will and if the safety doesn't break.

Here I have rotated the safety to the safe position. You can see where the hammer is dragging on rearward movement to cock the hammer. This has never been where the P22 has a problem but I will need to polish things up a bit.....just because. Looks like I got it pretty square anyway....I guess I pass filing 101 The little ramp actually helps forward movement of the slide as the spring loaded hammer slides down it.

Here is a view of the area of the safety that stops the hammer. I've left as much as the hammer hits anyway and have never seen any peening to the hammer or the safety now or on previous pistols. 500 + tests of this filed down safety have been conducted by dropping the hammer on the modded safety. This safety came off a pistol with appx. 15,000 previous impacts, from firing, that is.....I don't routinely drop my hammer on anything but a chambered round. So far the safety looks fine but I've only fired it about 50 times so I need to run 500 or so through it to test everything. I cannot believe how smooth the slide cycles when the hammer doesn't have to bump over the safety. On the other hand, with the safety set to safe....the jump is even more than before because of the lowered breech so it is more of a jump for the hammer if you are hand cycling with the safety set to safe. Works fine but the roughness of the jump is a little worse than a stock set-up. It's reliability during firing that I'm concerned with not hand cycling that first round. If I want that first round to be smooth.....I can simply cock the hammer first. This is probably the mod I should have come up with originally. M1911

Hello 1911M,

Do you have any photos of this process or a close up photos of the modified breech block and safety drum?

 

[1917-1911M]

I didn't read the whole thread. This has been some years ago. Germany said they tried it and couldn't make it work. Basically this is some foolishness of mine that addresses the drag of the bottom of the feed rail against the cocked hammer. The drag is considerable. One of the problems the pistol has is that any good high velocity ammo will blow the slide all the way rearward until the takedown lever stops rearward movement.

But, the pistol can have issues with the slide moving forward and chambering the next round. The original pistol especially exhibited this issues due to the shape of the hammer tip. The hammer was modified in about 2007 but Walther didn't quite get the new face angle correct in my opinion. You can feel the catch caused by the hammer dropping to the the small gap between the rear of the breech block and the safety drum. With an empty pistol, slowly cycle the slide and as you move it forward you will feel the stoppage/drag caused by the hammer dropping into the small gap.

What I did was measure the position of the hammer when under the retracted slide. The slide presses the hammer rearward cocking it but as the slide moves forward the hammer rebounds appx. 0.020". All I did was remove most of the metal for 90% of the length of travel under the rear of the slide. The idea is to reduce or eliminate the drag between the hammer and breech rail while the slide is moving forward. 95% of the movement of the hammer's movement is still by the safety drum pressing it rearward. In the modification above the final amount necessary for the hammer to be pressed rearward enough for the hammer hook to engage the sear is when the full thickness steel under the retaining pin gives the final small push to the hammer allowing the sear to engage. As the slide rebounds off of the takedown lever the now cocked and rebounding hammer only has to slide off of the very small area where the breech rail is full thickness. Then, as the slide moves forward the hammer no long touches/drags against the bottom of the rail/safety drum.

Got an e-mail from Germany saying they could not make this work. I did this to about five pistols and all of them worked. I did my work with a file. The photo above shows what the final modification looks like. Note that the slide is all the way retracted, final cocking by the remaining full thickness of metal over the location of the retaining pin. As the slide moves forward there will be minimal drag between the two parts. It is necessary to also remove the same amt of material from the safety drum as shown. This weakens the drum I expect but i was never able to crack one even after extensive test to do so. The safety still provides blocking action of the falling hammer when it is rotated to the safe position and the cam in the top of the drum still captures the firing pin. I should say that the last two P22s that I purchased did not require this modification with premium ammo. All this mod does is free the slide to close and not hang up half way as energy is expended jumping the gap and pressing the next round out of the magazine.

Keep the steel full thickness at the location of the retaining roll pin. Keep your work neat and square. It seems the safety drum was further hardened at some point and required a bit more effort to grind/file. Don't take off too much material or the slide won't be able to press the hammer rearward enough for the sear to catch the hammer. 1917