Walther P99c does not like the weak stuff

[Vonz90]

I mentioned that my P99c in 40 did not like the CCI practice ammo. It did fine with the Win white box and the different hollow points in have tried so I did not really worry about it. However, with the ammo gotterdammerung we have going on I have had to get creative on what I practice with and it seems it does not like several others to some extent. The Fiocci and PPU rangeline stuff is mostly pretty good but here and there. The CCI and some aluminum Federal ammo just suck with GET like every other mag or so.

So yesterday I was trying to figure out what is going on and ran a magazine each of the CCI, Federal, Remington HSP, and Sig JHPs. The thing I noticed was that the CCI and Fed were dropping the cases right at my feet while the Rem and Sig were kicking the brass 15+ feet. So I decided to look at everything I've shot muzzle energy vs if I have had any failures. The results below:

image004.png

A clear trend... continued on next post

[Vonz90]

So, now the question is what could be going wrong and how to test it and fix it if applicable:

My thoughts so far (could be more than one).

1. I am slightly limp wristing it; I do not think so but I will do some supported shooting to validate that.
2. Not clean/ too much friction. I am confident this is not the issue.
3. Not lubricated enough/ too much friction. Possible, I am trying more lube and using the synthetic and see what that does.
4. Needs more break in, still newish so maybe. I guess shoot it more, but I have >500 rounds through it so that seems unlikely.
5. Spring too hard: this is possible but I don't know what to do about it since there are not a lot of options. I guess I could buy another one and see if it changes.
6. Suck it up and start reloading for 40 so I don't have to worry about it.

Looking at some various other forums, this does not seem to be an unusual happenstance and the fixes seem to vary (including no-fix). I knew they were picky for ammo when I bought it so it is what it is, but if I could improve it - that would be a good thing.

Also, some of the forums mentioned that 165g practice ammo does better than 180gr, and both the Fiocci and PPU are 165g while the CCI and Fed. Are 180g, so that kind of holds, I am not sure what to make of it though.

Also for reference, I have the walther PPS in 40 too, so far it does not like the CCI either but seems okay with everything else.

Thoughts from the peanut gallery?

[Vonz90]

So over the weekend I shot a few magazines through the P99c and the PPS using the same ammo (PPU and Federal aluminum case). I extra cleaned and lubed the P99 in case that was it.

I did a couple magazines with my normal grip on both and got two FTEs on the P99 and none on the PPS. I then did two magazines with the P99c braced so there was no chance I was limp wristing it and got another FTE on one of them.

Just to be sure I put some Sig defensive ammo through it and no failures.

Conclusions and observations.

1. The failures are not from limp wristing.
2. The PPS kicks a lot more and kicks the brass a lot further all being equal.
3. I cannot rule out an extractor or ejector issue, but I don't think that is it.

I think it is probably a design issue. The action wants a fast hard impulse and it does not get it from the weaker practice ammo. This is probably a compromise from when they shortened it up from the standard to the compact. It would also explain the 165g being more reliable than the 185 grain of the same energy - it is higher velocity which gives a shorter time for the impulse - which matches the shorter slide action distance better.

In a normal ammo environment I would just shoot hotter practice ammo. In this environment I am going to try reloading for it. If I don't find a happy load for it I will either drop a 9mm barrel in it or trade it. I need the ammo for the PPS anyway so no loss there.

[Jered]

I've had it happen that a gun does not like weak ammo so, it's not outside of the possible.