Walther PPS FAIL.

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Just posting this to see if anyone else has had this experience with their PPS and also to get general thoughts on the matter.

I was just shooting bowling pins at my club last night and one of the members was shooting his Walther PPS 9mm. He gets up to shoot and the backstrap on the PPS falls off, disabling the gun. Turns out the plastic catch that keeps the backstrap on the gun sheared/rounded off and no longer engaged the metal ledge on the frame. A simple fix is obviously to get a new backstrap but it seems to me that its a part that should be redesigned to be more heavy duty. I would not want to one day need it only to find the backstrap pops off. I liked the PPS, still do for its overall size and features but the backstrap safety is a feature thats got to go. Its an answer to an non existant problem The more complicated you make a gun the more likley it is to fail when needed. Thankfully he was only up against a gang of eight angry bowling pins.

If walther does away with the backstrap safety, then the PPS will go back on my wish list.

Your thoughts please...
 
I've never had an issue with mine. I will take a look at it when I go home to look at any wear that may be there.
 
When I had mine apart this week to replace the disconnector I looked at that mechanism. It looks like the decocker could be modified a few ways to handle this.

The easiest way is to cut back the tab that actually decocks the sear. I might just order another decocking piece and try it.
 
There are many threads about this on the Walther forums. It's not necessary to remove the backstrap when field stripping the PPS contrary to what the manual says. Simply pulling the trigger is sufficient (after doubly making sure the gun isn't loaded). Less times the backstrap is removed = less chance of it wearing out. Still a crappy design flaw IMO though.
 
My PPS did the exact same thing as in the video. When I first got the PPS, I switched the backstraps back and forth several times to see which one I preferred. Both backstraps wore down to this point of failure from doing so. After digging around on the Walther forums it seemed the consensus was if you leave them in place, they won't give you any problems. Walther sent me out a new set of backstraps. I put my preferred one on and haven't removed it since. I've put several hundred rounds through it since with zero problems. I have confidence in it but I still consider the "quicksafe" backstraps to be a design flaw. The "Keep It Simple Stupid" design of the Glock is still superior.
 
I bought the first PPS that arrived at my gun store. Still have it and gone through a boatload of ammo and even IDPA comps and never had any issues.
 
I learned something today. Thanks.

I haven't had the problem (after over 5K rounds) but I don't remove the backstrap all that often. I won't now.
 
I'm pretty sure I'm the PPS owner that had the failure in the original post. I just wanted to give an update. I thought a plastic tab broke off the backstrap but when I got home under better light (and reading glasses), the backstrap looked ok. I figured I would replace the smaller on I used with the larger one but it wouldn't stay on either. They both fall off just like in the video posted earlier. For the recored I switched them a couple of times when I first got the gun but since then hadn't taken it off. I called S&W and the service rep said he had never heard of the problem on other pps but I'm not sure if I believe him. I sent it back to S&W as it is still under warranty with a letter explaining what happened and explaining that I can't carry a gun that might not fire if a piece of plastic falls of. I'll let you know what happens.
I've since seen a repair on a forum somewhere showing a fix by the owner installing a pin through the backstrap in effect pinning the backstrap in place. Probably what I will do when I get it back.
Otherwise it's been a great gun with no problems regardless of what ammo i've put through it.
 
I just take down mine like a Glock, the only time I took the backstrap off was to see if I liked the larger one (I don't) when I first got my PPS.

Posted from my busted old G2 on T-mobile's sorry network.
 
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