1827

I let a bunch of people shoot the PPX on Saturday, and everyone gave the gun favorable reviews: comfortable, easy to shoot, mild recoil, easy to shoot fast...

PPX in full recoil. Note spent case below shooter's right elbow with another one about to leave the ejection port.

Three hundred and twenty-seven rounds into the day, the gun suddenly ceased busting caps; pulling the trigger would drop the hammer, but not so much as the tiniest dimple would be left on the primer. At first, I feared a broken firing pin, but taking the slide off the gun and manually depressing the firing pin plunger while poking the rear of the pin itself resulted in normal amounts of protrusion from the breechface.

"For you, ze war is over."

Similarly, cycling the action with the slide off the gun showed that the little arm that moved the firing pin plunger out of the way was pivoting up as it should...

You dirty, dirty little gun! (With Leatherman MUT photobombing.)

But was it pivoting far enough? Noodling around over at waltherfanboyforum.com turned up a few threads like this one. Maybe 1827 rounds without cleaning or lubing is enough to cause issues with the firing pin plunger gumming up and not moving out of the way like it should?

So the PPX is going to get its bath 173 rounds early and see if that restores proper function. If not, we'll toss it in a box and FedEx it to Fort Smith, AR.
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