PPK- slide locking open

[ATR]

Hello,
I bought a ppk not long ago fired great the first time I took it out , now when I fire the slide locks open after each shot.
                                                                                                                                   thanks for any help,,,,atr

[Mikey]

That is either a magazine malfunction, loads too hot for the gun, or ammo (fat nosed slugs) that force the slide safety up.  What ammo do you use?  Is the gun new or used?  Mikey.

[jhm]

Your PPK is designed to lock open when the mag is MT, I suspect that the catch that the follower pushes up to lock it is stuck or Possibly the mag has become defective, If you cant get it corrected after a cleaning a quick trip to gunsmith should make it right in quick order.   JIM

[ATR]

The gun is new S&W ppk, I'm useing factory speer dot hollow points . It functioned fine the first time out with those bullets,
but I also bought some ball ammo I may switch to.
                                                                       thanks atr

[ATR]

Just a followup to my ppk problem. I think the ejector spring is missing. Walther/S&W offered to send me two free but there out of stock (get them later) so I ordered one from numrich.
                                                                                 thanks atr

[Castaway]

Unless Smith has done some major overhauls of the original design, PPK's don't have ejectors, hence no ejector springs.

[ATR]

IF you look at the exploded diagram of a ppk you'll see the ejector on the left side along with the ejector spring. I guess when I cleaned it the last time I lost the spring. The spring holds the ejector down .The ejector ejects the shell plus holds the slide open when the mags empty.

[Castaway]

Mea culpa.  Through my ignorance, I was assuming what is called an ejector was the slide stop which was thrust upwards by the magazine follower on an empty magazine which, in turn kept the slide open on the last round.  I now see the 90 degree protrusion that is present on the rear of the part that acts as an ejector.  It makes sense now.  Sorry for the previous post.

[ATR]

Castaway,
 Thanks for taking time to reply to the post
                                                       atr

[Dee]

After being a pistol smith for more than 30 years I was interested to learn how a pistol went about the function of ejecting spent cartridges without an ejector. That would have been an interesting conversation.
The three primary and most common reasons for a slide to lock back before the magazine is empty are; improper fit of slide lock lever,(usually being left over-size or improperly angled and contacting the magazine), defective magazine, or defective grip by the person shooting the pistol. Many times especially on smaller framed pistols, a person will rest a finger (usually a thumb) against the slide lock lever without realizing it. When the pistol cycles this slight pressure will push the slide stop up just enough to catch the notch cut in the slide, and lock it back. I don't recall in all these years ever seeing defective or hot ammo causing this problem.