First Documented Walther PPS .40 S&W Kaboom Reported on PPS Talk

[LanceORYGUN]

No one on PPS Talk can recall any previous documented reports of a Walther PPS going Kaboom before. Despite much initial skepticism over this report, the owner has now provided photos to document that the explosion really did take place.

The gun is in .40 S&W, and quite a bit of different ammo was shot in it last Friday, including ammo made by Winchester, Remington, Federal, and Wolf, before it failed.

The owner is blaming the PPS for the failure, and calling the gun junk. Fortunately, he reports that he suffered no physical injury of any kind from the explosion.

Here are a couple of the photos, which unfortunately are not of very good quality:






If you want to read the entire discussion about this incident and see more photos, checkout this web page:

http://ppstalk.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=2132

[DefensiveCarry.com]

[alienbogey]

I don't know if it was junk before, but it's junk now.

[ctsketch]

ouch

[GM]

That does not look good at all; fortunately he did not get hurt.

[Smitty908]

[off topic rant] Why can't people understand what the Macro button on thier camera does? [off topic rant/]

As to the failure...ouch. At least it didn't split the grip like some glocks.

-Tim S.

[JT]

At least it didn't split the grip like some glocks.

This has not been the case on most Glock kabooms I’ve seen. They tend to handle catastrophe very well.

But if you double or triple charge a hand load, even they best guns can blow apart.

[rocky]

Any gun can Kb, .40 S&W is known for many failures in many different brands.

[Sig35seven]

Wonder if he was using reloads.

[EPIC SCUMBAG]

Ouch. I'd be a lil bit teed. Good thing most of us have more than 1 gun because it would be lame that my only gun blew up and I didn't have a back up to have. Also, I could say that I'd be happy, the gun blew up but most thankful I still have my hand to fire a weapon another day.

[automatic slim]

If that happened with factory ammo, I'd definitely be giving S&W a call.

[jwhite75]

I'd be interested to see how Smith and Wesson handles this....

[Landric]

I can't imagine wanting a PPS in .40 S&W (well, or any gun in .40 S&W actually), its a tiny gun and much better suited to 9x19mm IMO. This is the kind of thing that is going to happen when manufacturers insist in shoehorning the .40 S&W (which is known for this sort of problem, even with factory ammunition) into guns like the PPS. Assuming its not the fault of the shooter in this case (i.e. bad handloads) then hopefully it will be made right by either S&W or the ammunition manufacturer.

[CCWFlaRuger]

I'd be interested to know a couple of things... First, what kind of load was in the gun at the time? Manufacturer, +p or not? It is stated that there were a bunch of different types of ammo through it... when was the last cleaning? Also, how many shots were taken without rest... could have been a torture test for all we know... from reading the post, it seems that the OP was bashing for the sake of bashing! How do we know that he isn't a GLOCK rep? (j/k)

I'm not changing my mind about wanting to give this pistol and its little brother (9mm) a serious testdrive and add him (them) to my EDC options.

[GlockJS]

On a good note, it held up pretty good. I still don't like .40 and this is just another reason to add to the pile.

[dukalmighty]

I'd like to see a pic down the barrel to see if he had a squib before the last shot,a plugged barrel could result in the slide blowing out at it's weakest point,the ejection port