Walther Q5 Steel Frame- Intermittent Feeding Issues

[JL175]

First, I love my new Walther Q5 SF with DeltaPoint Pro.  It shoots tight groups and is excellent for USPSA Carry Optics. That's the background context.

 

However, from time-to-time I am having feeding issues. More accurately it seems to be faulty ejection of spent brass. This may occur several times  in a row after 400-500 rounds have been fired.  Even when the the case is ejected, it may only eject 6"-12".  In a couple examples, the ejected brass actually fell back into the breach.

 

Is anyone else seeing any kind of similar issues with the Walther Q5 SF?

 

Possible Causes/Solutions

1) I would like to try a lighter recoil spring. Not many options for the SF quite yet. I spoke with Walther gunshop and basically they said that Walther (in Germany) is working on a lighter spring. He suggested that I try the lighter spring from Q5 Polymer. Use the spring from Tungsten guide rid, for polymer gun, and put it on the SF steel guide rod. Problem here is based on the gunshop's measurements there is only a 3N difference in weight and only 5N difference if one believes the info on the package. So, even if I did that, not much difference in spring weight.

- I am told that a Sig P320 guide rod and recoil spring will work in a Q5 SF.  Anyone know if this is true? Or, have any other ideas for where to get a lighter spring that would work?

 

2) (Please see photo)- Also, after only several hundred rounds, it appears that small particles of brass are being ground off the casings, due to the slide movement. Could the friction created also contribute to a weakened ejection process?  Is this something i should worry about, or even try to fix?  Will it grind itself down and correct itself?

 

Sorry for the long post. Wanted to include as much relevant info as possible.

 

Any suggestions are greatly appreciated!

 

 

Edited March 10, 2019 by JL175
Typos and clarification

[dfox]

What ammo are you using? And I would use plenty of oil during break in. I would check the ejector and extractor and look to see if there is brass marking on the ejection port. I know mine with light loaded ammo just barely clears the gun. But I have not had any jams. I haven’t had any brass particles in the gun. Something has to be damaging the brass,  does the brass have marks on it?

[bigbob21]

Can’t confirm in the SF...

But I just got a plastic q5 match this week and put in a rod from ssguiderods labled “q5”.

I was told 320 and full size m&p springs fit.

 

I ordered q5/320 springs from Wilson combat and the packaging doesn’t even say walther or sig... they’re straight up 5” 1911 springs and they fit fine.

Currently experimenting with 13 and 15# springs.

 

If the SF uses the same guide rod as the plastic, then yes for sure, the above would work... and the walther guys probably couldn’t endorse 3rd party products.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

 

[echotango]

I had a guide rod made for the SF and am running a 11# ismi flat wire. I don't have shavings like that at all. I have run 115gr rn, MG 121ifp's and 135gr blues with no issues. 

[BritinUSA]

The stainless steel guide rod won’t work in the SF unless you drill a small hole in the back of it, see the other thread about the SF for details. 

 

Regarding the brass shavings; how many rounds are you putting in the magazine. If you’re loading 23 then it may be too tight for the steel frame as the top round pushes too hard against the slide.

[PokerNGuns]

Be curious to know what ammo your running and are you getting good plunk test/case gauge results.

 

My SF ejects pretty inconsistent compared to other factory sprung guns with power factors from 130-144. Any weakness in grip and it’s a gamble to experience a failure to eject/stovepipe. In fact when I tried to bench test for accuracy it stove pipes every time. Clean/not clean doesn’t seem to matter. 

 

With death grip and 138pf loads I didn’t have any trouble at recent match except for when it was required to shoot from retention and I had to slam back of slide each shot to chamber. I’ve varied OAL 1.10-1.47 for tests. All test loads work good in Q5 polymer. I’m going to have to get a guide rod made and see if that elimantes issues completely.

 

[BritinUSA]

The factory recoil spring is designed to handle +P ammo, it is 17lb.

I am running 13lb @ 132PF.

OAL will depend on bullet profile, what bullets are you using?

With SNS I am at 1.10, with Gallant you can go longer due to the narrow ogive.

[PokerNGuns]

20 minutes ago, BritinUSA said:

The factory recoil spring is designed to handle +P ammo, it is 17lb.

I am running 13lb @ 132PF.

OAL will depend on bullet profile, what bullets are you using?

With SNS I am at 1.10, with Gallant you can go longer due to the narrow ogive.

135TC and 147 RN for me.  Did you run your factory spring any before switching to 13lb?  There have been a few others post about these issues on FB and even saw a YouTube review with stove pipes. It’s just uncharacteristic for a Walther to be ammo picky IMHO.

[BritinUSA]

I had issues with the factory spring, infrequent malfunctions. That’s why I switched to a lighter spring.

[JL175]

On 3/10/2019 at 6:36 PM, dfox said:

What ammo are you using? And I would use plenty of oil during break in. I would check the ejector and extractor and look to see if there is brass marking on the ejection port. I know mine with light loaded ammo just barely clears the gun. But I have not had any jams. I haven’t had any brass particles in the gun. Something has to be damaging the brass,  does the brass have marks on it?

Yes, I do use generous amounts of oil. The surface is shiny, not runny.  I use 147gr RN at about 920 fps. It makes power factor, but certainly not considered a hot load.

 

I will have to check the brass. Can't believe I didn't do that yet. I have to assume that there are marks on it.

 

I will check the port, ejector and extractor.  Also, I've in conversation with Walther gun techs. I'll post any helpful info here.

[JL175]

10 hours ago, BritinUSA said:

I had issues with the factory spring, infrequent malfunctions. That’s why I switched to a lighter spring.

11 hours ago, BritinUSA said:

The factory recoil spring is designed to handle +P ammo, it is 17lb.

I am running 13lb @ 132PF.

OAL will depend on bullet profile, what bullets are you using?

With SNS I am at 1.10, with Gallant you can go longer due to the narrow ogive.

 

17 lbs, really? I was told 50N, which converts to 11.25 lbs. I mentioned to Walther that the recoil spring feels more like 16 lbs than 11. Perhaps there's different standard when converting Newtons.

 

Regarding the bullet profile, I need to check with guy that makes my ammo. I've shot almost 15k rounds from him and only had 2 misfeeds, in my Shadow 2s.

[JL175]

12 hours ago, PokerNGuns said:

Be curious to know what ammo your running and are you getting good plunk test/case gauge results.

 

My SF ejects pretty inconsistent compared to other factory sprung guns with power factors from 130-144. Any weakness in grip and it’s a gamble to experience a failure to eject/stovepipe. In fact when I tried to bench test for accuracy it stove pipes every time. Clean/not clean doesn’t seem to matter. 

 

With death grip and 138pf loads I didn’t have any trouble at recent match except for when it was required to shoot from retention and I had to slam back of slide each shot to chamber. I’ve varied OAL 1.10-1.47 for tests. All test loads work good in Q5 polymer. I’m going to have to get a guide rod made and see if that elimantes issues completely.

 

Yes, I'm afraid that I'll have to get another guide rod. 

[JL175]

10 hours ago, BritinUSA said:

I had issues with the factory spring, infrequent malfunctions. That’s why I switched to a lighter spring.

What kind is

 

On 3/10/2019 at 8:42 PM, BritinUSA said:

The stainless steel guide rod won’t work in the SF unless you drill a small hole in the back of it, see the other thread about the SF for details. 

 

Regarding the brass shavings; how many rounds are you putting in the magazine. If you’re loading 23 then it may be too tight for the steel frame as the top round pushes too hard against the slide.

I am putting in 21 rounds. 15 round factory mag and using Taylor Freelance +6 extension.

[JL175]

On 3/10/2019 at 7:26 PM, bigbob21 said:

Can’t confirm in the SF...

But I just got a plastic q5 match this week and put in a rod from ssguiderods labled “q5”.

I was told 320 and full size m&p springs fit.

 

I ordered q5/320 springs from Wilson combat and the packaging doesn’t even say walther or sig... they’re straight up 5” 1911 springs and they fit fine.

Currently experimenting with 13 and 15# springs.

 

If the SF uses the same guide rod as the plastic, then yes for sure, the above would work... and the walther guys probably couldn’t endorse 3rd party products.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

 

Great. Thanks

[JL175]

On 3/10/2019 at 7:26 PM, bigbob21 said:

Can’t confirm in the SF...

But I just got a plastic q5 match this week and put in a rod from ssguiderods labled “q5”.

I was told 320 and full size m&p springs fit.

 

I ordered q5/320 springs from Wilson combat and the packaging doesn’t even say walther or sig... they’re straight up 5” 1911 springs and they fit fine.

Currently experimenting with 13 and 15# springs.

 

If the SF uses the same guide rod as the plastic, then yes for sure, the above would work... and the walther guys probably couldn’t endorse 3rd party products.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

 

Thanks bigbob21