Inside the Walther SSP

Sweep · Post by **Sweep** » Mon May 28, 2007 8:08 am

For those who may be interested, here's the procedure to disassemble the Walther SSP matchgun

I purchased this gun at the end of february and I'm very satisfied with it

Let's start by picking the gun in the wallet, just after a session at the range

(One can notice that my Hammerli AP40 hast just been equiped with a Rink grip...)

Ready to go !

Slide locked in rear position

I'm removing the cover screws of damping system and striker system :

Here are the disassembled cover screws (left : the one with the 0.6 mm nozzle, right : the 1 mm nozzle screw) :

And now removing the frame main fixing screw :

Let's install the stripping tool (will help to lock the slide in rear position and to keep the striker and damper springs in place) :

Splitting !

Here is the upper part of the gun : The barrel is surrounded by the striker and damper rods (the rods are located on both sides of the barrel Walther's logo) :

I unlock the slide mechanism, it slightly moves toward the muzzle of the gun and I can now disassemble it from the rods :

Finally I remove the striker from the mechanism : piece of cake

Here's the grip with the trigger system :

Ok after a good cleaning and lubrication (ballistol), let's rebuild this baby.
Nearly done ! :

End of task :

The whole operation took 12 minutes (without disassembling the trigger mechanism) and is very easy to do.

I apologize for my english which is not my native language (I'm french, nobody's perfect...)

If you've any question, I will happily reply

pgfaini · Post by **pgfaini** » Mon May 28, 2007 8:59 am

Sweep, Thank you for an excellent set of disassembly photos. I don't own one of these Walthers, but can see a lot of effort went into posting them.
Today, is our Memorial Day, when we honor all the brave souls lost in the wars, fought so that we may enjoy the freedoms we have, such as being able to own and shoot these guns.

Paul

Richard H · Post by **Richard H** » Mon May 28, 2007 9:49 am

Nice photo's, your english is way better than my high school french. I'm seriously thinking of picking up an SSP, maybe in the fall. How's the reliability been?

Sweep · Post by **Sweep** » Mon May 28, 2007 2:06 pm

Richard H wrote:Nice photo's, your english is way better than my high school french. I'm seriously thinking of picking up an SSP, maybe in the fall. How's the reliability been?

Well I've shot 1000 rounds

The first 500 were done with ELEY Target Pistol, Eley Pistol XTRA and some ELEY Pistol Match. The only problem I encountered is that a few casings didn't eject properly and blocked the slide "window". This problem occured especially with the ELEY Pistol Match which is a much slower cartridge than the other Eleys.

I'm now using cartridges made by SK (SK Pistol Match) and have not encountered any problem with them so far.

bubba_zenetti · Post by **bubba_zenetti** » Thu May 31, 2007 1:22 am

that is one sexy pistol. i wish i had more time for shooting. if i did, i would buy one now.

rrpc · Post by **rrpc** » Thu May 31, 2007 10:19 am

Sweep

There's been a lot of talk on here about how poor the trigger and grip is on this pistol. Can you tell us more about your experiences with it?

There's very little information coming from owners of the SSP, and I'm sure lots of people would appreciate your opinion.

Sweep · Post by **Sweep** » Thu May 31, 2007 1:17 pm

rrpc wrote:Sweep

There's been a lot of talk on here about how poor the trigger and grip is on this pistol. Can you tell us more about your experiences with it?

There's very little information coming from owners of the SSP, and I'm sure lots of people would appreciate your opinion.

Regarding the grip, I'm very happy with it, it's a M size and it fits perfectly with my hand.

It's just like the pistol was a natural extension of my arm when aiming

The trigger is OK : The SSP is delivered by default with a plastic finger rest but it can be replaced by a metal one (included in the package, no need to add extra bucks) the overall behaviour of the trigger is good, no bad surprise (sorry but I don't master the technical words to explain it better)

Sweep

rrpc · Post by **rrpc** » Thu May 31, 2007 2:07 pm

Thanks Sweep

There may have been some refinements to the pistol since it first came out, because some people were saying here that the trigger felt awful when they tried it. They also said that it ejected everywhere, sometimes in your face. Is that your experience?

I note from your photos that you have a weight added to the pistol. Is that for RF or do you just like the extra weight?

Thanks again

RickP · Post by **RickP** » Thu May 31, 2007 4:20 pm

Great photos of the take-down and cleaning! I just cleaned mine the other night. It had approx. 500 - 600 rds through it. My SSP favors CCI Standard Velocity, PMC Scoremaster, Eley Practice 100, and Fiocchi SM300. I'm still testing other brands. The ones mentioned work with the damper setting from the factory. I have yet to tune the gun to specific ammo.
I found the factory setting of the grip very nice. As mentioned in an earlier post, it is like a natural extension of my arm. The pistol balances nicely and is very quick to get back on target during rapid fire portions of the standard pistol event. The trigger is quite different from the GSP-Expert. Upon taking up the 1st stage you come to dead stop. Apply more pressure and it does not roll like the GSP 2-stage and Single Stage, but breaks cleanly. My Hammerli SP20/280 feels "crisper" but they are two totally different trigger mechanisms. The Walther SSP is a striker-fire system. Reset doesn't seem any quicker so you have to make sure to let the trigger forward all the way before reapplying pressure or the gun will not fire. This happened a couple of times during practice sessions and I thought the slide was not cocking the striker until I figured it out. You might be able to "ride" the trigger but it is difficult to either feel or hear a "click" during reset.
As for ejection, it depends on the ammo. When firing with lower velocity and/or slower burning powder loads you will get spent cases on your head or the top of the pistol. With the higher velocity and/or faster burn powder loads they cases eject to the right and cause no concern. So far, I am very pleased with the SSP. During a match I had one failure to feed using Fiocchi SM300 but I feel this was due to "limp-wristing". Overall, It's a great pistol!

Sweep · Post by **Sweep** » Thu May 31, 2007 4:47 pm

RickP wrote:Great photos of the take-down and cleaning! I just cleaned mine the other night. It had approx. 500 - 600 rds through it. My SSP favors CCI Standard Velocity, PMC Scoremaster, Eley Practice 100, and Fiocchi SM300. I'm still testing other brands. The ones mentioned work with the damper setting from the factory. I have yet to tune the gun to specific ammo.
I found the factory setting of the grip very nice. As mentioned in an earlier post, it is like a natural extension of my arm. The pistol balances nicely and is very quick to get back on target during rapid fire portions of the standard pistol event. The trigger is quite different from the GSP-Expert. Upon taking up the 1st stage you come to dead stop. Apply more pressure and it does not roll like the GSP 2-stage and Single Stage, but breaks cleanly. My Hammerli SP20/280 feels "crisper" but they are two totally different trigger mechanisms. The Walther SSP is a striker-fire system. Reset doesn't seem any quicker so you have to make sure to let the trigger forward all the way before reapplying pressure or the gun will not fire. This happened a couple of times during practice sessions and I thought the slide was not cocking the striker until I figured it out. You might be able to "ride" the trigger but it is difficult to either feel or hear a "click" during reset.
As for ejection, it depends on the ammo. When firing with lower velocity and/or slower burning powder loads you will get spent cases on your head or the top of the pistol. With the higher velocity and/or faster burn powder loads they cases eject to the right and cause no concern. So far, I am very pleased with the SSP. During a match I had one failure to feed using Fiocchi SM300 but I feel this was due to "limp-wristing". Overall, It's a great pistol!

Yep for people using slow velocity ammos I definately recommend to invert the two cover screws, giving the damper the 1 mm nozzle instead of the default 0.6 mm one

The recoil will be slightly more perceptible but ammos will eject better.

diathermic · Post by **diathermic** » Thu Sep 18, 2008 9:40 pm

Hey what happened to the pictures?

deadeyedick · Post by **deadeyedick** » Thu Sep 18, 2008 10:03 pm

Same here, no pictures....only boxes with a red X.