Is this normal dirtyness for a new p45 from the factory?

[bcj36287]

First post! I just thought it to be quite messy for a gun to ship from the factory in this condition. http://img.tapatalk.com/d03655bd-7793-10e6.jpghttp://img.tapatalk.com/d03655bd-779e-27eb.jpghttp://img.tapatalk.com/d03655bd-77a8-3eda.jpg

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[Bawanna]

They are test fired at the factory and not cleaned afterwards. I've not seen one quite that dirty before but it's not really horrible bad either.
Hopefully they just shot that one a few extra times cause it was shooting so good they didn't want to stop.

[skiflydive]

Does it have a "U" stamped in the trigger guard? Just wondering.

[bcj36287]

No u.

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[MLESa7990]

Do you know for a fact this just came from the factory? Just cause you bought it new doesn't mean it was just made.

I wouldn't think it was anything to worry about though either way.

[ripley16]

The barrel hood looks more worn than my new Kahrs looked. My new Kahrs came quite oily, almost dripping wet. Was your wet? Perhaps the store owner shot the gun before selling it.

[K.C.]

My new Kahrs came quite oily, almost dripping wet. Was your wet?
When I bought my p380 new it was in a plastic bag inside of the original case, is that normal for kahrs?

[Bawanna]

Throw a polish job on that barrel and hood and it'll never look like that again.

[Bawanna]

When I bought my p380 new it was in a plastic bag inside of the original case, is that normal for kahrs?

Most I've seen are in a bag. I think most all new guns are in a bag these days. Used to be wrapped in a waterproof like paper. My last new gun the MRI 1911G came in a bag all nicely oiled too.

[Longitude Zero]

A little bit more than I have seen in the box new but as posted previously the factory does shoot every one before shipping. Also at the gun store the owner/staff may have burned a few thru it. Not supposed to happen but it does.

[Ikeo74]

It looks like quite a few shots have been fired, but the lockup of the barrel and slide looks like a perfect fit. I would bet there won't be much breakin needed for that gun. Shoot it, I bet it is factory perfect.

[JFootin]

I wonder, though, if someone bought it, shot enough rounds through it to get it good and dirty, then returned it to the GS for some reason, and now the dealer is trying to sell it as a new gun? That barrel hood looks like it has had at least a couple hundred rounds shot through it. I really don't think it came from kahr looking like that. (Unless there was a problem when Kahr test fired it and they had to fix it before sending it out. But it seems like they wouldn't leave it that dirty.) Like the guys said, shoot it. If it works with no problem, you're probably OK because you're not going to wear a Kahr out shooting it. Just replace the recoil spring every now and then. Look at Jocko's PM9 with over 32,000 rounds fired through it. Still going strong. Might want to check with Kahr to see if anyone did a warranty registration on that serial number already, though. If so, then you have the dealer dead to rights.

[CJB]

Playing some advocates position -

It very well could have been fired more than a few shots at the factory. Suppose the extractor needed tweaking? Whatever....

For the hood "wear".... gotta say, even a perfectly clean pistol might have that wear, if the pistol was on display at a sales counter. My PM45 came back with a "worn" barrel (it was original) and new slide and frame. That bothered me so I ground glass blasted it at very low pressure to get a nice even matte finish. Hand racking only... not shots fired, it had that same appearance in maybe 100 racks of the slide. Any display pistol is bound to be racked over and over. Thinking on my own gun-sales days, its not uncommon to rack a gun maybe half a dozen times, or more, when showing a pistol to a prospect. They want the demonstration, they want to try it themselves, they want to feel how the slide is (smoothness, difficulty), they want to try the trigger a few times, they want to release the slide... its part of the drill really. So maybe the gun got shown a little... in the shop.

I'd not give it a seconds thought. It will have more wear after your first box of ammo.

And (edited) afterthought. See the upper right side of the frame (in the pictures), at the rear rail? Still flashing there. Some use, that stuff comes off. I dont think you have a "much shot" pistol, I think you may have a "much shown" pistol. Thats ok, consider it partially pre-broken-in. The other thing I noticed is that Kahr uses some snotass-filthy-stickycrud ammo. My PM45 that I got new had streaks in the barrel even after a full box of FMJ's. I had to scrub like the devil to get the crud out. Dunno what it was, but it was hard to remove. All clean, back to the factory... comes back with same crud-O-la in the barrel. Same routine... firing, and a lot of elbow-grease to get it clean. I guess they're using lead (oh no!) and their own reloads as testing - from the looks of things.

[JFootin]

Playing some advocates position -

It very well could have been fired more than a few shots at the factory. Suppose the extractor needed tweaking? Whatever....

For the hood "wear".... gotta say, even a perfectly clean pistol might have that wear, if the pistol was on display at a sales counter. My PM45 came back with a "worn" barrel (it was original) and new slide and frame. That bothered me so I ground glass blasted it at very low pressure to get a nice even matte finish. Hand racking only... not shots fired, it had that same appearance in maybe 100 racks of the slide. Any display pistol is bound to be racked over and over. Thinking on my own gun-sales days, its not uncommon to rack a gun maybe half a dozen times, or more, when showing a pistol to a prospect. They want the demonstration, they want to try it themselves, they want to feel how the slide is (smoothness, difficulty), they want to try the trigger a few times, they want to release the slide... its part of the drill really. So maybe the gun got shown a little... in the shop.

I'd not give it a seconds thought. It will have more wear after your first box of ammo.

But it was also dirty from firing lots of live rounds. As you said, it could have been done at the factory.

Does the GS also have a firing range? If so, it could have been shot by prospective purchasers (or people acting interested just to get to shoot the gun).

[CJB]

See my edit - Kahr has dirty ammo. We'd hope they test fire so they can catch any issue before it leaves the plant. If there was an issue - extractor, slide stop.... striker... whatever.... don't you think they'd test it again after correction? Maybe test it more after correction to really make sure they had it right? You'd hope so. I'd hope so!

I'd bet bottom dollar they fire lead reloads and 231 as the powder. Thats exactly what it looks like. Little balls of unburnt powder... lead streaks in the barrel. I loaded umteen hundreds of thousands of those in the decade plus that I was in that biz. They all got shot at our range, and we cleaned a lot of those pistols (rental included). The smokey look is very familiar to bullseye shooters as well.

[GOOFA]

Kahr has dirty ammo.

Thats a bunch of BS. And they are not reloads.

I have purchased 10 new Kahrs and none of them came that dirty. The only time I have seen a pistol come back that way from Kahr is when it was shipped to them that way for a repair and they performed the repair and sent it back to you the same way they got it.
I would bet the store either took it back from someone or maybe they used it for a demo or they themselves shot it.
By the way, that frame looks terrible for a new pistol.

[ripley16]

When I bought my p380 new it was in a plastic bag inside of the original case, is that normal for kahrs?

Yes, I forgot about the clear plastic bag.

On second look... I've got to say, the P45 in question looks used to me, more than a mag of test ammo at the factory went through that gun IMHO. Someone shot it. How much and is there a problem would be my questions. If the gun works, great, go on with life. If not, then the gun store has some explaining to do.

[muggsy]

When I received my CM9 the owner of the LGS cleaned and lubed the pistol before giving it to me. He also went through the take down and reassembly procedure with me and covered the safety aspects of the gun. That's called customer service. That's what you get at a good LGS.

[muggsy]

Playing some advocates position -

It very well could have been fired more than a few shots at the factory. Suppose the extractor needed tweaking? Whatever....

For the hood "wear".... gotta say, even a perfectly clean pistol might have that wear, if the pistol was on display at a sales counter. My PM45 came back with a "worn" barrel (it was original) and new slide and frame. That bothered me so I ground glass blasted it at very low pressure to get a nice even matte finish. Hand racking only... not shots fired, it had that same appearance in maybe 100 racks of the slide. Any display pistol is bound to be racked over and over. Thinking on my own gun-sales days, its not uncommon to rack a gun maybe half a dozen times, or more, when showing a pistol to a prospect. They want the demonstration, they want to try it themselves, they want to feel how the slide is (smoothness, difficulty), they want to try the trigger a few times, they want to release the slide... its part of the drill really. So maybe the gun got shown a little... in the shop.

I'd not give it a seconds thought. It will have more wear after your first box of ammo.

And (edited) afterthought. See the upper right side of the frame (in the pictures), at the rear rail? Still flashing there. Some use, that stuff comes off. I dont think you have a "much shot" pistol, I think you may have a "much shown" pistol. Thats ok, consider it partially pre-broken-in. The other thing I noticed is that Kahr uses some snotass-filthy-stickycrud ammo. My PM45 that I got new had streaks in the barrel even after a full box of FMJ's. I had to scrub like the devil to get the crud out. Dunno what it was, but it was hard to remove. All clean, back to the factory... comes back with same crud-O-la in the barrel. Same routine... firing, and a lot of elbow-grease to get it clean. I guess they're using lead (oh no!) and their own reloads as testing - from the looks of things.

I have put 750 rounds through my CM9 and it doesn't show the wear on the barrel hood that his pistol has.

[muggsy]

First post! I just thought it to be quite messy for a gun to ship from the factory in this condition. http://img.tapatalk.com/d03655bd-7793-10e6.jpghttp://img.tapatalk.com/d03655bd-779e-27eb.jpghttp://img.tapatalk.com/d03655bd-77a8-3eda.jpg

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I just e-mailed Kahr to find out what ammunition they use in testing and in general how many rounds are put through the gun during testing. I'll post their reply when I receive it.

[CJB]

Thats a bunch of BS. And they are not reloads.


Call it what you want, but I know lead streaking in a barrel when I see it. I lived that scenario constantly for over ten years. Reloads - conjecture, educated conjecture, on my part. Lead in the barrel....almost certainly, it was a hard hard thing to remove, twice. If not lead, I have absolutely no technical fallback explanation to explain the streaking.

[pocket pistol]

I bet it was fired more than just at the factory. I'm interested to see what Kahr says. I hope you sent them the pictures. I've never seen a new gun look like that.

[knkali]

The gun seems lightly used to me. Heck, save you saved money on rounds for break in. Dont sweat it man. I dont think 100's of rounds been through it but enough to know it has been fired more than 2 or 3 times.

[muggsy]

I contacted Kahr by e-mail and asked about their test firing program. I was told that kahr test fires each pistol using four magazines loaded with a variety of ammunition. All ammunition is brass cased, copper jacketed, factory first and meets SAAMI specs. Four six round magazines means that the factory fires 24 rounds through each PM/CM9 before they ship them to the dealers.