PM-9 Feed Problems

[Banjojack]

My PM-9 should be well broken in but still has feed problems. It appears that the nose of the new bullet gets caught at the bottom of the lip of the feed ramp. Usually it can be cured by a significant spank on the bottom of an already well inserted magazine.

There seems to be about 1/8 -inch of vertical play in the inserted magazine. I sent the whole thing to the factory and they "reworked the striker" and declared it fixed. I don't see what the striker has to do with feed and it did the same thing upon return when I put in a full magazine. Haven't tried to hot fire it yet.

Have any of you had this problem?

[wyntrout]

Yeah, I've written here about that 1/8" of play. It makes all of the difference in the world in feeding for some rounds. I had failures to chamber like that and it didn't matter if you locked the slide back and released on a full magazine. It made a BIG difference though, if you push the magazine in 'til it's closer to "flush", that balky round loads easily. After the same round wound up like you're describing, twice. I tried pushing the mag in and the same round loaded easily. Surely Kahr could make the darn magazines fit better and feed better, but they don't seem interested. They are too busy building guns and selling them.
I just checked and my Double Tap order just arrived in town a few hours ago, so I should get those tomorrow, as scheduled. Soon after, or Saturday, I want to take my newly polished feed ramps (PM9 and K9) ti the range and try that stuff out. I hope this will become my carry ammo -- Double Tap +P 125 grain bonded JHP (Gold Dots, I hear). I tried the CorBon +P 124 grain JHP and they had more kick than regular, but I wasn't satisfied that they would feed reliably in either gun. I had a few instances as you described -- the first mag on the K9 which has never given me any problems. And on the PM9 the second round failed to feed as the first round fired but stove-piped. :confused:
Maybe somebody will make some reliable magazines for the Kahrs. I know that everyone doesn't have problems, but there are a lot of magazine related failures, I think! It sure isn't comforting that there's so much "SLOP" in the magazine fit or seating.:(
Maybe polishing the feed ramps will be my cure?
Later.
Wynn:)

[jocko]

My PM-9 should be well broken in but still has feed problems. It appears that the nose of the new bullet gets caught at the bottom of the lip of the feed ramp. Usually it can be cured by a significant spank on the bottom of an already well inserted magazine.

There seems to be about 1/8 -inch of vertical play in the inserted magazine. I sent the whole thing to the factory and they "reworked the striker" and declared it fixed. I don't see what the striker has to do with feed and it did the same thing upon return when I put in a full magazine. Haven't tried to hot fire it yet.

Have any of you had this problem?

mine, I would send the magazines back to kahr for replacement. they could be bad magazines. kahrs magazines are excellent and well made but you could have some bad ones. I would doubt two of them but it is possable.

I just read somewhere and it makes no sense but for these people it worked. take the magazine apart and check the magazine spring and reverse it, (top to bottom) and try it. These people reported it solved their problem. Can't hurt to try it.

If you send the magazines back, then while waiting go to gunsprings.com and order the 20.5 set of recoil springs for the PM9 . This will help alot for some of the issues you are having. Also I would give the feed ramp a super polish job, I have never head of this ever hurting operation and reliabity EVER. the play ur referring to should have no effect.

[deadhead1971]

How old is your PM9? Buy it used or new? How many rounds?

My magazine hangs down I guess 1/8" or 1/16" below the grip. I can push on it, and it will go up and spring back down. That is because the top bullet is up against the ramming bar on the bottom of the slide, and when you push it up, it mashes the top bullet and pushes the bullet down on the magazine spring. Is this the play? My Ruger LCP does the same thing--empty magazine loose fit, full magazine tight fit.

Some folks have reported that stronger guide rod springs have fixed/cured their feeding problems. A polished feed ramp will help too. My PM9 barrel feed ramp from the factory is mirror shiny. To get stronger springs, you would have to order them from Wolf, not from Kahr. I think Kahr's stock springs are around #18 pounds.

Springs for KAHR ARMS Semi-Auto Pistols (http://www.gunsprings.com/index.cfm?page=items&cID=1&mID=29#185)

About half way down this page, you see the 2 guide rod springs for the PM9--the stock factory standard is #18 and the stronger one is #20.5.

One other thing I thought of, if you keep your magazines fully loaded all the time, the magazine springs could be weak and need replacing--not pushing the next round up fast enough.

[Dogman]

My PM-9 should be well broken in but still has feed problems. It appears that the nose of the new bullet gets caught at the bottom of the lip of the feed ramp. Usually it can be cured by a significant spank on the bottom of an already well inserted magazine.

There seems to be about 1/8 -inch of vertical play in the inserted magazine. I sent the whole thing to the factory and they "reworked the striker" and declared it fixed. I don't see what the striker has to do with feed and it did the same thing upon return when I put in a full magazine. Haven't tried to hot fire it yet.

Have any of you had this problem?

Does this happen with all bullets? With my PM-9 it would eat any hard ball but I couldn't find any HP's that it would feed without getting caught on the feed ramp. Finally I tried Speer LE Gold Dots 124 grain and haven't had any problems since with feeding.

[Banjojack]

Thanks to all for your responses. I tried the gun today with several kinds of ammo also used the magazines that came with the gun, a factory magazine that I borrowed from the range (Calibers, Albuquerque), and a couple of magazines that I bought from Midway (about half the Kahr price). All had the vertical slop.

I had a couple of times in which a newly inserted full magazine failed to feed until I spanked it really hard. When spanked it flys into place. Other full magazines fed perfectly. Good news, once loaded it ran perfectly without a failure.

I have polished the ramp and could use it as a mirror. I'll try some Wollf springs. In the meantime it is probably reliable once it loads.

[jeep45238]

Are you sling shotting the slide or using the slide stop? If you're sling shotting it, what method are you using?

It's doubtful that the gap between the bottom of the frame and the bottom of the mag is the cause of the issue. Possibly bad mags, a bad mag catch, a gun that's just picky on the type of JHP's it is fed, or improper technique for getting the slide back into battery.


YouTube - Reloading Kahr Pistols (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjLbFOw8sow)

[jocko]

Thanks to all for your responses. I tried the gun today with several kinds of ammo also used the magazines that came with the gun, a factory magazine that I borrowed from the range (Calibers, Albuquerque), and a couple of magazines that I bought from Midway (about half the Kahr price). All had the vertical slop.

I had a couple of times in which a newly inserted full magazine failed to feed until I spanked it really hard. When spanked it flys into place. Other full magazines fed perfectly. Good news, once loaded it ran perfectly without a failure.

I have polished the ramp and could use it as a mirror. I'll try some Wollf springs. In the meantime it is probably reliable once it loads.

have issues with kahr magazines that is one thing but if you have issues with after market magazines, then don't expect kahr to work with you. Range magaznes are usually well worn in the magazine spring areas, some can even be worn in the magazine catch area from people ramming them home all the time. Use YOUR FACTORY magazines that came with the gun for any testing and reliability issues. If they do ok and if you want to use after market magazines for just range use, that is OK and if u get feed issues, just chalk them up to the magazines. Kahr makes great magazines and they will replace any bad ones also. Some complain about the kahr magazines when fully loaded and lying in ones pocket instead of a mag pouch, popping that top round out. that is just the design of the kahr magazines to. I have always felt they possably had to be designed that way for only kahr has the offset feed framp which brings the bore axis down closer to your center grip area. Quite possably those magazine were designed that way to feed properly with this offset feed ramp. I have no problems with my kahr magazines, (all 4 of them) in any kahr I own. I do change magazine springs probably more often than one should but I do like the wolffs 5% extra strength magazine springs and they are cheap to replace and springs are normally the cause of my gun issues, be they recoil springs or magazine springs.

I wish wolffs would even make 10% more strength magazine spirngs for the magazine spring is the only power that pushes the follower up to contact and engage the slide lock

Wolffs makes all of kahr springs by the way, so u are getting the best of the best IMO..

No doubt we can find quirks in any gun we own, things we like and dislike etc but if the gun is reliable and you like it,you just adapt to the quirks you don't like. thesemfg-ers makes guns to fit 90% of the buyers, and sometimes we fall into that 10% bracket.

Ruger lcp owner are a good example, they dislike the slide lock not being an automatic slide lock like on almost every gun made that has a slide lock. but they have sold well over 100,000 of them and I own one and wish it had the auto slide lock also but it doesn't and I accept that.

[jocko]

My PM-9 should be well broken in but still has feed problems. It appears that the nose of the new bullet gets caught at the bottom of the lip of the feed ramp. Usually it can be cured by a significant spank on the bottom of an already well inserted magazine.

There seems to be about 1/8 -inch of vertical play in the inserted magazine. I sent the whole thing to the factory and they "reworked the striker" and declared it fixed. I don't see what the striker has to do with feed and it did the same thing upon return when I put in a full magazine. Haven't tried to hot fire it yet.

Have any of you had this problem?

Make sure your outter recoil spring is on correctly to. Open end towards the front of the slide.

PM sent also. I think your PM9 is ok to.:behindsofa:

[Tackleberry]

I bought my PM9 new and ran the recommended 200 rounds of 115 grain FMJ's through it without a hickup. I then test fired 3 different 115 grain JHP defense loads for accuracy and reliability. I've had no stoppages after the first 200 rounds and zero problems with any of the JHP loads. I settled on Speer Gold Got 115's because they grouped the tightest and hit point of aim. My only complaint was that the front strap molding was a bit sharp but running a quick 45 degree angle down the outer edges of the polymer bumps with my dremmel tool solved the problem. Having carried full size guns for years I must say that my PM9 in it's Kahr belly band, "which also holds the 7rd back up mag", is by far the most comfortable, concealable, and reliable system I've owned to date. I glad I sprang the extra $300 to get a full power 9mm over the sub .380's I was also looking at.
Thank you Kahr for a great product!