broken follower

[olympicmotorcars]

I was cleaning my PM 40 after my trip to the range today and DRAT!! found a broken follower on one magazine. I am going to send it in Monday.

Did we ever come to a consensus as to why this is happening?

[Gliderguy]

Most likely: feed ramp just a scosch too big and beating on the front skirt of the follower as it is ejecting the last round of the magazine
I suspect this one if only the front skirt is broken off. Follower may break on last round or if the plastic is severely fatigued, could break at any point with any round during the recoil of the pistol. There is a reason the front skirt "reaches out" to the nose of the magazine and the main body of the follower is recessed maybe 1/8 of an inch--- the feed ramp needs to intrude on that space.

Also possible:
the little pin that catches the slide lock might work out a fraction, and hang on the magazine shell on either the last or next to last round being cycled into the gun. The rounds in the magazine depress a fraction of an inch when the slide recoils rearword due to the inclined ramp that strips each round out of the magazine. This could create mondo amounts of torque and bust the skirt,

The one time I broke a follower it broke the front skirt and busted the little metal piece out of the follower, thus I expect failure 2 is the cause of my personal experience.

This second failure can most likely either only happen with the 40 or only with the 9. different diameters of rounds would place the little metal pin at different heights during the cycling of the firearm, and wouldnt likely be a problem with both calibers. Mine is a PM40.

[ScottSouth66]

As a side note,my ONLY beef with my K40 I acquired recently is that the 2nd mag I got with it has the rear weld line cracked @ 1" down the back. It functions ok,but when fully loaded you can see daylight through the said crack. I wonder if Kahr would honor a replacement,as second owner? Normally I'd just toss a bad mag and buy another,but DAYUM,$40???

[jocko]

just package the mag up and send it back to them, I have no doubt they will replace that mag for you. It is a bad mag. Stragneto hear it happened in the K40 to. Being this is a used kahr, it probalb is one of those faulty magaqazines that is still floatng around out there waitging to split

PM sent.

[ScottSouth66]

I'll try that Jocko,thanks....

[WMD]

I was cleaning my PM 40 after my trip to the range today and DRAT!! found a broken follower on one magazine. I am going to send it in Monday.

Did we ever come to a consensus as to why this is happening?


Hmmmm.... just one broken follower? May not be the gun. Just call Kahr and ask for a couple replacement followers before sending anythin back. That is all you may need.

[TucsonMTB]

I was cleaning my PM 40 after my trip to the range today and DRAT!! found a broken follower on one magazine. I am going to send it in Monday.

Did we ever come to a consensus as to why this is happening?
Not sure we have a consensus. Everyone has the right to their own conclusion. However, both my PM40's were breaking followers every few weeks (yes, I was shooting a lot) and that all came to a screeching halt after I polished a little length off the end of the feed ramp with a rubber abrasive wheel.

I was careful to duplicate the original shape of the end of the ramp and followed up with a buffing wheel polish of the ramp. I would like to think I did as good a job as the fine folks at Kahr would have, had I complained loudly enough and been willing to be without the guns for a little while.

In fact, one of the guns went back to Kahr to have a cracked polymer frame replaced a few months after my work on the ramps. I am guessing that either Kahr did not notice my work or they approved because no one mentioned it. By the way, both PM40's run like Timex watches these days. 100% reliable with the ammunition that I use both for range fodder and carry. They have both been failure free for many hundreds of rounds.

I even have a couple of left over followers thanks to Kahr's generosity while they were breaking on a frequent basis.

So, is it a consensus, I dunno . . . But, I believe that the feed ramps on lots of PM40 and CM40 pistols are long enough to tap the followers and break them. Kahr is usually quick to send replacement followers and will even include a spare, if asked. But, the root cause does not seem to be the follower itself. Just my opinion, of course, but mine no longer break followers after a little ramp end shortening, so I am sticking to my story. http://home.mindspring.com/%7Ejustsomeguy/icon_lol.gif

That said, I cannot recommend that you trim your own ramp. I can recommend that you discuss the possibility with Kahr.

[olympicmotorcars]

I didn't think about just requesting a follower, already sent the mag in for replacement.

The feed ramp explanation makes a lot of sense . Not sure I am brave enough to start sanding on mine though.

Mine also has been running 100 percent with everything I have put in it.

The only way I noticed the follower was in cleaning after the range trip.

[TucsonMTB]

I didn't think about just requesting a follower, already sent the mag in for replacement.
No worries! It accomplishes the same thing. Most likely the replacement magazine will be just as good as your original.


The feed ramp explanation makes a lot of sense . Not sure I am brave enough to start sanding on mine though.
Not sure "brave" is the right word. "Foolish" comes to mind. I got away with it, but if yours keeps happening you can either ask for a spare follower next time or ask Kahr to deal with the interference. I just didn't really want to send in my gun.


Mine also has been running 100 percent with everything I have put in it.

The only way I noticed the follower was in cleaning after the range trip.
Good news! I wouldn't be worried. The behavior of yours sounds similar to mine originally, in that the breakage does not cause a stoppage and is more of a nuisance than a real concern. I just ignored it for months and Kahr kept sending replacements for the broken followers as needed.

[ParabellumJ]

The follower skirt on one of my mags broke today as well, PM9. Brand spankin new gun. My mags also seem very tight and will not drop free at all. These were the same mags I used in my CM9 and they both dropped free every time.

[jocko]

The follower skirt on one of my mags broke today as well, PM9. Brand spankin new gun. My mags also seem very tight and will not drop free at all. These were the same mags I used in my CM9 and they both dropped free every time.

call kahr and talk to Jay, IMO this gun is so so new and two broken followers , I would think kahr would want thee entire gun backto diagnose what is causing it. I would kinda lean my phone converstation to Jay that way to. let them issue a pick up o the gun.

Something in ur case I think is causing these followers to break. . This ramp mod stuff over on the kel teck forum years back, we called it the rampectomy, but kahrs barrels are nickel plated so when u grind, u are getting down to the stainless portion of the feed ramp. I would not tell anyone to do or not to do it. If it is the ramp causing it in ur partiular gun then IMO kahr should take care of the gun for you which could \mean a barrel replacement or actual modification to the feed ramp themselves,. If one does it, then his warratny just flew right out the window with no real assurance the ramp job will end the issues.

I would suggest calling kahr before doing anything..:yo:

[Djharpin]

Just searched the forum and see this is a fairly common problem; I have 3 broken followers on my new PM40 after about 500 rounds of Fed American Eagle 180gm FMJ. Will see how quickly Kahr responds. Love the gun though...fun as hell.

[getsome]

As others have said it is a known and somewhat common problem in some CM and PM40 pistols...I would send it back to Kahr and have them do the work to keep everything in warranty but in reality what they are going to do is remove a small amount of the lower feed ramp length as that seems to be the fix...

Kahr makes great little pistols but I really wish they would go to a quality magazine vendor as the factory supplied Kahr magazines are very expensive and poorly made IMHO for such an otherwise beautiful well made handgun, kind of like owning a Rolex with a cheap watch band ...Good luck with yours and let us know how it works out......

[jocko]

3 broken followers, IMO the gun needs to go back to kahr. It is not the followers, it is something in the gun itself that is breaking them.

DJharpin, fr sure have kahr issue a pre paid pickup on ur kahr..

[KyWinFan]

Maybe this may help in your consensus.

CW40 just busted the first follower this week, so it's not just the small pistols.

Broke both the front and the rear lip/tabs simultaneously and they fall down into the mag case. The breakage sheared the metal slide catch on the follower. Made the last couple rounds jam and slide wouldn't lock back on empty or I wouldn't have noticed.

The deep shearing of the metal worries me that mine is more than a follower.

But another mag is free of any signs of damage, so I'll replace the broken follower and hope it doesn't repeat too soon.