Kahr Quality Control Rant

[Sgt01]

In prefacing this rant, I'd just like to say that I'm a big Kahr fan, owning many Kahr firearms over the years. Purchased my first Kahr (K9) shortly after they hit the market. Kahr makes one of the best, if not THE best carry guns in the world.
Now my story...

Recently, over a two week period, I had purchased both a P380 DLC w/night sights and a CW9. Both ordered brand new by my local dealer from one of his distributors.

First purchased was the P380. After taking the little blaster home, anxious to look her over, I found that there were numerous scrapes in the black finish on the top front of the slide. Unfortunately, the lighting in the store where I purchased the gun is pretty bad, so I didn't see the damage/defect before I accepted the gun. After getting it home, in decent lighting, the scrapes jumped out at me. Anyway, I called Kahr and had the slide shipped back to them the following day. That was two weeks ago. Hopefully it'll be back to me in short order.

About 5 days later I purchased the CW9, from the same dealer. Once again, after getting it home to inspect it, I found that this slide was also defective. The top of the slide showed numerous curved milling marks which covered about 80% of surface. Once again, I called Kahr and had the entire gun shipped back to them the following day. The gunsmith I spoke to said there's no way that slide should have made it out the door.

Anyway, needless to say, I'm not very impressed with Kahr's Quality Control at this point. Don't they have anyone looking at these things before leaving the factory? Amazing...

[johnh]

I do not want to suggest that your dealer scammed you in anyway, but be aware that there are blem Kahr pistols in circulation that were offered to various dealer/distributors. One of my local dealer friends was sold some of these guns by a wholesaler and was NOT told they were blems. It can be very hard to find the defects. In his case it was a slightly off color patches in the finish, similar to what you are reporting. You may want to verify that the guns you bought were not blems. If they are, and you paid full price, I would suggest either returning them or asking for a refund of part of your payment. The blem guns will shoot just as good as any other pistol, but were let go cheaper because they had cosmetic defects.

If they are not blems, I would suggest contacting Kahr. The one on the left looks like damage to me--possibly by someone installing the front sight by holding the slide in a set of pliers. I have to wonder if the gun was in fact new--assuming it was not a blem. Again, not pointing fingers at your dealer as I do not know them.

[les strat]

I thought the blem pistols were marked as such somewhere on the gun???

[Double3]

I thought the blem pistols were marked as such somewhere on the gun???
There is a B stamped on the trigger guard.

The one I have you wouldn't know what was wrong unless you knew where it was.

[MLESa7990]

OP has already sent both his P380 slide and CW9 back to Kahr, so they probably are not blem guns.

[josp]

If buying new as you did, I too would be upset. Since I rarely buy new, I have learned to accept "handling" marks and wear as a sign of either use, or abuse.
I recently "honored" my P380 with a mark of its own (ARGH!!), but it shoots just fine.

[yqtszhj]

that bottom pic does look really rough.

[Sgt01]

Got a new replacement P380 slide back from Kahr yesterday. The DLC finish on this one is flawless. Hope to get her to the range for the first time Monday. Gonna clean, lube and start the pre-break in this weekend.
Hopefully my CW9 will be back some time next week. Got my fingers crossed!

[CJB]

What makes to think that Kahr was responsible for the scrape marks, and not someone else?

[Sgt01]

I suppose there could be a very slight possibility that Kahr wasn't responsible. With that said, my dealer ordered the gun for me through a large east coast distributor, which I can't imagine them opening eash individual box, removing each gun from the plastic bag (in Kahrs case) then packing it all up. Maybe I'm wrong, but it doesn't seem feasible. Then, I'm certain that my dealer never handled the gun until I went to pick it up. It wasn't yet unpacked from the distributors packaging when I got there.
Then, when I contacted Kahr and emailed them a picture of the damage, I was told that the damage could have been caused by some tooling.
And lastly, if Kahr felt that they positively couldn't be responsible for the damage, I don't believe they would have been so anxious to resolve the issue.
The fact that my newly purchased CW9 had an obvious cosmetic defect on most of the slide that actually made it past QC and out of the factory is substantial proof to me that Kahr's Quality Control is somewhat lacking, so why wouldn't a reasonable person feel that the damage to the P380 slide was also done in-house and not caught by QC before being shipped to the distributor? Makes Alot of sense to me.

Now... The customer service reps and gunsmiths I've dealt with have all been very professional and helpful. As a whole, I feel that Kahr is most definitely a top shelf company, capable of putting out an outstanding product and has many knowledgeable folks working for then. They just need to take a little more time checking out the function and cosmetics of their guns before pushing them out the door. They could save a boatload of cash and time by making sure each gun is 100% when it leaves the building. Not to mention saving their customers alot of grief! Besides, Kahr firearms are not inexpensive guns!

And yes... I still love Kahr firearms.

[OldLincoln]

It appears that your slides are being taken care of by Kahr. Over time more than a few have remarked about items that should have been caught in QC and we have seen some things improve such as ramp finish. My hope is the new manager of customer service will identify sore spots and push changes into the upstream processes.

[JFootin]

It appears that your slides are being taken care of by Kahr. Over time more than a few have remarked about items that should have been caught in QC and we have seen some things improve such as ramp finish. My hope is the new manager of customer service will identify sore spots and push changes into the upstream processes.

Maybe the QC issues are why there was a change in management. A marked improvement would certainly befit this remarkably well designed line of handguns.

The first engineering change that MUST be done is to quit denying the obvious problems and redesign the magazines.

[O'Dell]

[QUOTE=JFootin;176655

The first engineering change that MUST be done is to quit denying the obvious problems and redesign the magazines.[/QUOTE]

Amen!

[CJB]

Its not the magazines... but, I agree that improvement can be made.

[7shot]

I've check out a lot of pistols in my time but I've never seen one come scraped up like yours straight from the factory, usually it's internal stuff that's f***up. Now I haven't read all the previous post so I'm hoping Kaur fessed up quick and had you send it in for repair on there time. That kind of thing should never happen...good luck!

[kerby9mm]

I kind of agree with CJB on the mags because the 5 & 6 round for my mk40 & the 6 & 7 round work fine for my mk9. I can ride the slide on both as slow as can be done and the guns feed perfectly. I started doing that as a test after I read about charging from slide lock for reliability. There must be some difference from the polymer guns.