B%&#$'s, Moans, or Complaint's CW 45

[martkin64]

Anybody have any B%&#$'s, Moans or Complaints they want to talk about with their CW45. Just recent stuff. I am a little curious if the kinks are being worked out in a timely matter with the CW..
I have not had any problems with my CW 45 for a while now and I am quite pleased the the gun. But I know there is still some issues Kahr needs to sort out.
I'm not trying to pick a fight here, I am just trying to find a potential problem with the pistol before one finds me..

[godan]

Like you, I had read through the posts here and found information elsewhere about problems with .45 Kahrs. I posted asking which model was the most trouble-free, and the responses were generally positive. Even so, I held off buying one until an attractive offer to trade for a CW45 appeared. The internals looked free of battering and the wear patterns confirmed the low round count that the owner claimed, so I made the deal. At home, I disassembled and cleaned the upper, sprayed out the lower and lubed everything as per instructions. The pistol has been flawless through 500 rounds from (now) four magazines. A bonus is that it fires my two favorite .45 rounds, the Federal Hydrashok 230 grain and the Remington Golden Sabre 185 grain Plus P to POA at fifty yards. Both groups of three are within the same 8-inch circle at that range. Another bonus is that it eats my sloppy reloads, made to practice for GSSF matches, without being finicky. I will feel more certain after 2K rounds, but I'm pretty happy at this early point in my acquaintance with the pistol.

[martkin64]

I wasn't so lucky in the beginning. I had several jams and I had some issues with hornady critical defense rounds. Kahr Talk helped me through a lot of it. I to like to shoot the Hydra shock ammo but the 165 grn. It works perfect in my gun. After shooting a few hundred rnds through it everything seemed to work fine. I even shot a few hundred rnds of reloads and they fired flawlessly.
I am how ever far from firing 1000 plus rounds and was wanting to know of any problems later on. Like how the wear and tear is later in the life of the pistol.

[Longitude Zero]

I've had mine for a couple of years and it has been trouble free for a couple thousand rounds.

[rjt123]

I am how ever far from firing 1000 plus rounds and was wanting to know of any problems later on. Like how the wear and tear is later in the life of the pistol.

I have a PM45 with about 1700 rounds through it. I recently put a new recoil assembly in it (every 3000 miles...or something like that :)). Mine has been great. It's my favorite Kahr. I would recommend one without a second thought.

[pacman225]

Only a few minor complaints: Holster options seem to be more limited for the Kahr CW45. Think they should make a factory flush fitting mag. Texture on the front and backstrap on the grip is a little too aggressive for my taste. Was disappointed on the overall fit and finish. Scratched the heck out of the barrel hood after my first range session, which seems to be pretty common. Don't care for the sights. All pretty minor stuff. Some just personal preference. Overall still pleased with my Kahr CW45.

[gb6491]

I've had my CW45 for close to three years; it had some teething problems, but has been superb since.
Regards,
Greg

[oldmedik]

new member i've had my cw45 a few months, at almost 200 rds my pistol let me load, then wouldnt let me rack the slide to unload it. after talking to members here, a light polish to the chamber, a clean and lube job, i went to shoot. at the range my cw45 got 250 rds of mixed h/b and h/p, just as fast as i could shoot semi accurately, with my son loading. no jams, ftf, fte, and the slide racks fine now. i didnt try it after the polish and lube. it was going to work or find a new home. it works beautiful now, has "loosened" up slightly, and has made my 1911s very jealous!


martin wise

[O'Dell]

I had one about four years ago that I traded for a PM45. I realized my mistake and bought another last December. Both were fine with no problems.

[yqtszhj]

Mine had a minor trigger reset issue in the beginning but now it's SWEET!!!!!

[martkin64]

I bought the Mitch Rosen belt holster from the Kahr web site. i like it a lot, its comfortable and very concealable. There are more option available but sometimes hard to find. I do know of a local guy here in the Boise Id area that makes a real nice one for all the Kahr pistols. He makes an inside the belt and out side the belt holster out of black leather. If I would have known about them before I bought the Mitch Rosen I would have bought it. They are great quality.
I can get some info on them if anybody is interested.

[ABNAK]

Mine had a minor trigger reset issue in the beginning but now it's SWEET!!!!!

Mine too. Went back to Kahr and as soon as it got back I put 100rds of various ammo through it at one sitting: HST, HST +P, Gold Dot SB loads, Cor Bon 185gr +P, some old Magsafes, and WWB. No more trigger reset issues but had 2 FTF with the Winchester White Box FMJ (no issues with any of the other ammo). Figured it wasn't that big of a deal as I won't be using WWB for CCW anyway.

[rwehnau]

Mine has already been back once and am now having issues with light primer strikes.

Nothing coming out striker channels after cleaner blasting and beginning to question reliability since it is my CCW and was going to be 2nd duty gun

[Automatic]

I'm a newbie here.. only had the CW45 for about 2 weeks. Have 150rds of hardball through it as part of break-in. Plans were to change out sights to 3-dot but, after my first outing I'm rethinking that. I was surprised to see how much I liked them & accurate they could be.

Only VERY minor issue (not complaint) I had, was that occasionally when S-L-O-W-L-Y squeezing the trigger, it would hang at a point just before breaking. If I'd release the trigger (without firing) the trigger would then be stuck in a cocked (not ½ cocked) state. A bump to the gun would result in an audible click & the gun returning to ½ cock.

I took off the side panel (on grip) and could see gouges in the polymer where the trigger bar was rubbing. So, I polished the trigger bar & carefully sanded the gouges out of the side panel. Beautiful now!! No hitch anywhere in the trigger. Perfectly smooth until it breaks (just like on the rental Kahrs I'd tried).

Appreciate all the posts on here... still learning but, hopefully I can contribute some.

Respectfully,
Automatic

[jocko]

damn, move to the head of the class. nice trouble shooting on ur part..

[yqtszhj]

Yep what Jocko said. That was a good fix on your part.

Welcome to the forum by the way. Good to have you here.

[scattershot]

I'm a newb to the forum and new to Kahr. I bought a CW45 a couple of weeks ago, and although I have fired it without issue, I have tried modifying some Officer size mags to fit the pistol, without success. Long story short, I have fired the pistol with the Officers mags in place, but I can't hand cycle the action. It hangs up about 5/8" into the extraction cycle. It seems to happen on the next to last round in the mag, and it's even started to bind a little with the factory mag. I'm afraid to shoot it until I find out what's wrong, for fear of breaking something. Any ideas?
Thanks

[Deano]

I'm a newb to the forum and new to Kahr. I bought a CW45 a couple of weeks ago, and although I have fired it without issue, I have tried modifying some Officer size mags to fit the pistol, without success. Long story short, I have fired the pistol with the Officers mags in place, but I can't hand cycle the action. It hangs up about 5/8" into the extraction cycle. It seems to happen on the next to last round in the mag, and it's even started to bind a little with the factory mag. I'm afraid to shoot it until I find out what's wrong, for fear of breaking something. Any ideas?
Thanks
I'm beginning to think the flush mag idea wasn't the greatest. My CW45 was flawless until I started messing with the 1911 mags. Your problem sounds like you haven't ground off enough of the lip of the mag for the slide to clear.

Anyway, mine was reliable as the Oregon rain at first. Now I won't carry it. The slide lock pin now tries to work it's way out while shooting. Also the other day, I unloaded the gun to take out the hollow points for a range trip, and the trigger went limp. Racked the slide a couple of times still limp. Then put an empty mag in and racked it, and finally the trigger reset. It fired fine at the range, but you don't need issues like this with a carry weapon. For now it's going to stay home until I can feel like it's totally reliable. My CM9 on the other hand was nothing but trouble at first. Now it's perfect, and I carry it all the time.

[scattershot]

Thanks, glad to know I'm not the only one.

[gb6491]

I'm a newb to the forum and new to Kahr. I bought a CW45 a couple of weeks ago, and although I have fired it without issue, I have tried modifying some Officer size mags to fit the pistol, without success. Long story short, I have fired the pistol with the Officers mags in place, but I can't hand cycle the action. It hangs up about 5/8" into the extraction cycle. It seems to happen on the next to last round in the mag, and it's even started to bind a little with the factory mag. I'm afraid to shoot it until I find out what's wrong, for fear of breaking something. Any ideas?
Thanks


I'm beginning to think the flush mag idea wasn't the greatest. My CW45 was flawless until I started messing with the 1911 mags. Your problem sounds like you haven't ground off enough of the lip of the mag for the slide to clear.

Anyway, mine was reliable as the Oregon rain at first. Now I won't carry it. The slide lock pin now tries to work it's way out while shooting. Also the other day, I unloaded the gun to take out the hollow points for a range trip, and the trigger went limp. Racked the slide a couple of times still limp. Then put an empty mag in and racked it, and finally the trigger reset. It fired fine at the range, but you don't need issues like this with a carry weapon. For now it's going to stay home until I can feel like it's totally reliable. My CM9 on the other hand was nothing but trouble at first. Now it's perfect, and I carry it all the time.
Scattershot,
I replied in another thread that i believe that the "Devel" style follower is your issue in regards to hand cycling the modified magazine. You can verify this by trying the follower and spring in a Kahr tube.

Deano,
In regards to your slide stop working out, check the condition and position of the slide stop spring. Also check the tension on the spring. My stop had a tendency to lock back with rounds still in the magazine, feeding rounds could push it out, and it required little pressure to remove it from the frame during disassembly. Tightening the slide stop spring screw fixed those issues o my gun: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c50P7HCAATo

As to the trigger reset, some folks have resolved reset issues by removing the side plate and giving that area a good cleaning. Some have found that the internals were scraping/binding on the plate and that removing a little material for where that was happening solved the problem.

Anyway, just some things to consider. Hope you both get your pistols running to your satisfaction.
Regards,
Greg

[TheTman]

My trigger wouldn't reset after about 50 rounds. And it never would feed from the 7 round mags. Ended up selling it to buy a SIG P250 C from a widowed friend that needed money.
I am saving up now for the CM45 when it comes out.

[scattershot]

Thanks, Greg. I really appreciate your input.

[Deano]

Scattershot,
I replied in another thread that i believe that the "Devel" style follower is your issue in regards to hand cycling the modified magazine. You can verify this by trying the follower and spring in a Kahr tube.

Deano,
In regards to your slide stop working out, check the condition and position of the slide stop spring. Also check the tension on the spring. My stop had a tendency to lock back with rounds still in the magazine, feeding rounds could push it out, and it required little pressure to remove it from the frame during disassembly. Tightening the slide stop spring screw fixed those issues o my gun: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c50P7HCAATo

As to the trigger reset, some folks have resolved reset issues by removing the side plate and giving that area a good cleaning. Some have found that the internals were scraping/binding on the plate and that removing a little material for where that was happening solved the problem.

Anyway, just some things to consider. Hope you both get your pistols running to your satisfaction.
Regards,
GregThanks Greg. I already tightened the slide lock lever spring, and it helped with my slide not locking back on empty mags. But last range trip it started to come out again. Should I have to keep tightening this screw?

I'll see about cleaning the trigger internals as well. Appreciate the input.

[gb6491]

Thanks Greg. I already tightened the slide lock lever spring, and it helped with my slide not locking back on empty mags. But last range trip it started to come out again. Should I have to keep tightening this screw?

I'll see about cleaning the trigger internals as well. Appreciate the input.
i haven't had to re-tighten mine. I think I would try a new spring if it was my pistol. You might also want to look at the frame in that area. It's molded with a little "shelf/ledge" (for want of a better description) just below the screw that helps contain the spring. That might need a little TLC.
http://i47.tinypic.com/25qbyvb.jpg
Regards,
Greg

[younggunner]

I'm in the same boat with the mags. Now when I hand cycle my gun with the kahr mag it still gets hung up about half an inch into the extraction process . Haven't had a chance to go shoot it yet but we will see what happens

[scattershot]

On my pistol, it turned out to be th ammo. I was trying to use 200 gr lswc dummys, and they wouldn't cycle. Try cycling the action with GI or factory hardball and see if that doesn't cure the problem. Then find a self defense load which will work. Dunno about all CW 45s, but mine is pretty finicky.

[Longitude Zero]

Mine has always functioned flawlessly. If you need to tighten the spring retainer screw be gentle as my departments armorer has seen it overtightened and stripped out.

[mikek53]

I took my new CW45 to the range yesterday and ran 200 rounds through it. The first 50 were Winchester white box - they shot flawlessly. I then ran 150 rounds of Remington target ammo through it. I had 4 failure to feed and about 4 failure to eject. I plan on giving the weapon a good cleaning and lubing and going back to the range soon as I still have 50 rounds of the Remington left to shoot. I sure hope that my gun just doesn't like the Remington. I am open to ammo choices, especially self-defense rounds. - Mike

[dorangolv]

I'm a newbie here.. only had the CW45 for about 2 weeks. Have 150rds of hardball through it as part of break-in. Plans were to change out sights to 3-dot but, after my first outing I'm rethinking that. I was surprised to see how much I liked them & accurate they could be.

Only VERY minor issue (not complaint) I had, was that occasionally when S-L-O-W-L-Y squeezing the trigger, it would hang at a point just before breaking. If I'd release the trigger (without firing) the trigger would then be stuck in a cocked (not ½ cocked) state. A bump to the gun would result in an audible click & the gun returning to ½ cock.

I took off the side panel (on grip) and could see gouges in the polymer where the trigger bar was rubbing. So, I polished the trigger bar & carefully sanded the gouges out of the side panel. Beautiful now!! No hitch anywhere in the trigger. Perfectly smooth until it breaks (just like on the rental Kahrs I'd tried).

Appreciate all the posts on here... still learning but, hopefully I can contribute some.

Respectfully,
Automatic

Hey! I think I figured out the(Biggest) problem with my P45. I took several closeup shots to illustrate it. As yet I have not seen any threads dedicated to this particular fix.
At the right rear corner where the slide presses down the trigger bar during cycling, I found mine was not being pressed down but instead was getting smashed between the slide rail and the polymer frame rail. This caused a great deal more friction and resulted in failure to feed, failure to eject and failure to go fully into battery.
The fix?
I removed the side panel and grabbed the top of the trigger bar with pliers. I pried the top most tab of the trigger bar outwards, away from the frame rail. I had to reassemble, test and repeat several times before it was moved out away from the polymer rails and properly pushed down into the frame by the passing slide.
Suddenly the slide racks so much smoother and easier without binding up like before.
The only problem is that I don't know if I can post pictures yet. I only have about 50 posts so far.
How many posts do I need before being able to post pictures? Is there a limit to the number of pictures that can be included in one post?
Thank's for your help.

[gb6491]

Hey! I think I figured out the(Biggest) problem with my P45. I took several closeup shots to illustrate it. As yet I have not seen any threads dedicated to this particular fix.
At the right rear corner where the slide presses down the trigger bar during cycling, I found mine was not being pressed down but instead was getting smashed between the slide rail and the polymer frame rail. This caused a great deal more friction and resulted in failure to feed, failure to eject and failure to go fully into battery.
The fix?
I removed the side panel and grabbed the top of the trigger bar with pliers. I pried the top most tab of the trigger bar outwards, away from the frame rail. I had to reassemble, test and repeat several times before it was moved out away from the polymer rails and properly pushed down into the frame by the passing slide.
Suddenly the slide racks so much smoother and easier without binding up like before.
The only problem is that I don't know if I can post pictures yet. I only have about 50 posts so far.
How many posts do I need before being able to post pictures? Is there a limit to the number of pictures that can be included in one post?
Thank's for your help.
30 posts to post photos as attachments.
The number of photos per post is limited to 8.
Regards,
Greg

BTW, as you've brought this thread back from the dead:

I've had my CW45 for close to three years; it had some teething problems, but has been superb since.
Regards,
Greg
My CW45 continues to run without issue and remains a superb pistol for me.:53:

[dorangolv]

Took me hours to arrange the pics and write out the description. Then sent the pictures to Photobucket and do it all over again.
Here is the link to the thread.
http://www.kahrtalk.com/showthread.php?t=21904

I am especially interested to know what you think of this presentation gb!

[bob98366]

I am open to ammo choices, especially self-defense rounds. - Mike

I've never had an issue with Hornady defense rounds. They have a smooth, tapered bullet that feeds flawlessly in all five of my semi-autos, including two CW40s.

[martkin64]

I've never had an issue with Hornady defense rounds. They have a smooth, tapered bullet that feeds flawlessly in all five of my semi-autos, including two CW40s.

I had problems with the Hornady zombie loads in my CW .45. They are the same round as the critical defense, except they are green tipped not red. I am not saying Hornady is bad ammo!... When the zombie loads were chambered, it was extremely difficult to pull the slide back to unload.
I called Hornady and the costumer service rep told me he had herd that a few times (only with the Kahr CW series). I stopped using the round and went with federal hydra shock. Not the best hollow point out there, but they seem to work well with the CW 45.
All that happend about a year ago,maybe it has been fixed since then...

[jocko]

If u have shoot a few hundred rounds out of that kahr 45 since u had the issues, I would bet those Hornady would not work OK.

Kahrs are not ammo sensitive--normally.

[blackbird94]

just came back from the 1st range trip with my CW45, only fifty rounds but all 6 shot groups are in the 3" range. 2 1/2 to 3 1/2. all were 6 shots at 10 yds. 0 problems shooting reloads. shooting pretty much 1 handed since I had surgery on my left (support) hand in Jan. Love this pistol. All groups were low center. I have heard others say this gun shoots low. Anyone else experience this?

[twowheels]

I still have my cw 45 it is the best of all of the kahrs I have had and mine hits poa. We all see our sights differently.

[muggsy]

There's a name for people who concern themselves with problems that the have yet to encounter. Oh yeah, worry wart. Shoot that fokker like you stole it. Just sayin. :)