Extractor pin mod solved slide issue

[Laneman]

I just bought my wife a CW9 and had issues with the slide hanging up the last 1/4 inch or so. After much research here on the forum I found a post about shortening the rear extractor pin by .045". The person had great success with his CW9 afterwards, so I just did it on her CW9. Walked out back and tested it just now and wow, what a difference. I can slowly close the slide the last 1/4 and it won't hang up. I shot it at first with a good two hand grip, no hang-ups. Then I gave it the torture test with worse and worse limp wrist shooting, till finally I was holding it loose in one hand. It would not hang up no matter what. My rear extractor pin measured .455" from the factory, I shortened it to .410" then smoothed out the edge burrs.

Hope this helps someone, and many thanks to the forum.

[muggsy]

What does the extractor have to do with the slide not returning to battery?

[yqtszhj]

I don't know but I did a detail strip of my CM9 slide, extractor and everything (actually played with polishing the slide is why I did it all), cleaned everything really good, and now I can ride the slide forward and every round chambers no matter what. I was pleasantly SHOCKED for sure. :)

[jocko]

yqtszhi: u did a very nice job, sometimes I tink we move to fast to do some mods to achieve things when maybe alittle TLC might have fixed it. If a person would just take the extractor itself and polisyh it like there is no tomorrow, they will probably get te same results of shortening the extractor spring/pin. Just my 2 cents on this. anyway nice job . Now u can shoot itlike u stole it.

[muggsy]

Could it be that the recoil spring wasn't properly installed when the failure occurred and that after the mod the recoil spring was properly installed. I can't see any connection between the extractor and the slide failing to go into battery. With the mod all you did was lessen the tension of the extractor spring. I think I'd order a new replacement for the rear extractor pin in case you have problems down the road with a failure to extract. I wouldn't modify any part of a gun without an OK from the manufacturer. Warranty and liability issues are involved.

[MW surveyor]

Yeah, like you're gonna have Kahr tell you to mod away. LOL

[jocko]

agree on that surv. I don't consider polishing a mod, as kahr does that many times on guns sent back but I do call any grinding or cutting a mod that at best leaves the door open for kahr to refuse warranty service,especially if u tell um that. I would think if one grould off .020 of the extractor pin or cut a coil off the spring, that kahr would never notice that.

Muggsy had a good point to, and I wondered myself why this would have elimianted the issue, as they should not be closely related but sometimes when a gun is taken apart and put back together like it maybe originaly was, that damn if it doesn't work, so I don';t knock success. The casing sould feed fro the magazine up inside the extractor claw will little resistance,but oprmally a good slide stripping and a polishing of the extractor claw itself takes care of that issue. Kahr probalby has 3 to 400K of their firearms out on the market and they all have the same extractor set up, so the design certainly works right and certainly if one has an issue maybe u can mod certain parts on the extractor sysem,but IMO bestto ask kahr to send you a new extractor and see if that helps.

[Laneman]

I think the reason the mods works is the extractor spring is so stiff at 64 lbs that the claw won't close over the ridge of the case unless a lot of force is at play. Shortening the pin by .040 reduced the spring tension to 34lbs so the claw can open and slip over the case easier. There are two people on this forum who enjoyed perfect results from this mod. I encourage anyone with the slide issue to give it a try. The extractor pin costs $1.10, if you're not happy with the mod just replace the pin with a new one and you're back to original. The difference was dramatic, I went from a barely functioning gun to flawless. Like I said, even severe limp wristing would not make it fail.

[wyntrout]

The extractor claw and the sides of the breech face can be polished or relieved a bit to make it easier for the cartridge rims to slide under the claw and be held for chambering and ejection during the firing of the pistol. I had a problem with my P40 that went away after I figured that out.

Wynn:)

[muggsy]

I think the reason the mods works is the extractor spring is so stiff at 64 lbs that the claw won't close over the ridge of the case unless a lot of force is at play. Shortening the pin by .040 reduced the spring tension to 34lbs so the claw can open and slip over the case easier. There are two people on this forum who enjoyed perfect results from this mod. I encourage anyone with the slide issue to give it a try. The extractor pin costs $1.10, if you're not happy with the mod just replace the pin with a new one and you're back to original. The difference was dramatic, I went from a barely functioning gun to flawless. Like I said, even severe limp wristing would not make it fail.

I find it hard to believe that the extractor spring exerts 64 lbs of pressure since I can cause the extractor to move using just one finger. The rim of the cartridge case slides under the extractor and does so under the force of the recoil spring which is much greater than the force exerted by the extractor spring. I can see where polishing the bolt face and deburring the extractor would improve feeding. You may accomplish the end goal of smoother feeding by your method, but I think that you will experience extractor problems sometime down the line. It is however a cheap fix.