Should I take my PM40 to my gunsmith?

[cecil k]

Hello folks,
I've had my PM40 for 3 months now. Here is what I've done, followed by some questions:
1- Initial trip out back. I shot 5 magazines without fail. All handloads. The new gun functioned great. Less than 30 rounds altogether. More accurate than I am and I love the trigger.
2- At home, I took it apart and gave it the first cleaning.
3- Couple weeks later, out back to shoot again. I had more time this day so I put 135 rounds through it, a mixture of my reloads and factory ammo (Winchester white box 165 grain). I had one failure to feed while a rapid fire test. Also when I went to load one of the 5 round mags I couldn't push the follower down and noticed the plastic was chipped. I think this is what is causing the slide to not stay open on an empty magazine. I contacted Kahr and immediately was sent a follower.
4- Back at the bench for a complete disassemble and cleaning. I noticed I had another mag with a chipped follower. I figured out how to load the mags with the chipped followers.
5- Next day, back outside to test the two mags with the chipped followers. The gun functioned perfectly using the mags with chipped followers. They are just difficult to load. I fired about 50 rounds of handloads again, this trip finally reaching and surpassing the 200 round break-in. Not hiccups or malfunctions at all. But every mag has a chipped follower. That's 4 mags I have, all with chipped followers. The gun is still more accurate than I am and it has gotten smoother. The slide doesn't stay open on an empty mag though.

I have an email to Kahr and waiting to hear back.
My questions are:

Should I continue using the mags with chipped followers? Am I in any danger doing so?

Will Kahr most likely want to see my gun?

If I have my gunsmith look it over will I forfeit my warranty with Kahr?

Any other tips and advice is much appreciated.

Many thanks,

[hardluk1]

?? NO non kahr gun smith . Call kahr and or send another message to them. Tell them you have a broken follower and want the feed ramp fixed. It is a feed ramp striking the follower issue . DO NOT let a gun smith touch it unless you are done with kahrs CS. Some guys here that have older kahrs that hit a stiker grind a little off the feed ramps bottom edge them self and polish it out and get a new follower but give kahr a chance to make it right. Just stay after them to get a response. They will send you a shipping label for pick up at home or drop off at ups mail box store.


You can break your mag down and get the plastic pieces out of the mag and see how it runs for a short term but save the pieces.

[garyb]

?? NO non kahr gun smith . Call kahr and or send another message to them. Tell them you have a broken follower and want the feed ramp fixed. It is a feed ramp striking the follower issue . DO NOT let a gun smith touch it unless you are done with kahrs CS. Some guys here that have older kahrs that hit a stiker grind a little off the feed ramps bottom edge them self and polish it out and get a new follower but give kahr a chance to make it right. Just stay after them to get a response. They will send you a shipping label for pick up at home or drop off at ups mail box store.


You can break your mag down and get the plastic pieces out of the mag and see how it runs for a short term but save the pieces.



What hardluk1 said....assuming your PM is a new gun and you want to keep your warranty. The problem is likely to be the follower striking the feed ramp and you can take your feed ramp down yourself to prevent this. It is not a big deal, but I feel the warranty has value and I take advantage of warranties when necessary. JMO. Others may advise you to not send it back for something this simple. Your choice.

[jocko]

ask kahr for a prepaid pickup on on yr gun. If u hve two broken (chipped) followers.It needs to go back. Call and talk to CS . Tell them it has broken two followers and u want it to go back and be corre3cted.

A smitty can fix it buyt u will pay for that, and also if a smitty fokks it up then kahr will not help u either. Error on the side of caution and error on the side of your warranty. That is what it is there for. Ur gonna be out of ur gun for a few weeks,but even though it is workig O, u do not want yo trust it under those circumstances. Let kahr fix it right for you.

[RRP]

Cecil K, the problem you describe is one we read about every day. You're not alone. A search for "broken follower" will reveal many others with the same problem.

If you have four broken mag followers, the feed ramp needs to be shortened so it doesn't mash into the followers. Kahr is aware of the problem and has plenty of experience fixing it. My advice is not to mess around with a local gunsmith. Contact Kahr and tell them you broke 4 followers already, and they will tell you to send it in for repair at their expense.

If this sounds like a broken record, well....it is. We read about this issue daily. It has become so common, and the repair so well known, that some are advocating gun owners fix the problem themselves. I disagree. If you took care of this yourself, Kahr wouldn't know about the problem. And in my opinion, every one of these defective guns should go back to Kahr, so they can see how common this problem really is. If they have to fix 100 guns, or a 1000 guns, they may be more pro-active in their quality control and correct this problem for good.

[muggsy]

Ditto.

[garyb]

Cecil K, the problem you describe is one we read about every day. You're not alone. A search for "broken follower" will reveal many others with the same problem.

If you have four broken mag followers, the feed ramp needs to be shortened so it doesn't mash into the followers. Kahr is aware of the problem and has plenty of experience fixing it. My advice is not to mess around with a local gunsmith. Contact Kahr and tell them you broke 4 followers already, and they will tell you to send it in for repair at their expense.

If this sounds like a broken record, well....it is. We read about this issue daily. It has become so common, and the repair so well known, that some are advocating gun owners fix the problem themselves. I disagree. If you took care of this yourself, Kahr wouldn't know about the problem. And in my opinion, every one of these defective guns should go back to Kahr, so they can see how common this problem really is. If they have to fix 100 guns, or a 1000 guns, they may be more pro-active in their quality control and correct this problem for good.


I agree too.

[RainingAgain]

Cecil K, the problem you describe is one we read about every day. You're not alone. A search for "broken follower" will reveal many others with the same problem.

If you have four broken mag followers, the feed ramp needs to be shortened so it doesn't mash into the followers. Kahr is aware of the problem and has plenty of experience fixing it. My advice is not to mess around with a local gunsmith. Contact Kahr and tell them you broke 4 followers already, and they will tell you to send it in for repair at their expense.

If this sounds like a broken record, well....it is. We read about this issue daily. It has become so common, and the repair so well known, that some are advocating gun owners fix the problem themselves. I disagree. If you took care of this yourself, Kahr wouldn't know about the problem. And in my opinion, every one of these defective guns should go back to Kahr, so they can see how common this problem really is. If they have to fix 100 guns, or a 1000 guns, they may be more pro-active in their quality control and correct this problem for good.I LOVE your optimism.;)

[RRP]

I LOVE your optimism.;)

Kahr built its reputation on quality and customer service. I don't know what's happened recently, but both appear to be suffering. I'm optimistic Kahr will take steps to correct this and return to the core values which brought them success.

BTW, welcome to KahrTalk!

[cecil k]

I was under the impression that they were going to grind/polish on the feed ramp to shorten it but it appears they replaced the entire barrel. Now my questions are:
Is this just another PM40 barrel which has the potential to break followers?
and
Do I have to go through the 200 round break-in process again before it is considered 100% reliable in Kahr's eyes?

http://www.kahrtalk.com/<a href=http://s211.photobucket.com/user/jtleamer/media/IMG_5326_zpscdf14792.jpg.html target=_blank>[IMG]http://i211.photobucket.com/albums/bb255/jtleamer/IMG_5326_zpscdf14792.jpghttp://i211.photobucket.com/albums/bb255/jtleamer/IMG_5326_zpscdf14792.jpg (http://s211.photobucket.com/user/jtleamer/media/IMG_5326_zpscdf14792.jpg.html)

[zamboni]

The gun would not need the 200 round breakin for just a new barrel. However, if it was my edc I would put 100 or so rounds through it just to make sure all is well and regain all confidence in the gun.

[hardluk1]

They did use to grind and polish the edge but these are nickel coated barrel sooo !! It does sound werd unless they have finally figured out how to get the feed ramp at a just right length now and found it easier to just change it.


Look the bottom edge over closely to be sure its new and not just a typo and watch your followers with the next 50 rounds or so.


Guess you could pull the slide , Pull the barrel out . With a mag then in the frame set the barrel back on with the slide lock pin and see if you have clearance between the ramp and follower when the barrel is moved to the rear on the pin??

[muggsy]

You ask entirely too, many questions. You should cross that bridge when there's water over the dam, or something like that. I come from the "What me worry?"school of gun shooting, aka shoot that fokker like you stole it class. If you look for trouble it's sure to find you. Like recoil, don't anticipate it. Enjoy the day.

[100percent]

Just my opinion.... for the price we are paying for a Kahr PM gun it should be right. Particularly when several have the same issue. I personally don't care if it has had 50 rounds through it when new. Or if it has taken some hand work to make it right.

I like my PM40, more accurate than a much bigger weapon but reliability was not instantaneous, it is an older model.