P380 Just Back from Kahr

[mrbumps]

So I recently purchased a P380 and had put about 350 rounds through it. I rarely made it through a mag without a failure to feed (round barely started up the feed ramp). But i also had several misfires, light, or no primer strikes. Kahr sent Fedex to pick it up, and to their credit I received it back today. A one week turn around.

I haven't shot it yet, but the work order kind of surprised me.

It reads:

Test Fired, Replaced Barrel, Polished Extractor Bore, lubed and test fired 50+ rounds, tested OK.

I'll get to the range this weekend and test it out.

I was just surprised they replaced the barrel. My first thought was that replacing the barrel would not solve misfires, but then thought, maybe if the chamber was out of spec, and the rounds were seating deeper than they should, the primer would not strike with full force?

Anyone else have their barrel replaced due to misfires?

[getsome]

I got my Ruger LCP back from repair last week and they basically did the same thing. Replaced slide, extractor and barrel....Seems that its quicker and faster to throw parts at something rather than fix the original problem part....I shot the LCP 6 times doing the redneck backyard .380 test (see ammo section if interested) and the gun shot all 6 without a problem....What I don't understand is why the manufacturers don't take the time to test fire every new gun 25 times or so to be sure it works like it should before a customer ever gets to find out about a problem and send it back...

[Bawanna]

Seems like a good idea to shoot at least a couple mags worth and use the mags that come with the gun also. Make sure everything is good to go.
I'd volunteer for the test shooter position. Not many bad ones would get by me I'm thinking.
What a great job that would be. Imagine shooting so much and so often that you didn't want to shoot on your days off. Could that even be possible?

[JoeMB]

hmmm... my P380 is at Kahr now. For similar issues as well. I wonder what they will say.

[mrbumps]

I just wish they would explain "WHY" they did what they did to fix the problem. From reading some other threads on problems, it seems like they just replace some parts, and hope for the best! I'll be sure to report back after I take the gun to the range this weekend.

[VAguy]

They replaced the barrel on my wives CW45 because the trigger was not resetting......figure that one out.

[TD2K]

What I don't understand is why the manufacturers don't take the time to test fire every new gun 25 times or so to be sure it works like it should before a customer ever gets to find out about a problem and send it back...

ammo is 'spensive, yo!

[mrbumps]

Well, I got to the range today to test out my P380 since it came back from Kahr with the new barrel.

I had 50 rounds of Remington UMC left from a mega pack, so I started with those. First two mags were great, but with the rest of the rounds, I had three failures to return to battery (about 1/4 inch and a slight push of the thumb closed the slide), and I also had 6 misfires, all light primer strikes. One was on the same round twice!

The only other ammo I had was 40 rounds of Speer Gold Dots, and 10 rounds of Hornady Critical Defense. I figured I might as well try that. Started with the Gold Dot. Second round, Failure to Return to Battery. After that, the rest of the Gold Dot ran fine. Tried the Hornady, and that also ran fine. No misfires with the Gold Dot or Critcal Defense.

Before I sent the P380 back to Kahr, I had misfires with remington UMC, PMC Blazzer Bronze, and Prvi Partizan.

Hopefully I can find a couple of different types of ball ammo to try soon.

For now I will blame the misfires on the Remington ammo, but if I have any with other brands, back to Kahr it will go again!

[mrbumps]

Well, 100 rounds of Prvi Partizan through the P380 today, and 14 Failures to Fire, along with a few Failures to Return to Battery, & Three Stove Pipes. Very frustrating to say the least. Back to Kahr it goes!

[JoeMB]

I got mine back and they stated that they polished the feed ramp and chamber. I haven't had a chance to hit the range yet but when I do I will let you know. I away for a couple of weeks for training but when I get back it won't be long before I go through some rounds. I'll keep you posted.

[mrbumps]

I got mine back and they stated that they polished the feed ramp and chamber. I haven't had a chance to hit the range yet but when I do I will let you know. I away for a couple of weeks for training but when I get back it won't be long before I go through some rounds. I'll keep you posted.

Were you having misfires also, or just feed issues?


I am hoping I can get them to pick up mine tomorrow. I was having serious feed issues before. At least that is much better. It's pulling the trigger and hearing nothing but "click" that really bothers me. Hopefully they will get it right the next go around!

[JoeMB]

No I did not have any misfires just FTF and return to battery. Mine would not feed my hollow points at all. I will let you know how the range goes.

Have you tried taking the slide apart to see if there is something obstucting the firing pin from moving completely freely?

[racuda]

Try blasting out the striker channel with brake cleaner. I had light primer strikes that were cured by doing this. Stick the nozzle in the little hole and blast away while moving the striker back and forth.

[mrbumps]

Try blasting out the striker channel with brake cleaner. I had light primer strikes that were cured by doing this. Stick the nozzle in the little hole and blast away while moving the striker back and forth.

Yeah, I have tried brake cleaner in the little hole twice and it didn't help. I did not take the slide completely apart, as I am not really familiar with stiker fired guns. I found another thread on here where the guy had the same problems as me, and it sounds like Kahr took the same approach with him (replaced barrel first). After several return trips, it sounds like they just kept replacing parts until they finally gave him a new gun! I hope it doesn't come to that!

[OldLincoln]

If you do decide to take down the striker, read the tech section first. A good caution is to do it inside a large freezer bag to catch the spring that often escapes. There's also "the tool" others use.

[jocko]

Yeah, I have tried brake cleaner in the little hole twice and it didn't help. I did not take the slide completely apart, as I am not really familiar with stiker fired guns. I found another thread on here where the guy had the same problems as me, and it sounds like Kahr took the same approach with him (replaced barrel first). After several return trips, it sounds like they just kept replacing parts until they finally gave him a new gun! I hope it doesn't come to that!

to take the upper slide all apart. If you blew out through that little clean out hole, that area is clean. If that doesnt help your issue, thent he gun problably needs to go back. You cold indeed have a out of spec trigger bar which has been more than a common occurance with these little guns. One can't see the out of spec but whent hey come back it seems the work order states replaced trigger bar. Nothing IMO in the slide assembly itself shouldc ause light strikes, if the striker channel is clean. If you had a broken striker firing pin, it would do it all the time, . Just hate to say it but I think it might need to go back.

I will PM you with a comment.

[mrbumps]

to take the upper slide all apart. If you blew out through that little clean out hole, that area is clean. If that doesnt help your issue, thent he gun problably needs to go back. You cold indeed have a out of spec trigger bar which has been more than a common occurance with these little guns. One can't see the out of spec but whent hey come back it seems the work order states replaced trigger bar. Nothing IMO in the slide assembly itself shouldc ause light strikes, if the striker channel is clean. If you had a broken striker firing pin, it would do it all the time, . Just hate to say it but I think it might need to go back.

I will PM you with a comment.

Oh, it went back today. They tried to blame it on the ammo. I'm glad it did it with Remington UMC, because they said it had to be US made ammo. They e-mailed me a Fedex label and I dropped it off on the way home from work. Hopefully this time they will get it fixed.

[mrbumps]

Well, Kahr called me today after having my P380 for a little over a week. Told me they could not get any misfires at all. Claim they fired it over 100 times with various ammo. I asked what kind of ammo, and he had to go and check. They use Remmington Golden Saber, Speer Lawman, and American Eagle. I did shoot a box of Speer Gold Dots without any misfires, so maybe it was the ammo?? I told him to just send it back then! What else can I do but test it more myself? American Eagle just started showing up around here and I bought a few boxes, so I can try that when I get the gun back. Any misfires and I will probably just trade it off.

[DKD]

Gentlemen, I don't mean to barge on your conversation, but I thought I might add a small footnote which might shed some light on your delema.

Since you took a few of the natural and logical steps you might just want to think outside the box for a moment. Since I have been reloading ammo for over 36 years I am painfully aware that ammo has and could be the cause of some of your issues on the FTF and fuuly returning to battery. Try and measure the over all length of the various cartridges by manufacturer and also check out the bullet nose configuration as well. Please keep in mind the mad rush of the manufactures to keep up with the demand over the past 1 1/2 years. Manufacturers do vary some and if quality control is loose you can and will have some issues with various lots of ammo. The over all length as well as the bullet nose shape matters with these FTF your experiencing. Then you still have to factor in the new, very tight tolerance of a brand new pistol and there you go....
Hope this helps you out some...check that ammo since Kahr didn't experience any problems with the hotter factory jacketed hollow point ammo. Your stove pipes jams could very well be due to a weak grip and or lower powered ammo in a new tight pistol which hassn't had sufficient rounds down range.

[copterdrvr]

All excellent points. The Golden Sabre and Lawman are fairly "snappy" loads and the Eagle is more "standard"-I believe. They could have fired the Eagle after a bunch of the other rounds and the gun was starting to loosen up finally.

There's another factor to add to the equation-primer hardness. There is definitely a difference between the various primer manufacturers as to the hardness or in other words, the ammount of force required to hit the primer hard enough to cause it to "explode".

Generally speaking, foreign primers (like the ones in the Serbian ammo you shot) are harder. That being said, there are differences even in primers manufactured in the US.