PM 40 from hell.

[Redfish]

Hi. Not a new member but haven't posted in a while. PM 40. About 5 yrs and around 1600 rounds. Zero malfunctions of any kind, unless something was broken. However the list of broken stuff, well, I'm just going to stick to parts physically broken while shooting. I've read the discussions about broken mag followers. I've broken 8. 1 magazine with both back corners cracked and back displaced. Two broken frames. I know about the feed ramp hitting the mag followers. Kahr replaced the barrel and ground the feed ramp on it when they replaced the second frame. The last two followers were broken since then. I bought Lakeline followers for all of my mags and I like them. But considering that the gun has broken more than just followers, I've elected not to use them yet. More on that later. I noticed that they have more clearance at the top but that's not where they break. No need to rehash that. It's been covered here. I shoot only good ammo. All domestic. No trash. Nothing hot. Not even reloads in this gun. Never been dropped. The gun eats recoil springs and the spring assembly replacements I've received from Kahr are incredibly inconsistent. But the point is it should be getting adequate protection from the spring. Last time I replaced my own with springs from Wolfe, they only had the 18lb variety. Seems I've read here that they make stronger ones now. May try that. I see no marks on the front apron? skirt? The part that always breaks. None where they could be from the feed ramp anyway. I've read the sticky about the mag catch contacting the follower and mine do have minor scratch marks there. Unless somebody here knows of any other causes of broken followers, I'm going to have to send the gun back to Kahr again. And, due to it's history of having broken a mag and two frames, I'm not comfortable with shooting it with more durable follwers until it's either clear that the feed ramp hitting the follower is not the problem or that it is the problem and has been fixed. This gun is not a lemon. There is too little left of the original gun to call it that. My brother in law is the only person I know who does't look at me like I've got two heads for still even having this gun. But I do like the way it shoots. Just can't trust it until this is resolved. Any ideas? Thanks.
Don

[gb6491]

Hi. Not a new member but haven't posted in a while. PM 40. About 5 yrs and around 1600 rounds. Zero malfunctions of any kind, unless something was broken. However the list of broken stuff, well, I'm just going to stick to parts physically broken while shooting. I've read the discussions about broken mag followers. I've broken 8. 1 magazine with both back corners cracked and back displaced. Two broken frames. I know about the feed ramp hitting the mag followers. Kahr replaced the barrel and ground the feed ramp on it when they replaced the second frame. The last two followers were broken since then. I bought Lakeline followers for all of my mags and I like them. But considering that the gun has broken more than just followers, I've elected not to use them yet. More on that later. I noticed that they have more clearance at the top but that's not where they break. No need to rehash that. It's been covered here. I shoot only good ammo. All domestic. No trash. Nothing hot. Not even reloads in this gun. Never been dropped. The gun eats recoil springs and the spring assembly replacements I've received from Kahr are incredibly inconsistent. But the point is it should be getting adequate protection from the spring. Last time I replaced my own with springs from Wolfe, they only had the 18lb variety. Seems I've read here that they make stronger ones now. May try that. I see no marks on the front apron? skirt? The part that always breaks. None where they could be from the feed ramp anyway. I've read the sticky about the mag catch contacting the follower and mine do have minor scratch marks there. Unless somebody here knows of any other causes of broken followers, I'm going to have to send the gun back to Kahr again. And, due to it's history of having broken a mag and two frames, I'm not comfortable with shooting it with more durable follwers until it's either clear that the feed ramp hitting the follower is not the problem or that it is the problem and has been fixed. This gun is not a lemon. There is too little left of the original gun to call it that. My brother in law is the only person I know who does't look at me like I've got two heads for still even having this gun. But I do like the way it shoots. Just can't trust it until this is resolved. Any ideas? Thanks.
Don
Use the Lakeline followers. It can be difficult to see marks on the plastic followers. My CW9 has never broken a follower (well expect for the one I broke playing around with the magazine), but after I installed a Lakeline follower, it soon showed marks from the feed ramp. The hits weren't heavy, but enough to expose bare aluminum on the follower. I polished the ramp, then colored the bare spots on the follower and have not seen a recurrence of the hits.
Regards,
Greg

[CPTKILLER]

In some cases, so to speak, I always avoid all steel case ammo in all of my weapons. That said, I don't understand the root cause of failure with your pistol.

You have done really a lot to keep it functional.

[Redfish]

Use the Lakeline followers. It can be difficult to see marks on the plastic followers. My CW9 has never broken a follower (well expect for the one I broke playing around with the magazine), but after I installed a Lakeline follower, it soon showed marks from the feed ramp. The hits weren't heavy, but enough to expose bare aluminum on the follower. I polished the ramp, then colored the bare spots on the follower and have not seen a recurrence of the hits.
Regards,
Greg

I guess that does make sense. I really would like to see it run with these followers anyway. Thanks.

[Redfish]

Update: Got to shoot it today with the Lakeline followers in place. Not only are they really nice, they're also diagnostic. Loaded two mags with one round each. The feed ramp nicked both of them pretty hard in the same place. The guy at Kahr left a long corner on the high side of the ramp. And that's what is hitting the follower. I expected the hit to be lower. But that's based on where they were breaking rather than knowledge of how things line up in there. More material has to come off of this feed ramp. Now if enough can be removed to stop the hits without causing ftf...Will update when I get it done. Thanks guys.