Cw380 lighter recoil spring replacement or modification?

[TOP PREDATOR]

hello all, first time kahr owner, first time poster.

just got a cw380 w/night sight, love the feel and accuracy of the pistol.

shot about 300 round through it, working "OK" however would like to put 100 more or so through it before confident concealed carrying it.

now i've read alot of the recoil spring being rather stiff, however i didn't realize how stiff / heavy it actually is.

does anyone know of a reduced poundage replacement recoil spring?

is there any other mechanical thing that can be performed to make working the slide better?

have also thought of having the pistol remain in slide lock until being carried to weaken the spring a bit, don't know if keeping it compressed will help or not.

i thought of getting a replacement set and clipping off a quarter coil at a time to see if the slide can be made more "manageable" for clearing malfunctions without rendering the pistol unfunctionable or over stressing the frame, has anyone done this with success?

has anyone attempted just using one of the two springs?

i'm a seasoned pistol shooter recreational and competition and familiar with operating one, so it's not a technique thing.

i tried the search on the forum before asking to find an answer, but didn't find a conclusive one, along with looking for a lighter spring available for through various places with no solution. any help greatly appreciated.

[erichard]

As i recall, the sticky prep posting recommends racking the slide a few hundred times to break it in (which will weaken it faster than locking the slide back). I did that originally, but I have come to feel it's best left strong, as eventually you will have a failure to return to battery if the spring becomes too weak which it will, faster than you might imagine. Springs in guns this size don't last as long as in bigger brethren, and one of the more common complaints on the forum is the return to battery issue. Since owning it, I have replaced the springs and no longer prep them in any way.

It is very stiff, and this is why it's recommended to load the first round by using the slide release, vs sling shot method. That's good advice, especially when the spring is new. The main difficulty is getting the slide back and locked I suppose. It's this particular issue that prevents me from recommending this gun to women, unless they have good upper body strength.

I guess the choice is, rack it a lot while watching TV and lessen the life of the spring, or live with it as is and avoid having to replace it earlier than normal. I wouldn't take out the small spring nor snip a coil, personally, though I have done this on other guns for different reasons (like breech over base malfunctions in a gun that had no lower powered, captive springs available).

That all said, most here still seem to recommend the sticky for prepping the gun when new, which provides for weakening the recoil via racking the slide, so I'm in the minority opinion.

[TOP PREDATOR]

thanks, will continue to work the slide, and in the meantime hope to see if there is any other option. i'm a big proponent of getting used to "fondling" the unloaded firearm away from the range as much as possible to make familiarity "second nature". so it sort of goes hand in hand

i found another post saying basically the same vs. leaving in slide lock (rapid expansion of coil spring metal vs. leaving compressed) i guess i'll try both until a possible other "cure" is found, but hopefully there is a more "drop in" solution.

[Ed M]

Add me to erichard's minority.

These little guns NEED that stiff recoil assembly to operate properly. Anything done to reduce how stiff they are is gonna increase the odds of failures, and the useful life of the recoil springs.

My Sister is 105 lbs soaking wet, and she couldn't rack the slide on my CW380 at all. I showed her the ol' grip the whole top of the slide/push with your grip hand trick, and she could barely do it. I then had her put on a pair of rubber coated/nylon grip gloves I bought at Home Depot - they're called "Gorilla Grip" - and she could easily rack the slide. I bought those gloves for myself to make the hand racking thing in the stickies here a bit easier (and it did).

Obviously, it's not feasible to wear those gloves every time you may need to rack the slide, but there are alternatives. Talon grips sells their rubber grip material in small sheets. You could cut a strip of that and wrap it over the slide serrations, or even further. IMO, it'd look funny but would help with grip - and it IS completely removable should you feel the need.

It's the slippery slide, not so much your grip strength that's most likely the problem....

[CJB]

Keep in mind that the recoil and striker spring push in opposite directions against each other as the pistol's trigger is pulled. Lightening the recoil spring will cause the pistol's slide to move rearward as the trigger is pulled.

To see this for yourself, assemble the pistol with no recoil spring. You'll need to push the slide forward to keep the pistol in battery. As you pull the trigger, you'll need to apply greater pressure on the slide as the recoil spring is further tensioned.

The springs are tight on purpose, and will become the springs they ought to be.... after firing a few hundred rounds. Locking back the slide, racking the slide, etc, will not alter the recoil spring very much. You need rapid, and repeated flexing along the full travel of the spring's operating points. Only firing does that!

[marshal kane]

My KISS philosophy: Small changes to SMALL things usually result in BIG differences. Small changes to BIG things usually result in SMALL differences.

Moral: Don't mess with that stiff recoil spring. If you do, you're on your own, e.g. like working up a load that isn't in your reloading manual. Kahr used mechanical engineers and ballisticians who worked out what was needed to make your pistol reliable.

My 2 cents. YMMV

[P380BUG]

Strange as I would LOVE a slightly stiffer recoil spring to stop the FTRB.

[Old No7]

...is there any other mechanical thing that can be performed to make working the slide better?
I'll bet there are many more ways to make the slide work WORSE!

If it loads the 1st round, then ejects & loads each round after that repeatedly, it's working as designed.

I think anything else done to the spring risks the reliability of it. And for CC, that won't do!

Just my thoughts...

Old No7

[Alfonse]

Strange as I would LOVE a slightly stiffer recoil spring to stop the FTRB.

Of course, too stiff could cause it to not cycle as well.

[P380BUG]

True. But it has problems returning to battery and another lb of spring should be the ticket.

[Alfonse]

True. But it has problems returning to battery and another lb of spring should be the ticket.

There is another thread about the .380s that mentions that Kahr has revised the recoil spring, and it sounded like they followed your advice. It was pretty recent, in the last month or two, if you care to search for it. So, it may be what you seek is available.

[TOP PREDATOR]

still working the slide 25-50 times a day from slidelock, seems either the spring is loosening up enough to be manageable to clear malfunctions easily, or i'm just getting used to the pistol. i should have put a scale on it at the beginning and then throughout the process to see if it's one or the other.

also bought 2 set of OEM springs through midway while i was there along with a few other things, perhaps i'll keep a set unaltered, then frankenstein the other set to see what happens.