P380 will not feed

[Vondell]

New guy here, and I am not here to bash on the p380. :) I started developing a problem and now i am at 100% failure rate. It will not feed for nothing... any ammo. Even ammo that I KNOW usually runs fine in it. What I do notice is some burrs at the edge of the (dont know the name of it) but, the ramp thats on the slide that loads the cartridge itself under the bolt face, that seems to be where its hanging up. Last cleaning I noticed some metal flakes in there and rough edges around one of the mags. The metal probably came from me throwing it in my pocket after work. Yeah... I know... My question... can i take some material of that ramp and try to smooth it out? I hate the thought of having to send it back to Kahr. Thanks in advance.

[dsk]

I would not remove any metal from anything without knowing how it relates to function. You need to make sure the pistol is thoroughly cleaned and lubed before trying it again, since you implied that foreign matter has ended up inside it. If a good cleaning job doesn't rectify the problem at least know that Kahr is one of the better companies for fast repair time and turnaround.

[Vondell]

yes, I gave it, the mags, holster, case, and anything it had contact with a good cleaning. Lubed it up per the Kahr chart. I`ll run it by my tinkering friend tomorrow to have him take a look before sending it off to Kahr.

[topgun1953]

New guy here, and I am not here to bash on the p380. :) I started developing a problem and now i am at 100% failure rate. It will not feed for nothing... any ammo.

How old is the gun and how many rounds through it before developing a problem? How does the extractor look?

[Vondell]

Its a KA serial so its 7 yrs old or so. Second owner and I have put around 150 rounds thru it myself. It immediately started malfunctioning when I went to the range after work last Friday. When I came home and stripped it down, that's when I discovered the metal shavings.

[dustnchips]

I used some 900 wet/dry sand paper to smooth out that area on my CW380. Also used it on the bolt face to smooth that out. I know it removes a tiny bit of metal, but if it is that finnikey it would fail soon anyway.

[allthumbsplusone]

yes, I gave it, the mags, holster, case, and anything it had contact with a good cleaning. Lubed it up per the Kahr chart. I`ll run it by my tinkering friend tomorrow to have him take a look before sending it off to Kahr.

Did. You take the slide down completely? If not it might not be a bad idea. I can think of 2 things, the striker not completely backing out due to a dirty striker channel. The other option is to clean the extractor channel well as gunk could get in there and not allow the new cartridge to slide up into the extractor(do not put any lube on the striker, the striker channel, extractor, extractor guide pin or end pin or the hole they go in. Lube will attract dirt, powder residue and dust making the assembly more likely to fail. Jury taker your time and be careful when you take the back plate off as the striker spring and the extractor spring can pop out and get lost in a hurry. Ther is a good you tube video on disassembly on youtube

https://Youtu.be/mi3VFRll2L4

[Vondell]

Yes, I did a complete strip and cleaning last night. Polished the extractor a bit and the feedramp and throat of barrel again. It hand cycled through a couple mags and I thought i had it licked, but then it started to jam again. Because it fed and cycled again a few times, I`m thinking there must be some more debris in there that gets dislodged from its hiding place when cycling. I do notice the rounds that jammed up the first go around has many scratches on the casing. These will not feed at all. New rounds, like I said, fed for a couple "hand" cycled mags then start to fail. I know one thing though...the serrations on the slide are pretty darn sharp and my fingers are chewed up raw from tinkering on this thing the past couple days.

[dsk]

Hand-cycling ammo tells you nothing about reliability. You can't make the slide move fast enough to replicate live firing and are more likely to see malfunction "issues" that don't occur when you are actually shooting it.

[Vondell]

Yes, I agree 100%. This thing was not feeding a single round though. When I was able to get it to finally start chambering, I knew I was heading in the right direction to getting this solved. Took it to my buddys last night. We stripped the slide down again. Used a dental pick, and felt the tiniest bit of a burr in the groove of the extractor. Took some 800 grit to it and may have it working properly again. Going to try and hit the range today to see how she does, but for now, its feeding again.

[dsk]

Polishing the feed ramp sometimes helps, but remember that after a few mags are fired the feed ramp is covered in soot and no longer slick anyway. With a Kahr there are often machining burrs elsewhere like the slide rails, under the extractor, and even inside the striker channel that must be cleaned out. When my P380 was new and I first started having problems I took the slide apart, and I found a whole bunch of metal bits inside when I flushed it out as well as some slag that had to be removed with a needle file. Sad to think such an expensive pistol still needed a fluff n' buff right out of the box, but at least I took care of it. Many unsuspecting owners may be running into problems and not realizing they've got gunk in their gun that needs cleaning out.

[Vondell]

Update: Well, I dont know what the heck I did between all the multiple complete strippings, sanding and polishing here and there and cleaning and lubing....but this thing runs better than before all this happened. Its feeding and cycling Freedom Munitions reman FN 100gr fmj which it always had a problem with before.... to the point that I never ran the stuff again. Ran 50 of those, 50 Freedom Munitions reman XTP jhp, 50 Federal fmj, 50 Remington fmj w/g box, and 12 Hornady Zombie Max. Plus a handful of the rounds that had the casings chewed and scratched up from trying to force cycle them through when this all started. The only rounds that gave me problems, were the ones that were chewed up, but thats understandable. Even most of those passed thru. Happy again. :) Thank you fellas for your help and suggestions. The lesson learned... uh, DO NOT place your pistol in the same pocket that you have been carrying the metal files you`ve been working with all day...

[skiflydive]

Wondering if the mag spring was in backwards?

[Vondell]

oh no, absolutely not. They are the right way.

[dsk]

The Kahr .380s absolutely do not like getting too dirty, let alone having foreign matter inside them. If you carry this pistol keep it clean and lubed.