Sold my p380

[Spanky10956]

Sorry to report that I had enough with my P380. Most unreliable gun I ever owned. Yes, I broke it in correctly firing well over 500 rounds. Jams, ftf’s, stovepipes, misfires, you name the problem and this gun had it. Sent it back to the factory and got it back a few months later and nothing changed, still all the same problems. Took a beating when I sold it, I would never carry a gun that I don’t trust. All in all, must have fired well over 700 rounds through the gun and I can honestly say I never shot more then 10rounds without a problem.

[Armybrat]

Can't blame you for wanting to get rid of a lemon. The largest % of the complaints I've read here are concerning the P380 & CW380.
Then again, plenty of owners seem to love them.

[Kdf22]

No problem with any of my Kahrs.

[yqtszhj]

I understand. I’ve sold 2 that I could just not trust. 1 beretta and 1 Bersa. All my Kahrs fortunately ran OK.

[King Rat]

Sorry to report that I had enough with my P380. Most unreliable gun I ever owned. Yes, I broke it in correctly firing well over 500 rounds. Jams, ftf’s, stovepipes, misfires, you name the problem and this gun had it. Sent it back to the factory and got it back a few months later and nothing changed, still all the same problems. Took a beating when I sold it, I would never carry a gun that I don’t trust. All in all, must have fired well over 700 rounds through the gun and I can honestly say I never shot more then 10rounds without a problem.

I like my CW380, yes finicky when it comes to ammo, but mild shooter. I CCW the Pico and totally trustworthy. over 5,000 rounds through the two of them in the last year. And the way they are built, will go running for a lot more years. The Kahr is used for range work now.

[dsk]

It took literally several thousand rounds through my P380 over several years and constant parts filing and swapping before it finally got to the point where I could call it reliable. At long last it's my daily carry, but it was a very long road to get to this point. Would I recommend a Kahr .380 to someone? Hell no. Many of them do work fine out of the box, but a disproportionate number of them don't. It's a shame because when it actually DOES work you really can't beat it for a small .380 pistol.

[Mike_usn_ret]

The 200 rd break in Kahr recommends was far from the actual rds for my CW380 to be considered a true CCW. Over 700 rds fired before I had a reliable weapon I could trust. I then sold it to a neighbor and bought the CM9. He has never had a single failure with it. Once the 380 "found its self" it was a great shooter....I just preferred going to a 9mm.

[CPTKILLER]

I dumped a couple of Sig P238s for the same reason.

[b4uqzme]

It took literally several thousand rounds through my P380 over several years and constant parts filing and swapping before it finally got to the point where I could call it reliable. At long last it's my daily carry, but it was a very long road to get to this point. Would I recommend a Kahr .380 to someone? Hell no. Many of them do work fine out of the box, but a disproportionate number of them don't. It's a shame because when it actually DOES work you really can't beat it for a small .380 pistol.

Well, we really don't have data to support that a disproportionate number of Kahr .380's don't work out of the box. We DO know that there are a disproportionate number of complaints. That distinction is only important to help keep things in perspective.

But I agree with dsk. I would never discourage anyone from buying any Kahr. But I can only recommend them to experienced shooters = those with experience tinkering and making a firearm/ammo combination run well and those with really strong shooting fundamentals. There are other brands that seem to be more forgiving (if that makes sense).

I was fortunate that my first MK9 ran perfect. It did teach me not to limpwrist though. It simply wouldn't tolerate that.

[MMyers1970]

It does seem the small .380 Kahrs are difficult to get right. I had a CW380 which required a trip back to Kahr, underwent the "kitchen sink" repair method---after I ran 300 rounds through it.

I think we sometimes forget just how small the P/CW380 actually is for the cartridge it fires. Compare the Kahr to a PPK---it's a lot smaller and is a more complicated design. The Browning tilting barrel system is more complex than a simple blowback like the Walther.

.380 was a police service pistol caliber in Europe. Now we are running it in a pistol not much larger than a Baby Browning.

Kahr may well have made the smallest .380 ever. Well, the Seecamp is smaller but it's also much more expensive. And the Seecamp is also blowback.

I think sometimes they just make a lemon, and the smaller pistols are much more sensitive to anything being imperfect. My 9mm Kahrs have all been perfect. But they're bigger.

[RustyIron]

Bummer, Spank.

I was wary of my P380 when I bought it, so I gave it a lot of tune-up before even taking it out for the first time. The only thing I didn't touch was the freakishly-tight extractor. The gun has run fine, except the last time out I brought some Fiocchi, which did NOT run well at all. Maybe I should tune-up the extractor after all.

Don't feel too bad, we all get hosed once in a while. I've only had a few truly awful guns in my many years of shooting, the most recent of which was a Kimber Solo. Some guys like them, but I got taken to the cleaners on mine.

[500c]

my P380: 4 yrs, 1700 rounds, $1500 total expenditure (ammo, range time), 3 trips back to factory (it may go back a fourth), and kahr's current answer is quite amazing:

Kahr has sent me 2 vids of a kahr employee firing a p380, successfully, with worse ammo than i use (i use blazer brass exclusively), and his technique results in very very little muzzle jump.

my wife and i have more muzzle jump.

kahr has asked me for a vid. background: i have over a dozen guns. i've been shooting for 45 yrs. i have two ccw's. among my guns is a cm9 which works flawlesslly, as do all of my other guns. this is the first gun that has been a problem, and a problem it IS!

you may ask why i persisted...a fair q...and it's because i revisit the reasons i bought it (small, pocketable well made lol, willing to spend the extra $$$) and the risks (380 caliber, tales of many ppl's woe's) and decided the reasons were still valid. but this is BEYOND testing my patience and commitment.

anyway, kahr is now claiming (though they won't put this in writing, yet) that the extensive malfunctions are me (and my wife, also a v experienced shooter) allowing too much muzzle jump. i have asked them if it is normal for their 380's not to function properly when there is 'too much muzzle jump' (however much that is..and, don't forget, this is a carry gun. small, hard to shoot, and imagine being in a 'situation' and asking the guy to just stay put while you check your grip/etc),.

this is nonsense. if they designed a gun that won't shoot properly under many 'normal' conditions, they shoudl be willing to say so, and save so many of us who are trying and trying, much trouble.

don't forget: i have many guns from a very very tight Les Baer Premier II, to ultra reliable glocks. and have MUCH experience, none with any problems whatsoever. hmm.

so i guess it's me (and my wife), right?

yes, i'm about to give up. i don't havce the heart to dump this onto somee unsuspecting soul, so i'll probably put it to sleep.

i hope this tale helps someone else out there who is considering a kahr 380.

[500c]

i might add:

each time this gun, that didn't really have a problem, mind you, after all it was the shooter, right? ccame back from the factory, they'd perform major surgery on it...why, i wonder since it's the shooter. the last time it cam back, it had 16 failures in 100 rounds (ftf's, fte, ftrb, stovepipes). that was the improved/ back from kahr gun.

so now it's the shooters, right?

[topgun1953]

So, just curious, what are the problems you are having or have had with the thing? We might have some suggestions to ease your pain.

[500c]

So, just curious, what are the problems you are having or have had with the thing? We might have some suggestions to ease your pain.

hi, thought i layed that out, no? anyway:

consistent failure to breech. then they 'fixed it' twice, then, 16 ftf, fte, f2b in 100 rounds.

they did everything, and to their credit they insist they they will fix it. i doubt that v much. i don't think they could ask for a more dedicated customer. if they advertised what a commitment it requires to get these things working, they wouldn't seel any

[markman]

No offense but as much as I like the Kahr subcompacts, I don't have much faith in their ability to repair their own firearms. It seems all they are good at is parts changing. Have you ever considered letting a professional gunsmith check your pistol out? There are many capable ones out there. It might be way cheaper in the long run considering all the costs of ammo, range time, etc. etc.. And the many people here who sell theirs and say they take a beating or like you said "so i'll probably put it to sleep".

Extraction / Ejection / Feeding/

https://cylinder-slide.com/Category/KAHR2

[500c]

No offense but as much as I like the Kahr subcompacts, I don't have much faith in their ability to repair their own firearms. It seems all they are good at is parts changing. Have you ever considered letting a professional gunsmith check your pistol out? There are many capable ones out there. It might be way cheaper in the long run considering all the costs of ammo, range time, etc. etc.. And the many people here who sell theirs and say they take a beating or like you said "so i'll probably put it to sleep".

Extraction / Ejection / Feeding/

https://cylinder-slide.com/Category/KAHR2

markman, no offensee taken. i appreciate the suggestion. finding a good one near my FL home will be a challenge. BUt more important: kahr has just confirmed, in writing, that muzzle flip (how much?) will upset the cycling of this gun. so 45 yrs of experience with over a dozen guns isn't enough to 'control' this firearm. amazing.

i have not a lot of faith that anyone can 'fix' a poor/challenging design. and, perplexing, is the fact that in 50 rounds, at the factory, they don't experience the prob. hmm.

instead of locating a very qualified gunsmiith, i may just 'yell uncle'...they win. i'll never, ever trust this gun. (ps, i'm now woried about my cm9; but that's a wholly different 'platform', so maybe no worry at all).

thanks,

[Bawanna]

You've lost faith in it, so it not worth further efforts. I don't know why a little tweaking on the extractor wouldn't fix this like it seems to on many others.
I thought Kahr was aware of that issue and would look that over closely first thing.

No matter, once faith is lost it's time to move on. An it's only a 380 so certainly not worth of sleep loss.

I have heard through the grapevine that many of the guns they receive for repair work perfectly for them, one reason they were reluctant to send prepaid labels for awhile. Most of the issues we hear of are on the 380's. Hopefully one of these days the issues will be gone.

[markman]

500c, I've had some of them same problems with a PM9, CM9, CW380 and a CT380. I cured mine by adjusting the extractor tension. It's really not that hard to do, even if you only have a little bit of mechanical knowledge. And you can actually check your tension with a minimal amount of equipment just by removing the slide off your pistol. Here's a couple of links that will explain how to measure and how to adjust your extractor for the proper tension. It very well could be part of your problem.

http://www.kahrtalk.com/showthread.php?31400-Failure-to-Feed-Extract-Return-to-Battery-Fix

[500c]

i think your advice, bawana, may be right on. i just don't trust it. my wife said that even if i get it back, and 100 rounds later it's fine, i'll still be concerned.

markham, thanks for the tip. just fyi, they 'replaced' the extractor twice so i wonder if they aren't aware of the tension pb. hmm. again, more rounds to test, and again, what if it works? how will i feel then.


i may be at the end point on this one. lesson learned, i guess. thanks guys

[cardguy]

For my first trip to the range with my CW380 I just oiled the rails. And I had FTF, jams, etc. But for my second trip I followed the sticky for lubrication and I made sure it started off clean. So I had no problems with about 75 rounds, mostly reloads. I'm shooting 100 gr Frontier bullets with 4.3 grains of True Blue powder. I use that great powder for 45acp and 9mm also.

[500c]

shot my cm9 yest. flawless. hard to believe kahr made both guns