Brass in firing pin channel

[Sgt 127]

This is a T9. Bought it a couple years ago, slightly used. I put a few hundred rounds through it, the slide wouldn’t lock back while firing. Back to Kahr. Replaced slide stop. Fixed. Shot maybe another 500 rounds through it.

Today, I took the slide apart. 2 things. A: it was swimming in oil. Exactly as returned from Kahr.
B: I’m surprised it still worked. The firing pin channel was absolutely filled with brass shavings. It looked like a miners slosh pan at the height of the California gold rush.

Ive never seen that much brass. I cleaned it and left it dry. But, seriously. That was unreal. Has anyone else seen this?

A buddy of mine just took his apart, it’s a new K9. Same thing.

Ive owned a lot of Kahrs. I don’t recall ever seeing this before. The pictures show about half the flakes I removed.

As a department armorer, I’ve seen sloppy wet Glocks that had some residue and brass in the channel. But, nothing like this.

*******edit*******

Did a a little google searching. Apparently it’s not that uncommon. I just guess the volume of brass I found in there amazed me. And, my instinct to keep it dry is correct.

[JinRC]

Boy, 8 Q-tips!
That's a lot of crud. I noticed quite a bit of brass flakes in both my PM9 and CW9, after cleaning.
Maybe it's a Kahr thing? IDK

[Sgt 127]

Yeah. I gave up on the Q tips and started flushing it out with WD40. The Q tips were pushing it out of the firing pin hole in the breech face.

[DavidR]

Wow. I’ve never seen anything like that.

I replaced the striker in my CT380 after about 600 rounds and there were no brass shavings. I never lube the striker channel - always kept dry.

[AIRret]

Thanks for the information, I would have NEVER thought there would be significant brass shavings in a new or repaired gun.

[Bawanna]

Years ago there were a lot of reports of a lot of machining crud left behind in the striker channel during manufacture.
Due to those reports when I got my PM45 I took it apart before I shot it and found the striker pristine although heavily oiled.
Seeing as Kahr has no control over how long the guns will be in inventory at distributors or dealers, they are wise to oil them up well.

Most found that once that initial crud was cleaned out, it wasn't an issue again. Some flush the striker channel with brake cleaner through the little clean out hole during cleaning, I seldom do that myself. In this case it certainly wouldn't do much good, too much crud and too big to flush out.

I'll be curious to see if you get anymore after yours is clean and put back together dry. I doubt it.

[Sgt 127]

Well, I’ll try shooting a couple hundred rounds through it and see what happens. If there’s still brass in there (and, I think there will be). I think I’m going to get a small cravex bit and break the edges of the firing pin hole in the breech face. There’s no doubt, in my mind, that it’s acting like a cheese grater as the rounds are feeding.

I also need to look at the fired brass. I’m betting there’s a divot carved out of the case rim.

[Sgt 127]

Well, I think it’s the extractor. Nice chunk of brass pulled out of the rim and, a piece of the brass was nice enough to stay stuck in the groove.

[t4terrific]

This is a T9. Bought it a couple years ago, slightly used. I put a few hundred rounds through it, the slide wouldn’t lock back while firing. Back to Kahr. Replaced slide stop. Fixed. Shot maybe another 500 rounds through it.

Today, I took the slide apart. 2 things. A: it was swimming in oil. Exactly as returned from Kahr.
B: I’m surprised it still worked. The firing pin channel was absolutely filled with brass shavings. It looked like a miners slosh pan at the height of the California gold rush.

Ive never seen that much brass. I cleaned it and left it dry. But, seriously. That was unreal. Has anyone else seen this?

A buddy of mine just took his apart, it’s a new K9. Same thing.

Ive owned a lot of Kahrs. I don’t recall ever seeing this before. The pictures show about half the flakes I removed.

As a department armorer, I’ve seen sloppy wet Glocks that had some residue and brass in the channel. But, nothing like this.

*******edit*******

Did a a little google searching. Apparently it’s not that uncommon. I just guess the volume of brass I found in there amazed me. And, my instinct to keep it dry is correct.

Am I reading this right?

It went 500 rounds between cleanings and the firing pin channel was slathered in oil?

While many brag about abusing guns with thousands of rounds between cleaning, it’s silly, pointless, and lazy. If you’re getting lots of debris in places where there shouldn’t be lots of debris, there’s proof that regular cleaning is important.

Clean that son of a gun after you shoot it.

Secondly, keep oil away from the firing pin channel, period.

[Sgt 127]

I clean my guns after after almost every range session. Often 500 rounds a day, that’s not bragging or abusing a gun. That’s simply using it.

Cleaning guns does not, for me, include a full detail strip. That may be once or twice a year.

I never oil the firing pin channel, I only use a dry lube. That’s from the last time it was in from repair at Kahr.

That much debris inside the gun is not normal.