CW45....possible problem?

[jreXD9]

I went to the range yesterday and ran thru 100 FMJ and 20 HP. At one point I noticed that the slide lock/release (whatever you choose to call it) had begun to back out. The rounded end on the right side was almost flush with the frame. I'm not a mechanical gun nut so I don't know if something bad is in the works or not. Any experienced opinions out there?

[Bawanna]

It shouldn't work out. I'm wondering if you didn't quite get it all the way in last time you had it apart?
The little spring clip should snap into the groove on the lever and hold it in place. The back of the lever should also be inside the side, so I'm not sure how it could run with the lever part way out.
We've heard of this before and it seems like everytime, the next range session it didn't do it again. I hope that's the case again here.
Most actually take some effort to get them to pop out. I really have to push on my K40 (granted a different animal), my PM45 is much easier but still have to put good pressure on it and hold your mouth just right for it to start out.
Make sure it's in and see how hard it is to get back out, shouldn't be too easy.

[jreXD9]

thx bawanna, I'll see how it goes at the next range visit. I gave it a good cleaning a little while ago and it feels fairly tight right now, just a little play in it now, but maybe I'd just never noticed it until yesterday.
I know one thing.....this is a helluva good shooting gun.

[PennsyPlinker]

I am a new member here, delurking for my first post. I just got back from the range myself a few minutes ago with a relatively new CW 45. This is my third range trip with it. It has done a great job of cycling FMJ and hollow point rounds (about 300 so far) but I have experienced the exact same thing as the OP on two occasions, one of them today. The slide stop seems to be working its way out. I am going to check the gun and see if I can see where that spring is, but I thought I had it where it was supposed to be.

ETA: I called Kahr and talked to a man in technical support. They are sending me a new slide stop spring.

[Longitude Zero]

I never had that problem with mine and I agree it is a great shooter.

[gb6491]

Most actually take some effort to get them to pop out. I really have to push on my K40 (granted a different animal), my PM45 is much easier but still have to put good pressure on it and hold your mouth just right for it to start out.Unlike Bawanna's, my slide stop is very easy to remove. This may be a contributing factor on my CW45, but here's what I found on it in regards to the stop coming out of the frame. Rounds seem to nose dive (to varying degrees) when first being stripped from the magazine. One particular batch of 230 gr ball (Remington Peters I believe) has always been problematic in my gun: mostly being somewhat difficult to extract unfired. I discovered, sometimes when chambering them, that these rounds would push the stop out of the frame when they nose dive. I imagine it could happen during any feed cycle as well.
My fix was to remove some material from the slide stop. This must be done very carefully as you risk ruining the slide stop. While this fixed my CW45, I'm not advocating it be done becuase of the degree of caution needed while doing it (though, I now believe it's also the fix for inadvertent slide locks). Hopefully, a new slide stop spring will remedy the problem by making it more difficult to push the stop out from the frame. It also might be worth checking your ammo to see if it can be isolated to a certain brand/batch/bullet profile.
Regards,
Greg

[Bawanna]

Are you using the extractor and takedown/slide stop lever interchangebly or do your really mean the round is pushing the extractor out of the frame.
I'm having difficulty wrapping my mind around this. Not unusual, I don't have a over abundance of mind to wrap with but I'm trying.
I'm thinking you really mean extractor since you noted the caution of modifying it. Wondering what the issue would be that would cause it to be difficult to extract a live round. OAL too long? Bullet diameter too large?

Hmmm.

[gb6491]

Are you using the extractor and takedown/slide stop lever interchangebly or do your really mean the round is pushing the extractor out of the frame.
I'm having difficulty wrapping my mind around this. Not unusual, I don't have a over abundance of mind to wrap with but I'm trying.
I'm thinking you really mean extractor since you noted the caution of modifying it. Wondering what the issue would be that would cause it to be difficult to extract a live round. OAL too long? Bullet diameter too large?

Hmmm.
My bust Bawanna:o; "extractor" has been edited out of my earlier post. I'm purely talking slide stop. Caution has to be used when modifying the stop, becuase if too much material is removed, it will not lock the slide back consistently (yeah, I did this on a stop:().
In regards to the rounds that were difficult to eject by hand: I think is was a combination of round and chamber size. When the CW45 was new, it took quite a tug to eject these rounds live (as compared to other brands); as the gun broke in, this has gone away and the effort required to eject a live round is the same across the board for most of the ammo I have on hand (some non factory taper/crimp reloads being the exception). I never measured the troublesome rounds becuase they functioned fine when shooting. I also didn't measure them in regards to the slide stop issue becuase they have become my standard "if it works with these, it will work with anything" rounds; perhaps I should measure them someday. Darn, I hate it when science gets in the way of magic.
http://www.tiptopglobe.com/skin/smile/s12410.gif (http://www.tiptopglobe.com/free-smiles-smileys-emoticons-blog-forum-email)
Regards,
Greg

[Bawanna]

I agree, when I work on something and it works, now that's magic, science ain't got nothing to do with it.

[PennsyPlinker]

I wanted to update my part in this thread. I have not been on here for a while, as my virus protection program kept blocking the site as an attack site. It magically cleared up recently. Anyway...

I called Kahr and talked to tech support about my slide lock working out to the left while shooting. He sent me a new spring, and I very carefully installed it. I did not remove the screw all the way, which made getting the spring in correctly a little harder, but on the upside, I did not have to worry about getting those tiny threads started correctly. The old spring was indeed bent outwards. The slide lock lever goes on a lot harder now, but it seems to be stuck on pretty good. I still haven't had time to get to the range to test it out, but so far it looks and feels like it will stay this time.