My New P380 - A Few Light Primer Strikes - Do I have a Problem??

[xzhync]

All - Took my new P380 out for it's second range session today. Last week I shot 200 flawless FMJ rounds to break it in. Today I went back with approx 100 assorted defensive rounds and 50 FMJ rounds. Everything went well, except I had approx 5 light primer strikes (pulled the trigger and nothing happened). In each case I reset the trigger and the round went off on the second pull. All the light primer strikes (lps) were with the defensive ammo. I brought Winchester PDX1 (2 lps's out of approx 25 total), Corbon 90 gr (no lps's out of about 10 or 12 rounds), Speer Gold Dots (0 lps's out of approx 15 rounds), Federal Hydrashock (0 lps's out of approx 25 rounds) and Hornady's Critical Defense (3 lps's out of 25 rounds). After all of this I shot the 50 rounds of FMJ (PMC) without a single lps.

My question to the experts is do you think I have a problem? Just to let you know, I cleaned the pistol before today's session. The cleaning included blowing out the firing pin channel with Gun Blaster then air. Also, I inspected the end of the firing pin and it is in perfect condition. In other words it is not broken or chipped. Also, this week I bought a replacement recoil spring so when I shot it today, it was with a brand new recoil spring.

Could it just be the ammo? I had read of some problems with the Hornady 380. I think the problem had to do with the primers, but I can't remember specifics.

The fact that I had 50 flawless FMJ's at the end was encouraging. Does anyone know if defensive rounds have a thicker/tougher primer cap? Or would the primer be of the same consistency as a FMJ cap? If the primers are the same then I am not as worried, but if a FMJ uses a thinner or easier primer then maybe my pistol will have a hard time with defensive rounds. I have had a minor issue with FTRTB, but I am pretty sure I wasn't having that problem today although it may have happened once or twice, but probably not five times. If it happened it was not really noticeable.

I would appreciate everyones thoughts on this. Should I call Kahr or just keep shooting. Has the P380 had a history of light primer strikes?

[kensteele]

I'm curious as well. I pretty much have all the rounds you mentioned as well and will be testing each of them my first time out. Hopefully this isn't an issue.

[Bawanna]

Primers do vary in hardness. Rather than a range ammo, carry ammo difference I'd say it's more of a manufacture difference. I use to be up on whose primers were hard and soft but memory is failing me. Seems like Federal primers were harder, Winchester softer, CCI soft. Some store bought ammo you wouldn't know whose primer is used and it really don't matter. Kahrs are NOT terribly ammo sensitive. Some definitely have a preference or some they don't like but generally speaking they shoot it all.
You've done all the right stuff to make sure your gun is right, the striker is intact and you cleaned the channel out. (no oil in there).
I'd not be too terribly concerned this early in the game. I'd shoot some more, make mental notes of exactly what your shooting and whats happening when you get a light strike. See if there's any consistancy that may trigger the issue.

[camper]

As I recall, hardness to softness is: CCI, Winchester, Remington, Federal. Sensitivity of the primer is probably a better term.

[SICARIO]

I had one light primer strike today and one FTRTB with Winchester White box. Haven't had any issues with Remington or Buffalo Bore.

[xzhync]

Well, I took it out today for another range session. This time I had significantly more misfires. After a few problem free mags full, the misfires started. I had them with Corbon, Hornady, Speer, etc. Funny thing, so far, the misfires are only happening with hollow-point defense ammo. The FMJ's I have shot through (approx. 250 rounds - mostly PMC and Winchester White Box) have been perfect. With the misfires, I noticed that the primers had very shallow dents. Anyway, I am no gunsmith, so I am going to send it back to Kahr. I spoke to Ian. I am just waiting for my shipping label. I hope they get it fixed on the first try. In the letter, I am going to ask them to consider the trigger bar. From what I have read here from Jocko, that is a common cause of misfires in the P380. It also sounds like it is a solution that Kahr doesn't often consider. Hopefully, by my asking specifically, they will at least consider that possibility.

[Bawanna]

The important thing is to supply Kahr with very thorough and specific information. What you were shooting, when it happened, what happened. Take the guess work out of it for them. I'm sure they have a cookie cutter approach for this stuff. Failure to fire, then we do this.
Several here have had to send back more than once and they felt it was unclear communication.
While I try to let them know what I think the problem is I don't push too hard. It's like going to the doctor. You go in and tell them what you got, they'll get stuck on that and not look for the multitude of other things that might be wrong with ya. Same with mechanics. I keep kind of simple. Its doing this, what's wrong.......
We'll keep the fingers crossed and hope one trip back earns you a perfect running gun.

[Mr880]

I had the exact same issue with light primer strikes starting after about 70 or so flawless rounds. The problem was that the striker was hitting the striker block. Once the pistol starts to get broken in, some parts can cause malfunctions if they are a little out of spec. You can see this by looking at the striker block and if it is interfering there will be little ding marks where the striker is hitting it. Once it hits, there's not much energy left to set off the primer. Lots of things can cause this so its not easy to say what part needs replacing. Could be the striker block, or the cam that is supposed to lift it out of the way which may be the two most obvious ones. The gun should be able to fire ALL ammunition reliably ALL of the time. Since mine was fixed it has done just that and yours should too. It just takes a little bit of detective work to see whats going on - no excuse for a pistol not being 100% when its a carry gun.

[xzhync]

I had the exact same issue with light primer strikes starting after about 70 or so flawless rounds. The problem was that the striker was hitting the striker block. Once the pistol starts to get broken in, some parts can cause malfunctions if they are a little out of spec. You can see this by looking at the striker block and if it is interfering there will be little ding marks where the striker is hitting it. Once it hits, there's not much energy left to set off the primer. Lots of things can cause this so its not easy to say what part needs replacing. Could be the striker block, or the cam that is supposed to lift it out of the way which may be the two most obvious ones. The gun should be able to fire ALL ammunition reliably ALL of the time. Since mine was fixed it has done just that and yours should too. It just takes a little bit of detective work to see whats going on - no excuse for a pistol not being 100% when its a carry gun.

Mr880, thanks for your response. After the first misfires, I searched this forum and found your post about how you diagnosed your light primer strike problem. I thought about taking the upper completely apart to try and fix the problem myself, but decided to let the experts at Kahr take the first stab at it. Once they send it back I'll test fire and if the problem reappears, I'll try disassembling the upper and follow your same course of investigation. It would be awesome if you had any pictures or could give me more specifics on exactly what areas of the striker and block that were affected in your gun. You mentioned a burr on the safety block. If you had any pictures of that, it could help alot. In reading some of the upper disassembly instructions, somewhere in there, they describe a test to see if the striker is functioning correctly. They said something about pointing the muzzle end down, releasing the striker block and then see if the striker moves down somewhat freely. If I interpreted that correctly, then mine did not move freely. I suspect there maybe some sort of friction in there. Perhaps it will turn out that I have the same or similar problem to yours.

I am sure Kahr can fix it as long as they look in the right places and properly identify the problem. Sounds like there are a limited number of reasons that misfires occur with these pistols. Do you have any thoughts as to why the misfires were only occurring with defensive, hollow point ammo? I noticed the misfire problem was getting worse, so perhaps, if I would have tried more FMJ ammo, I would have had misfires there too. I observed on the misfired rounds that the primer had fairly light dents in them.

[mrbumps]

Good luck! I had the same problems with mine. Went back to Kahr twice. First time they replaced the barrel. Same problems. Second time they called me and said they fired 100 rounds through the gun with no problems. I asked them what ammo they used. They used Speer Lawman, Federal American Eagle, and Remington Gold Dot. Of course I had not used any of those, so I said send it back. I bought all of those brands and took the gun to the range. Lawman and Gold Dot ran fine, then I started to get light primer strikes and FTRB with American Eagle. By this time I was around 80 rounds, and thought maybe the gun is just dirty?

Previous to the trips back to Kahr, I had used Remington UMC, PMC Blazer Bronze, and Prvi Partizan, getting misfires with them all. I did fire a couple boxed of Gold Dot with no problems.

I have no faith in the gun, and will probably trade it at this point.

[nd1979]

For what it is worth, I have fired over 800 rounds with mine using pmc, winchester PDX ,winchester whitebox, S&B and the only light strikes were about 8 or so from four boxes of monarch from academy. I will not buy any more of that stuff!