New PM45 rounds get stuck

[BSea206]

I just bought a new PM45. I have not yet taken it to the range. 0 rounds fired through it. Snap caps work perfectly fine in it, and eject perfectly fine. However live rounds, hollow point and round nose, have a tendency to get stuck when I try to eject them. Always in the same manner. I’ve oiled the parts but it doesn’t help. I bought this as a pocket carry gun due to its light weight, but I am considering returning it if I can not figure out this issue. Does anybody have any insight?

I took a picture but I don’t think I am allowed to post it at this time. The round appears to be getting stuck diagonally on the top of the barrel and what I’m guessing is the metal extractor piece?

[DJK11]

Perfectly normal for the pm45. It WILL eject the spent cartridge. With out a doubt the best sub-compact 45 made. I’ve run more than 12k through the two I’ve owned. Use full power loads when doing the brake in.

[Bawanna]

I agree with DJK. You need to rack the slide briskly and with good force to kick them out at first..

If it hangs up when actually shooting you might have to relieve a small corner in the chamber opening.

You can post pics from a provider like postimage or tiny pic or one of those. You need 30 post before you can post a pic direct from your computer.

[dao]

Mine works exactly as Bawanna describes. Anything less than trying to replicate live fire reciprocation, by hand results in a loaded cartridge getting stuck as often as not. That being said, since your PM45 is new you should rack the slide manually, without the mag in it, 200-300 times and then lock the slide back overnight before taking it to the range the first time. Kahrs are small, built to extremely tight tolerances and even though the machining is very good there are micro-burrs which are smoothed out by racking that number of times before a range trip. Otherwise they may cause FTE or FTF's occurring while at the range. Kahr states that you should expect to send 200 rounds downrange to break it in. We have found that manually racking the slide about 300 times pretty much negates the need for this. And saves a good amount of cash for that much ammo. Good luck, and let us know how your shooting experience goes. I love my PM45.

[BSea206]

Thanks yal for your replies. I will give it a go at the range. I saw the reviews on it and thought it would make a great pocket gun. As for cycling without firing live ammo; just so I could safely empty it at home I kinda said whatever and took a look at where it was jamming. I ended up filing a little bit of material off the sharp edge of the barre it was catching on. It works perfectly fine now and I feel much safer emptying it upon getting home

[Bawanna]

Sounds like a happy ending to me.

[BirdsThaWord]

Hopefully that sorted it out. As DAO said, I too have racked them hundreds of time’s to break them in, and also left the slide locked back overnight, sometimes a few days. I have had a few where I removed the recoil assembly before doing so, so as not to put that many actions on the recoil assembly. I’ve found that it is easiest to rack hundreds of times by holding the slide put, and pushing the frame/grip away from you and too you. Much easier than holding the frame/grip stationary while trying to pull the slide back and forth. Hope that makes sense, but maybe you already know that and I’m “singing to the choir”. ;)

[BirdsThaWord]

Sounds like a happy ending to me. One could envision some pleasurable moments with that statement, also involving a “gun” and “shots fired” :rolleyes:

[getsome]

Hi BSea206 and welcome to Kahrtalk, You have one of the best Kahr pistols made and it will perform just fine but it will take some live rounds through it to break it in so don’t think that just because racking it by hand causes it to hang up there is a problem and don’t start trying to file and fix things before you allow the gun to correct it’s own problems through live fire…….Like others have said, you can rack the slide on an empty gun for a couple hundred times and lock back the slide for a few days which helps with the break in but the BEST way is to clean and lube your pistol and run it wet with a quality gun oil and fire at least 200 rounds of full power or +p carry ammo through it to speed up the break in, you won’t hurt the gun but your hand may have a blister or two…..Take it home and do a good field strip and thorough cleaning and later go back and shoot the snot out of it with range ammo for 4-5 hundred rounds and you will have a reliable pistol……There is no substitute for gun powder……Again welcome to Kahrtalk and if you need any advice there are many good folks here more than willing to help……..Let us know how it goes……

[Scott321]

Although my PM45 is my second most carried (CW45 most), I generally unload in this manner: 1. finger off the trigger and pointing in a safe direction, 2. take the magazine out, and 3. using secure, brisk, manual rack. Personally, I don't unload my carry gun everyday unless I'm switching to a different gun for awhile.

Also, please be careful with rechambering the same round everyday. If you rechamber the same round everyday you could induce a kaboom (with any brand gun) from bullet setback. If you unload your gun everyday, you might try placing yesterday's (or maybe every other day's) chambered round at the bottom of the mag, and shooting your carry rounds every week (or two) at the range, or dumping them into a range bag every week (or two) for future target practice.

[DJK11]

Great advice especially #1. Bullet setback is real, I’ve experienced extreme setback with my p380 and Speer GDHP. Not much crimp used with the GD and a very steep ramp on the 380 is a recipe for setback. I’ve measured more than .020 setback loading a fresh round.

[DJK11]

Forgot to mention, if an ejected round gets hung up and is pinched between the breech and slide or chamber, setback could happen. Kind of vice like action squeezing the round shorter.