CW380 What causes live top round to move forward in magazine causing issues?

[Sparx]

I have a new CW380, it is a keeper. Pistol does everything well except it will perform a premature slide hold back due to top round creeping forward in the mag and setting the slide stop lever. I am not hitting the lever with my thumb, I am a one hand shooter.

I now have mag guts installed in both magazines, and the rounds creep forward with these as well.

I have read on this topic and very carefully taken material off the slide stop nub, but the rounds continue to hit the slide stop. With defensive ammo having a less chunky bullet shape the the problem does not occur as often. Who can afford to shoot only defensive ammo, the ball stuff is expensive enough.

I think the pistol has about 350 (no less) rounds fired, this early slide hold back is the only issue. I realize I can (or may) need to remove more material from the slide stop nub, and thus lose the empty magazine slide hold open.

My question is what makes the round move forward, is it just recoil or is some slide surface doing this but pushing the cartridge?

sparx

[berettabone]

Before taking any more off the slide stop, I would try installing new magazine followers. A gentleman on this site sells them and people seem to be very happy with them. You could also try squeezing the magazine lips together a tad. It's a common complaint with Kahr magazines.

[Sparx]

OK.
I considered some type of mag lip adjustments, suck as slightly roughing up the inside of the lips, but did not do so.
I have mag guts units installed, not sure different followers will work or not, where can I find the followers sold here?
TY berettabone
sparx

[Bawanna]

Lakeline is the company Beretta mentions. Al is a member here.

With regard to the mag lips I would not rough them up, but gently squeeze the top together in a vise very carefully and not a lot.
The lips can also be tweeked in or down just a bit. This helps prevent dropping rounds if a spare mag is carried without a proper holder.

[dao]

lakelinellc.com

[DavidR]

Lakeline doesn’t sell followers for 380.

If the Magguts doesn’t fix it a new follower won’t help.

I wish I had a helpful suggestion.

[BirdsThaWord]

To answer your question about what causes it (others have posted good solutions) one possibility is that the casing rim above the offending round is dragging that one forward as it is stripped from the mag. The solution others have given hear (tightening up the lips a tad) can help resist this. I had a KelTec CP33 and learned that if you did not load it’s rounds absolutely perfect that “rim lock” would occur. Each successive rounds casing rim had to be loaded so that it sat either on top of the next at minimum, or preferably behind the round above it’s rim. Otherwise, when the round above it was stripped from the clip it would attempt to drag that next round with it, causing “rim lock” malfunctions. On top of all of that carefulness/ridiculousness, you also had to make sure that each stack (those mags are quad stacked, or basically 2 double stacks side by side) was aligned in a perfect zig zag pattern (see attached pic). Real pain the the hind end. I figured that I did not want to own a gun that had to be loaded with so much carefulness, so I no longer own it.

18874

[dao]

I've found that with Kahr mags, in any caliber it's usually a good practice to slap the fully loaded mag against the palm of one hand a couple of times while holding the base of the mag with the other hand. Do so with the rim end of the cartridges toward the palm you're hitting. This helps to align them all in the mag, end to end and stacked correctly.

[Bawanna]

I do that with all magazines, just a habit, like packing a pack of Marlboro's back in the day.
It's not uncommon for all semi autos to drag the next round below the one going in the chamber to move forward a bit. Of course if it's moving forward enough to hit the slide stop, then that's not acceptable.

[Armybrat]

I've found that with Kahr mags, in any caliber it's usually a good practice to slap the fully loaded mag against the palm of one hand a couple of times while holding the base of the mag with the other hand. Do so with the rim end of the cartridges toward the palm you're hitting. This helps to align them all in the mag, end to end and stacked correctly.
Somebody advised me to do that decades ago, and I’ve done it ever since. with good results.

[Bawanna]

I think I started doing it when I saw a guy in Full Metal Jacket banging his M16 mag against his helmet.

Note to self, do not try this without the helmet, not a happy ending.

[Tilos]

OK, not on a 380, just something I have done to my Kahrs and many other autos.
Smooth/polish the crap out of the "pickup rail"(#9) that slides over the rounds in the mag.
Do the same to the radius on the front corner too and remember to LUBE IT​ after.

#9 in this pic in the lube thread:
18919
http://www.kahrtalk.com/showthread.php?308-Kahr-Lube-Diagram&p=2217#post2217
That will also lower the force needed to rack the slide when there is a mag with ammo inserted into the gun.
jmo,
.

[Sparx]

Thanks everyone for the infor.
Strange how my Cw 380 works very well until I clean it, and wipe it as DRY as I can. Cleaned it yesterday, today, early slide hold backs like crazy. Lots of round creep, hold open with 6 rounds in mag.

I did not shoot the pistol wet, but dry.

I will address what Tilos suggests above.
sparx