P380 is ammo sensitive - Kahr says so

[xzhync]

Just got off the phone with Ian (the new Ian) at Kahr. he said the gun smith couldn't reproduce my misfire problem using ball ammo and Remington JHP. i sent it in for a significant number of misfires using Hornady, Winchester and Corbon. Ian said to not use Hornady with the P380. he said the specs on that ammo dont work with the P380. He said if there are one or two brands that work then stick with them. he said the P380 doesnt work with all ammo. He said some ammo will not allow the gun to go fully into battery. He said it may look like it is in battery but it really isnt. this all sounds suspicious. he is going to send it back. not sure what else to do.

[jocko]

indeed for a new guy who just cameon board, I find his answers very suspicious. I personally don't buy the Hornady stuff either. Lots of people shoot hornady ammo and have no issies. My P380 was very sensitive to 102 golden sabre ammo as I got alof of premature slide lockingopen, and I did acredit that to a bigger bullet and it was touching the inside of the slide lock lever nad pre engaging it, but again I read where others shoot this same ammo and have no issues, so it is MY GUN and not indicative of all kahrs.

Karhs are not ammo sensitive but that being said possably yours might be with certain brands of ammo. I never had an issue with fmj ammo of any brand and other than the 102 golden sabres, it fired allother defense ammo. So I just wnet to corbon powerball and the corbon HP round and have had zero issues. I half way agree with ION (not IAN) to find a good defense round that works 100% as there are lots of good defense rounds out there IMO. But if I had issues with more than one or two defense rounds, that would not be acceptable. No doubt the slide can look like it is into ful battery but it isnot and that is the result of your misfires. IMO and I ams aying this from my experience only, I think your gun will smooth out smoother than butter in a few hundred good rounds down range and I would not even mess with defense stuff until this gun can shoot a 100+ fmj rounds without one issue, then retest with a defense round of your choice and see what happens. My bet your Hornady rounds will work OK to. If a rond won't allow the gun to go into full battery then it is a throating thing more than anything.

Keep firing away, it will smooth out...

PM sent also

[mrbumps]

I sent my P380 back for misfires twice. The first time they replaced the barrel. The second time they called and said they could not make the gun misfire after 100 rounds and were sending it back. They used Fed American Eagle, REmington Golden Sabre, and Speer Lawman. I had to admit that I had not tried any of those in the gun. I had previoulsy fired Remington UMC (Gold MegaPack), Prvi Partizan, PMC Blazer Bronze, and Speer Gold Dot. The Speer Gold Dot was the only ammo that I did not have misfires with.

Once I received the gun back the second time, I purchased some American Eagle, Speer Lawman, Speer Gold Dot, and Winchester White Box and hit the range. I shot the box of Lawman first - NO Problems. Next came American Eagle - Made it through half the box, and then had a misfire, had a couple more the remainder of the box. Shot the Speer Gold Dot, and no problems. I lubed the rails again, and then tried the Winchester. I had several more misfires, as well as some very obvious failures to return to battery. The Winchester Bullets were more "conical" in shape, and I could feel they had a more "sluggish" feed. I don't think I would use them again.

I am wondering some of the cheaper range ammo is being put out with lower standards in order to keep up with demand? I am not totally confident with my P380 and may trade it. Otherwise I will just use the Speer Gold Dot in it, since that has always run flawless.

I've put over 800 rounds through this gun, so I don't think it's just a "break-in" problem.

[xzhync]

indeed for a new guy who just cameon board, I find his answers very suspicious. I personally don't buy the Hornady stuff either. Lots of people shoot hornady ammo and have no issies. My P380 was very sensitive to 102 golden sabre ammo as I got alof of premature slide lockingopen, and I did acredit that to a bigger bullet and it was touching the inside of the slide lock lever nad pre engaging it, but again I read where others shoot this same ammo and have no issues, so it is MY GUN and not indicative of all kahrs.

Karhs are not ammo sensitive but that being said possably yours might be with certain brands of ammo. I never had an issue with fmj ammo of any brand and other than the 102 golden sabres, it fired allother defense ammo. So I just wnet to corbon powerball and the corbon HP round and have had zero issues. I half way agree with ION (not IAN) to find a good defense round that works 100% as there are lots of good defense rounds out there IMO. But if I had issues with more than one or two defense rounds, that would not be acceptable. No doubt the slide can look like it is into ful battery but it isnot and that is the result of your misfires. IMO and I ams aying this from my experience only, I think your gun will smooth out smoother than butter in a few hundred good rounds down range and I would not even mess with defense stuff until this gun can shoot a 100+ fmj rounds without one issue, then retest with a defense round of your choice and see what happens. My bet your Hornady rounds will work OK to. If a rond won't allow the gun to go into full battery then it is a throating thing more than anything.

Keep firing away, it will smooth out...

PM sent also

Thanks Jocko, I have already put approx. 400 rounds in total. Hopefully, it will loosen up even more with another few hundred rounds.

PM replied to.

[xzhync]

I sent my P380 back for misfires twice. The first time they replaced the barrel. The second time they called and said they could not make the gun misfire after 100 rounds and were sending it back. They used Fed American Eagle, REmington Golden Sabre, and Speer Lawman. I had to admit that I had not tried any of those in the gun. I had previoulsy fired Remington UMC (Gold MegaPack), Prvi Partizan, PMC Blazer Bronze, and Speer Gold Dot. The Speer Gold Dot was the only ammo that I did not have misfires with.

Once I received the gun back the second time, I purchased some American Eagle, Speer Lawman, Speer Gold Dot, and Winchester White Box and hit the range. I shot the box of Lawman first - NO Problems. Next came American Eagle - Made it through half the box, and then had a misfire, had a couple more the remainder of the box. Shot the Speer Gold Dot, and no problems. I lubed the rails again, and then tried the Winchester. I had several more misfires, as well as some very obvious failures to return to battery. The Winchester Bullets were more "conical" in shape, and I could feel they had a more "sluggish" feed. I don't think I would use them again.

I am wondering some of the cheaper range ammo is being put out with lower standards in order to keep up with demand? I am not totally confident with my P380 and may trade it. Otherwise I will just use the Speer Gold Dot in it, since that has always run flawless.

I've put over 800 rounds through this gun, so I don't think it's just a "break-in" problem.

Thanks for your response. The Speer gold dot may end up being dependable for me too. I did shoot a box of them without a problem, but I'll need to try more to feel confident. That was not the round I was going to go with, though. Sure hate to be forced to use something other than what I thought would be best.

[Nitro700]

I have shot Hornady Critical Defense and Corbon through my P380 with out a problem. I have not ran into any ammo that it will not shoot so I feel very lucky.

[xzhync]

I have shot Hornady Critical Defense and Corbon through my P380 with out a problem. I have not ran into any ammo that it will not shoot so I feel very lucky.

Ya, I am not buying what Eon at Kahr said completely. I mean Hornady is a common (and popular) production American brand. Why would Kahr design a pistol without considering the size and shape of most of the common ammo out there. Unfortunately, it seems like the burden of proof is on me. They shot one brand of self defense ammo to test and declared the pistol fine. The should have been a little more thorough with their testing. When you spend big dollars on the P380 you expect it to be a very capable pistol. I would venture to say most of the P380's out there would shoot Hornady just fine. I bet mine is out of spec in some small way...just enough to cause a problem with Hornady.

[mrbumps]

Ya, I am not buying what Eon at Kahr said completely. I mean Hornady is a common (and popular) production American brand. Why would Kahr design a pistol without considering the size and shape of most of the common ammo out there. Unfortunately, it seems like the burden of proof is on me. They shot one brand of self defense ammo to test and declared the pistol fine. The should have been a little more thorough with their testing. When you spend big dollars on the P380 you expect it to be a very capable pistol. I would venture to say most of the P380's out there would shoot Hornady just fine. I bet mine is out of spec in some small way...just enough to cause a problem with Hornady.

I think mine is a little out of spec too. I know I should keep sending it back to Kahr, but that gets old fast! Even though the Gold Dot seems to run fine, it's too expensive to practice with. There are a ton of great reports on the P380, I guess I just got a lemon!

[copterdrvr]

I don't buy the Hornady line either. I use it for two reasons, first it is a standard pressure round that always seems to expand out of a short barreled pistol AND it has a bullet profile that is shorter than any other as well as the fact that the actual bullet profile itself is "pointier" than any other-heck it's smaller than full metal jacket bullets!

Heck, the way I see it, if a gun won't feed the Hornady CD's that means the gun has some serious issues!

[kramm]

I've never had a problem with Hornady in any of my pistols, 380, 9mm or 45. I think something else is the problem.