New 380 owner...HELP!!

[fixxr]

Hi All
1st let me say thanks for the info I gleaned lurking on this site.

Ive been craving the new Kahr P380 since buying my LCP a year ago.

Thinking Kahr had all the bugs worked out of it I ordered one a week ago and picked up mine yesterday.

I know all about the Kahr break-in routine of 200+ rounds. I have a P9 with night sites that is just AWESOME and I've never had an issue with it......
so no Kahr hater here. Love the P9 but a little heavy on my hip at the end of the day.

After performing the break in procedure found on this site and others and after a thorough cleaning/lube a trip to the range for LIVE break in was in order. 1st session 100 rounds 15-18 FTF. No Stove pipes.
After another through cleaning/lube 200 rounds 15-18 FTF 3 stove pipes.

I have never owned a handgun with SO MANY FTF's in my life.
(Cor-bon, Winnchester hornady, mag tech fiocci didn't seem to make a difference)

I checked some of the tips I found here (round coming in contact with slide stop etc) none of those were exhibited.

From a slide lock open to chamber the 1st round, squeeze,bang, then slide locks open. Depress slide lock, most of the time the remaining 5 rounds will fire and cycle no problem.

This little gun is accurate as hell from 7 yards!!! Love everything about it but I don't think I can trust my life on it. I WANT TO!!!!
My carry gun has to go bang every time or I cant trust it.

The LCP which I don't like (trigger,no sights, no slide lock open after last round is fired) cycles any kind of ammo without skipping a beat AND it goes bang every time no matter the ammo I feed it. But I don't like it now that I have the Kahr!!

I was hoping to sell the LCP to help cover the cost of the new Kahr but now I'm not so sure.

Like I said I love this new Kahr but its in my possession 2 days and I'm thinking its gotta go back to the factory already?

ALSO: i just noticed a swelling of both sides of the polymer frame from slide stop forward when compared to my P-9. Is that normal????


Any advice/input will be greatly appreciated.
THANKS
ps.
even with my glow in the dark sites on my LCP the Kahr 380 is WAY more accurate!!!!!!

[jocko]

it ehs lide locks open when firing, and ur are positively sure ur thumb is not hitting the slide lock lever, and if the rounds are not hitting on the isidne of the slide lock lever, then take the slide off and reinsert the slide lock lever and see if there is any free play in that lever before that little spring decides to want to pull that lever downward. There should be zero free play. Now with loaded magazine and no slide on the gun insert and see what is happenong on the inside left side. If those rounds touch that slide stop lever it will pre engage.

by owning a kahr you know what to look for so I am not trying to incriminate you either. I do think I would spend my time breaking in the gun to be reliable with fmj ammo, it is far cheaper to do that than with defense stuff. I would say go to defense stuff when the gun is reliab le. Your wasting alot of bucks with this defense stuff that is giving you issues when probably fmj cheaper ammo will give you the same results.

Make sure thegun is properly lubed and the recoil spring is on correctly. I would give it a 100 rounds of fmj ammo and if it persists, then indeed give kahr a call AND HAVE THEM PICK UP THE TAB FOR IT TO.

the only thing that engages the slide stop lever is the magazine follower, nothing else comes into play, other than the above things I mentioned. check them out, u need to eliminate allthe possables before calling kahr so that youcan tellthem exactly what you have done..

[fixxr]

Thanks Jocko
I actually tried to force the slide lock open by holding my thumb in the way and I could NOT re create the problem, so I know thats not the problem.
And I had already tried your other suggestions before posting....
(The cor bon was for fun)
300 rounds fmj later. Same problem.

I'm going to try 200 more rounds and if it fails its going back.
Kinda sucks for a 600.00 gun.

[jocko]

300 rounds should be well enough to get thegun right.

PM to you

[OldLincoln]

Fixxr, the only thing that locks the slide is something pushing the slide lock up. It is possible that recoil inertia is doing that, but if you can flip the slide lock lever up and it springs back down with the same enthusiasm as your other Kahr that is eliminated.

The only thing remaining is the mag and slide lock itself. I'm going to pick on the mag since that's were my solution came. With a fully loaded mag (SD rounds) is the top round loose side to side? Also check the second round. What position is the top round in the mag when it locks open? Is it fully seated back in the mag or did the recoil make it slip forward?

If your top cartridge is "floppy" side-to-side in the mag and/or the round slides forward I'd look closer at the mag itself. Since you have a new gun your mags must be new also so I assume the springs are strong, but it is the spring pushing the round against the lips that hold the round in place. Either weak spring (not likely) of spread lips are suspect. The lips spread more as the mag fills so the first 2-3 rounds are usually the problem then the rest are ok. If really bad it could be more.

So what does this have to do with slide lock? You can't see the motion during recoil and chamber, but the cartridge is basically tossed up by the mag and caught by the slide, A very violent and uncontrolled action. In the toss, especially with bullets that are fat further toward the nose (SD ammo), it's possible for it to feed forward and hit the mag catch. The toss is directed by mag lips so they need to be aligned.

You may not see it during your examination with the slide removed unless you manually slip the top round forward a bit checking the wiggle and see it if hits the catch. Be sure and check it with the SD ammo that's involved. If it does it's the mag lips. Mine were excessively loose so I shaped them a bit fixing the loose rounds in the pocket issue, but also feeds better.

SD vs FMJ:
SD rounds first hit the ramp head on tending to stick if slow racked, but again the violence and speed pushes them beyond that point. This is why so many of us polish the ramp to a mirror shine. I even lube mine a bit with TW25 that is supposed to fill into pores of the metal. I had trouble for a while feeding HST rounds until I got my mags tuned right and the ramp smoothed out.

After checking this stuff out, please try FMJ as Jocko suggested. I'd like to know how they work out.

[jocko]

now try this on for size.

M P380 had around 1250 flawless round sthrough it and then allof a sudden it quit locking openon the last round. So what did I do. I changed recoil springs. no luck, I changed magazine springs, no luck, I changed magazine followers, no luck, I changed slide stop lever, no luck, I changed slide lever spring, no luck. I changed magazine catch, no luck, so back the sucker went to kahr

I got in back in about a week with a new slide and it has never failed since, now go figure, what the hell had change din the slide in the fiwst 1250 rounds to now cause it to not work the slide lock lever and actually what the hell did the slide hav eto do with the slide lock lever in the first place. Bets me, one can try to eliminate the possable but just sometimes the damn gun has to go back.

We as oowners don't have the liberty to just exchange parts like a slide or barrel etc. I changed enough parts to almost build another gun. It just happens dometime and one has to have the will with all to either stick with it until right or just move on to another gun. I love my P380 NOW..

[fixxr]

az4783054
Springs in backwards on both mags from the factory!
Talked to Kahr this morning and a new slide stop spring is on its way.
Will report back asap.
Thanks to all!!!

[JEC_PA]

WOW...both springs in backwards...what are the chances of that?

[fixxr]

ok my bad!
I disassembled both mags and compared them to picture in the manual found on page 7. then compared them to the picture found on page23. Then checked my manual for my p9 and found the same discrepancy. so i pulled apart my 6 magazines for my p9 and found the to be setup the same as my new mags for p380. Interesting to say the least. Seems like the 2 images contradict themselves.
I found this:

http://kahrtalk.com/p-cw-series-pistols/2774-new-380-same-issues.html

and maybe when I reassembled I inadvertently had the slide stop spring UNDER the slide stop!

Thanks Wyntrout
Off to the range soon for further testing.
Thanks Everyone!

[jocko]

and maybe when I reassembled I inadvertently had the slide stop spring UNDER the slide stop

if that was the case the slide would lock open every time, when u fire the gun. You would know if you had it in wrong, as even witht he magazineout of the gun and u rackthe slide, it would lock open.