New P380 Range Report-good news-update 4/25/11

[rogerthedodger]

Inspected new gun, did a little cleaning, went to the range. stopped after 25 rounds of UMC. 3 stove pipes, 3 lite strikes, never locked open on the last round.
Went home, did a thorough cleaning, including striker. Lubed per this forum, went back to the range today. shot 75 rounds of WWB, 1 light strike, 1 stove pipe, in 12 mags, 50% no lock on last round. Then I shot Hornady Custom 5 rounds, 2 lite strikes, 1 stove pipe. So I shot 10 Hornady Critical defense, no problems. First 115 rounds, is this expected, is this acceptable?
Update 4/5/11 First 60 rounds of wwb flawless, no stovepipes, no light strikes, only one failure after last round, then I shifted my stance and used the CT instead if iron sites. Four light strikes, 4 fail to lock open on last round in 40 rounds, so I gave up. The range instructer told me of a lot of probs with CT laser on P380, suggested I remove it and shoot some more. What do you think?
Update: 4/12/11 Removed the CT Laser, did a complete cleaning including removeal of striker, oiled per this lube site. Went to the range, shot 33 wwb, last 3 were light strikes. Called Kahr, they are sending new recoil springs, said this causes failure to return to battery by a few thousandths of a second??, causing this failure. I asked how about failure to lock open last round, he said limp wrist and touching the slide lock. So far a total of 253 rounds, and light strikes every 40 50 rounds, and fail to lock open 50%.
I know this is BS, will try new springs, really, really wish I would of NOT bought this POS.
Roger:mad:
4/25/11 Good news, see my last post.

[Jinx]

There are a few little 'iron out' issues with the first 250 rounds of this little kahr, Dont judge it too harshly untill then unless of course this is a used gun after 250 rounds.. you didnt specifically say.

Also where are your thumbs when you're shooting? Quite a few people end up with their thumb slightly resting on the mag catch lever, and keeping it from raisinga ll the way up to stop the slide. I've never had this problem as i have smaller medium sized hands and have learned to bend my thumbs around each other away from the slide at all times during firing. But I realize not everyone fires as I do! :)

[bonjorno2]

hang in there for the next 150+ rounds, and if it's still having issues send it back to kahr.

[jocko]

rogerdogger. if it won't shoot fmj ammo reliablly, don't mess with the self defense high price stuff. The gun is not reliable at all IMO. document all you have done and what it is doing and if you feel like it give it another 100- rounds of american brand fjm, any issues in that 100, then I would call kahr and ask them to pick up your gun on their dime, not yours. explain what you have done etc.

I would also let another good shooter shoot your P380 along side of you to see if he can duplicate what is going on. If he can, then assume it is gun related, If he hsa no issues, then assumne it is shooter related. very easy to eliminate this one possable.

Light strikes are not shooter error IMO but stovepipes when stated as very few even can be shooter error. U have not given the gun the 200 rounds that kahr asks of you so I would make sure ur give the gun some more rounds down range. Sometimes around that 200 mark things start to progress really fast to a reliable gun. If you stop now at 115 rounds and call kahr they will more than likely ask you to shoot it another 100 rounds before panicking, ... and they might be right to.

I had break in issues with my Para Carry 9 and when I called them about it, they said call them back after 500 rounds. It shot itself into reliability before that, but I like most paniced and expected it to be perfect out of the box..

[TominCA]

I had 2 P380's - both of which had major (and different) functioning problems. I kept shooting and shooting and shooting and they did not get better - There is some sort of problem with about half of them - I recommend calling the factory and talking to them befor burning up more ammo.

[rogerthedodger]

I am up to 205 rounds, getting better but not perfect. see my original post for update.
Roger

[jocko]

ur patient and that is a good sign to. Most would have boxedit up but evidenlty u can see progress. keep us posted.

[rogerthedodger]

Three obsevations.
One, it worked flawlessly until I changed the grip angle when I used the CT. I am going to remove CT until it shoots perfect, or until I give up and send it back.
Two, the Lock open on last round is much better since I polished the slide lock latch.
Three, the light strikes were on first round out of the mag, indicating slide not moving fast enough when I release slide lock on first round.
Hmmmm.
Roger

[rogerthedodger]

I am beginning to think I got a POS. See my original post. Will try new springs, then I may BLOW IT UP with my trusty RUGER. I am VERY carefull with my thumbs not getting near the latch, and I also have small hands. GRRRRRR
Roger

[toptog]

Is 250ish rounds through the POS a fair assessment of the POS?

New springs may be the answer, but if you want to peddle the POS as a POS I think I may be interested in the POS.

Please keep us posted on the POS. I wish you all the best though. Mine has been very well behaved with 1100+ rounds though it.

[rogerthedodger]

Hey toptog, I'll trade you straight across, maybe you can tame this beast. LOL

[HadEmAll]

Also where are your thumbs when you're shooting? Quite a few people end up with their thumb slightly resting on the mag catch lever, and keeping it from raisinga ll the way up to stop the slide. I've never had this problem as i have smaller medium sized hands and have learned to bend my thumbs around each other away from the slide at all times during firing. But I realize not everyone fires as I do! :)

You hopefully meant slide stop lever?

[rogerthedodger]

Hey HadEmAll, I think you might be in the wrong thread??? There are no posts from jinx in this one.

[HadEmAll]

Hey HadEmAll, I think you might be in the wrong thread??? There are no posts from jinx in this one.

1st response to your post.

[rogerthedodger]

You hopefully meant slide stop lever?
Oh yea, I see it now. Sorry about that. Everyone is being helpful. However, I have small hands, and have been careful after reading about the thumbs getting in the way on this thread. The last round not locking the slide open is not a big one to me, the gun has the loaded indicater on top, so I know the round is gone, slide not open, sort of like my LCP. I also count rounds out of habit so not a big deal. However, the lite strikes need to be fixed.
Thanks to all for all the help.
Roger:)

[jocko]

roger, so you hve the newP380 with the loaded round indicater and magazine disconnent in it to. is that right light strikes if all else is wellindicates an out of spec trigger bar,which means the gun must go back to kahr ON THEIR DIME TO..not yours.

[rogerthedodger]

Jocko, I spoke to them yesterday, they said "new springs" for lite strikes. I will try them, If still lite strikes, I will call them and insist on sending it back. Thanks for the support. Can I use your name as a reference??
Roger

[rogerthedodger]

I installed the new recoil springs, cleaned gun per this web sticky, fired 24 wwb, 24 independence, and 15 Hornady Critical Defense. No light strikes. It has never gone that long without, so I am hoping it is fixed.
Also, I purchased 2 new Mags, noticed the new mags spring is 1/4" longer than the mag supplied with gun, so I used them, and no failure to lock open last round. Talked to Jay, he said send mag back with a note, they will replace it. The gun shoots amazingly accurate, and I like it with the extended mag(7 round) as it helps my aging hand grip. One other thing, I was using a gun grease on the slide rails, and I noticed how dirty the grease got after 50 rounds, so I am staying with hoppes oil while I put a lot of rounds thru it, to keep it from collecting dirt from the ammo. 315 rounds of various ammo thru it to date.
Now, I think this gun is going to be reliable.
YAHOOOOOOO, Roger