CW45 Fell APART At Range (During Break period)

[edinero]

Good Day guys, I am a new Kahr Owner and to this forum. I recently purchased a CW45 And let me say I did my research and Knew of some issues with the gun but didn't think Mine would fall apart on me during the 200 break in at the range. the first mag went smooth upon the second mag after first shot smooth each round after would jam, the slide stop would begin to pop out like it was loose and the entire gun looked as it was falling apart. The mag would drop out of the gun without contact of release. I am very dissapointed but I really like this gun, The gun went back to the dealer that sold it to me and awaits to go back to kahr. worst part also I had ordered trijicon night sights and they are out for delivery today and my gun is at my local dealer who sold me the gun ;(. needless to say I was very embarrassed at my local gun range.

[bclark11]

Sorry to hear that man. I've never heard of that happening. Were you shooting reloads or factory ammo? Let us know what happends with Kahr.

Take care,

-BMC

[JCP281]

That sucks. I dont know why you would be embarrassed.. its a machine. It happens.

[edinero]

Jay from kahr has been on top of this for me today and speaking with my local dealer who has the gun to get picked up ASAP. The reason I was embarrassed was because the gun was un safe and falling apart at a public range meaning it could have caused an accident and maybe worse. I didn't expect that from a new machine.

[TheTman]

What's up with the CW45 lately? Did the P380 quality control team get reassigned to them?

[JCP281]

That why I dont like big calibers in small pistols. Seems like every gun of this type has issues with the .45 and .40. To much of newtons 3rd law for the pistol to handle(IMO of course).

[edinero]

Mind you Jay from kahr advised be born date and it was March 2011. WOW what luck I have...

[jocko]

no doubt a bad slide stop spring, and then one thing leads to another. probably best to send it back on the dealers dime, I do think this forum couldhave got you through this but again, at no expense to u, let kahr have it back. I would not consider what your gun did as falling apart.. but I guess that is alos in the eyes of the beholder to..

[edinero]

Jocko, If I could have taken a picture before the range police came to station and advised to drop the gun and stop shooting I would have and let you decide if it was falling apart but you might be right. The gun is being picked up today on there dime and back to the mother ship for hopefully a correction to the many issues.

[jocko]

heh, no problem, get it fixed right.

[edinero]

I was firing Brand New Federal FMJ Ammo. No reloads and never will use reloads.

[gb6491]

Sorry to here of the issues with your new pistol edinero (BTW, welcome to the forums).
I'm curious about the slide stop and the CW falling apart. Did the slide stop fall out or just pop out from the frame a bit? Did it do it more than once?
Regards,
Greg

[edinero]

Thanks GB For the welcome! I wish it was on better terms , The slide stop at one point was one more shot from coming out entirely before I just shut the shooting down for safety reasons. Also the mag dropped and many Jams and times I would pull the trigger and nothing would go bang.

[JCP281]

Sounds like Kahr forgot to put a gun in the box. Hard to imagine all that going wrong with 1 pistol.

[edinero]

I just confirmed that my CW45 Has just been received at the Mother-ship (KAHR FACTORY) Turnaround is 1-2 weeks advised by Kahr Customer Service. I hope they can get it right

[Cornel]

Edinero, FWIW, I too have a CW45 and I started having similar problems with mine, but after shooting about 230 rds. I called Kahr today and they told to send it back to them. In my case the slide stop would come out about 1/8" and this will cause all sorts of issues.

As someone mentioned, maybe the cal's S&W 40 and .45 ACP are a little too much for a pistol of that size or maybe they need to revisit the way the slide stop, the spring and screw were designed. At any rate I'm hoping that my new CM9 (still to be broken) will be my charmed Kahr.

[TucsonMTB]

Edinero, FWIW, I too have a CW45 and I started having similar problems with mine, but after shooting about 230 rds. I called Kahr today and they told to send it back to them. In my case the slide stop would come out about 1/8" and this will cause all sorts of issues.

As someone mentioned, maybe the cal's S&W 40 and .45 ACP are a little too much for a pistol of that size or maybe they need to revisit the way the slide stop, the spring and screw were designed. At any rate I'm hoping that my new CM9 (still to be broken) will be my charmed Kahr.
I dunno. My CW40 and PM40 stay put together nicely despite the slide stops being very easy to remove, now that they are broken in.

I can't put my finger on it, but there has to be something else going on. That may be why Kahr wants it back.

[PCollen]

what's up with the cw45 lately? Did the p380 quality control team get reassigned to them?

ouch !!!!

[PCollen]

That sucks. I dont know why you would be embarrassed.. its a machine. It happens.

A lawn mower is a machine, too, but I've never heard of a blade flying off or any other part for that matter during the "break-in period". I'm sorry, but given the nature of the "machine" and the ability to cause great bodily harm to self and others, I would not be as apologetic about such issues. On forum member suggested the higher power rounds might be too much for such a small gun...quite possibly if all guns are using all of the same parts except those which the rounds touch. In this case, it would be considered a design flaw, and I've been led to believe Kahr is above that. They don't use 'the market' as their quality control dept., do they ? BTW, I stopped by a local gun shop today just to fondle the CW9..it is a simply great-feeling pistol in my hand. I'm trying to find one to fire a few rounds through at the range.

[edinero]

Let's keep in mind guys I was told The born date of my baby that's sick with mother now was march 2011 by Kahr Customer service and bought myself just last week at local dealer.

[Bawanna]

Positive happy thoughts here. I think your newborn is gonna be just fine when you get it back. Can't promise nothing of course but the gun and the platform is good enough that it deserves whatever effort it takes to make it reliable and trustworthy.

[Cornel]

Positive happy thoughts here. I think your newborn is gonna be just fine when you get it back. Can't promise nothing of course but the gun and the platform is good enough that it deserves whatever effort it takes to make it reliable and trustworthy.

I'm 100% positive... indeed!!! I like my CW45 very much!! I want it to be a keeper, so I'll try to get it working right for me. Just something in the way it feels in my hands that is hard to let go. It is 1 of the best .45 ACPs handgun for CCW.

Cheers! :)

[edinero]

Thanks for the help and I will advise status when my baby gets back to me and after range testing as well.

[MrToad]

Wow, edinero, that's ridiculous, and hope your 45 comes back ready to sling lead properly.:53: Kahr needs to make it right for you. Trick pistols are not what you should expect out of the box.

BTW, welcome to the forum!

[edinero]

Mr. Toad,

Thanks for the well wished, will keep updated once back in my hands!

[CJB]

A lawn mower is a machine, too, but I've never heard of a blade flying off or any other part for that matter during the "break-in period".

I work for the company that makes those red lawnmowers, snowblowers, and other useful products that are rather "bullish" in name.

Yah, blades fly off. They do. Off mowers, and edgers too. I recall one incident when the edger blade flew off, and got stuck in the garage door two houses down the street. I remember it - because it happened to the (grown) kid of my boss at the time! Yeouch...

(edit later)

I think... when a blade falls off an edger (and I've heard of it happening to a Ryobi circular saw too), folks say, "Looks like it wasn't on tight... we'll get it good and tight when its re-installed", and that's that, assuming no injury. Its an easily discernible problem, with a clear fix for most people. People (for the most part) understand how a mower works. They grasp the concept.

Pistols on the other hand, are totally beyond the comprehension of many people. There are a lot of things going on at the same time when you shoot a pistol. It happens quickly, and when it happens, your attention is on a target and sights, not usually on the gun itself - even if you could somehow see things happen. Pistols are almost mystical in their operation. I remember my first new gun, a Ruger Security-Six. I took it apart, and examined every piece, and thought, the guy who invented it must have been an absolute genius. I had it apart for well over a week... just working the parts by hand to see how everything interacted. Someplace in the last 33 years, I got a bit of education and experience, and now I see things differently. I've been known to design machines, but I'm still fascinated with mechanical things.

Most folks dont share all that. They just want the gun to go bang when they pull the trigger. Can't blame them.

[edinero]

***UPDATE***
Emailed Jay from Kahr Customer service for an update for the repair of my CW45 That has been there for a week already and he stated It is currently in the queue for repair.

[edinero]

On my way to my FFL To pickup the Repaired Pistol . Took 8 Days for the repair. I will advise the action taken and range report ASAP!

[edinero]

Range report ;(
Shot 100 rounds first 4 mags flawless after 1 shot boom and second round no bang or click from trigger , in addition out of 100 a total 15 jams , upon inspection of jams and of 100 rounds that did fire the rounds had scaring to them on the sides back of the cartridge. I am on the way back to the dealer for a second return of the gun, I am not very happy right now... So I'll update when I get it back hopefully soon..

[MW surveyor]

Man that sxks. I feel for you guys that didn't get a good to go gun out of the box.

[dannyeller]

Good Luck.

But warning, If you have several issues stay on top of it with frequent emails and phone calls to Jay. Keep him going back to the gunsmiths to make sure that "ALL" of the problems ARE addressed and not just one.

I had several issues with my T9 and MK40 during my initial break-in. These were new pistols. They were not the normal break-in issues like some stove pipes or failure to feeds. But serious quality issues like the chamber out of round causing an unusual bulge all the way up the case to about 1/8th inch from the case neck. Also the rear Novak sight kept falling off and I was not able to keep it on even after several attempts to tighten it up and magazines falling out during firing. But I had to send it back several times as they would only address one issue at a time. Cost me a butt load in extra shipping charges.

But after numerous phone calls and emails Kahr finally stood up to the plate and after the last issue was resolved sent the gun directly to Robar on their dime where it met up with my MK40 that was already there for some final custom work.

But the all steel Kahrs are a rare breed and I stuck through it to make two beautiful and practical super reliant quality pistols. They now function without one hick-up in the 300 plus rounds I've put through them since I got them back from Robar last month. I've had only one failure to feed and it was because I did not fully click in the magazine during a reload causing the slide to close on an empty chamber.

At least with a polymer frame you won't have to spend hours grinding and polishing deep machine marks from inside the mag-wells like I did.

Again good luck and hopefully this will help Kahr take a closer look at what the hell their people are actually doing when they put these things together.

You can see the final project and some more info on the issues at: http://kahrtalk.com/showthread.php?t=6557

[TucsonMTB]

I had several issues with my PM40 when I sent it back. The detailed letter with a numbered list of the issues that was included inside the plastic case with the pistol and a second copy in the outer package probably helped, because it went right to the gunsmith along with the pistol.

In any event, everything was addressed. By the way, the detailed list inside the case was Eion's suggestion when I called just before shipping to ask about an item not discussed with Jay originally. I believe it takes some of the pressure off the guys manning the phones if you communicate directly to the gunsmith in a way that makes it easy for him / her to check off the pistols repair progress. A written list worked for me. YMMV ;)

[jocko]

oh no doubt ur right on that tucson, they can't read ones mind. they need a starting point with some background info along with it. Like going to a doctor and tellinghim u have a pain, if you don't tel lhim where he might be looking up ur a-hole.

[edinero]

Don't get mr wrong they fixed the issues I had before but now a new issues arose so I can understand , the symptoms did not begin until after the 4th mag so I wouldn't expect there smith to shoot as much as I did in there test fire.

[dannyeller]

Yep, you're right but that didn't help me.

I included a detailed letter with a list of all the issues along with a printed PPT slide with PICs and subtitles sent in the box as well.

Still took a great deal of time and a whole hell of a lot of effort. I'll post the letters and PDF later after I change them to an up-loadable format later today.

Bottom line is that Kahr needs to fix these issues and start monitoring their quality control people a whole hell of a lot better.

As much as I like the design of the Kahrs I was very close to throwing in the towel on my T9 and MK projects.