P380 Saga Continues...Three times a charm?

[racuda]

I bought a P380, serial RA37XX, in January 2010. I was plagued with FTE's, FTF's (both kinds) and light strikes. I persisted in trying to "break it in" going well beyond 200 rounds.

I sent it to Kahr, on their dime, and a week or so later it was returned. The same problems continued with the same frequency. Whatever they did made no difference.

I contacted them again and returned the gun once more. This time they replaced most of the parts including the frame, serial RC02XX. This time there was an improvement. No more failures to feed, or eject. No more jams. The light primer strikes however continued.

I can fire a dozen rounds problem free. In the next two dozen there will invariably be three or four or six rounds that will not fire due to light strikes.

Again I contacted Kahr. I suggested that if they would send me a set of recoil springs and striker spring I would happily replace them. Rather than send the springs they offered to give me a prepaid label so that I could return the firearm for a third time.

Hopefully it will come back and be reliable this time. Wish me luck!

[JodyH]

Mine is headed back after its second frame replacement, I don't have high expectations for it.
If it doesn't work this time I'm going to push for a PM9 as a replacement.

[HadEmAll]

Mine is gone for the 3rd time, first time for a new frame.

Funny, in 1K+ rounds, I've never had a light strike, or a failure to feed. Premature slide lockbacks went away very early on when I removed a small amount of steel from the slide stop.

My persistent problem is stovepipes with anything weaker than Gold Dot 90 gr JHP, and Corbon 90 gr JHP. And lousy/inconsistent ejection with those.

Hope it comes back better, and not worse. New frames don't seem to be the cureall for everybody that gets one.

You don't suppose they're just swapping frames from one returned P380 to another, and renumbering them..........?

Nah, that couldn't be.

[jocko]

that wouldnot make sense. I don't think kahr is out to fool anyone. I just don't think they have a handle yet on the issue but that is from me who knows little of what theya re actually doing to. We can speculate that is all. Hopefull ur 380 will come back this time RIGHT.

For me I think 3 times back is 2 times tomany, and i would not shoot thegun when I got it back but I would trade it, take my lumps and move on. I love kahrs but I ain['t married to them. Loed my first wife to, but couldn't get her right either so I peddleds her..Life is not a bit-h.

[Kenjs2]

Jocko,
To the best of your knowledge has anyone ever returned a faulty pistol, after many trips back home, and requested and got a full refund?

[teammazza]

I have a Kahr CW9 and it works great and is my CCW. My p380 is back at Kahr and once I get it back im trading it for another gun. People say don't believe what you read online, well i did that by buying the p380 and I paid for it. Now I see all the problems with the .40s and the .45s. Now thank you im not touching them. Stick with 9mm when it comes to Kahr.

[jocko]

Jocko,
To the best of your knowledge has anyone ever returned a faulty pistol, after many trips back home, and requested and got a full refund?

never heard of it being done, I would think thaty will not do that for fear of a pandemic return of guns that might have an issue but are fixable and the owner feels he should get his money back. NOt just referring the the P380 even, I feel these companies will not cross that line. I have seen after many trips back a new gun being issued but that is rare, if that was the case I would ask for a PM9 or CM9 and let them keep the P380. they could do that , but again I doubt if they will cross that line either.

Lets face it Kahr has a real problem with the P380 and we owners have areal problem also. In time they will (I hope) get this thing rightbut in the meantime kahr isgonna get alot of bad press over this little gun. Do I trust my P380 that ahs been back once and since been OK. NO and I need to put acouple hundred rounds down range with no issues to regain my confidence in ths little gun. I never carry it, I own it and it works great and with bogt dot night sights on it and a grip stipplying job done on\ it I do love the gun but I just don't have the confidence in it that I feelgood about. I outta trade it for somthing I feel good about but I don't see to many 380's out thereI feel good about.

[DaveInCA]

You don't suppose they're just swapping frames from one returned P380 to another, and renumbering them..........?

Nah, that couldn't be.

Can you think of any downside to posting the serial numbers of our frames that were replaced, we don't own them anymore? The stamped tab is molded in, and I think there would be obvious damage if the tried to replace it. I mean, they can't be cheap to make, and if they were "tested" and "certified OK" would a manufacturer re-use them? My first frame was RC080x, second was RC367x and now I have a RC19xx. They jump around quite a bit.

[HadEmAll]

So Dave, you have a current frame numbered lower than the 2nd frame you had?

That is interesting.

[LMT42]

Dave, please post your serial numbers in the below thread. I'd like to see it stay alive to see if there's a pattern in frame replacements.

http://www.kahrtalk.com/showthread.php?t=8708

[racuda]

that wouldnot make sense. I don't think kahr is out to fool anyone. I just don't think they have a handle yet on the issue but that is from me who knows little of what theya re actually doing to. We can speculate that is all. Hopefull ur 380 will come back this time RIGHT.

For me I think 3 times back is 2 times tomany, and i would not shoot thegun when I got it back but I would trade it, take my lumps and move on. I love kahrs but I ain['t married to them. Loed my first wife to, but couldn't get her right either so I peddleds her..Life is not a bit-h.

Jocko, does this represent a change in attitude? I've seen you say lots of times not to worry, that Kahr will make it right.

When I first got the gun there were hiccups that I attributed to "break in pains". I didn't begrudge the $80 for night sights since I expected it to be perfect after break in. Now I'm deeply invested with $1000 in the gun, sights and ammo.

I know it's crazy, but I've even tried to justify keeping the gun based on the fact that (after the frame replacement) it has never failed to fire the first six rounds. That's enough for self defense. Right? Never mind, I said it was crazy.

[KahrOwner]

Marketing and selling something that really doesn't work properly is really fooling people in my book. I just don't buy the "you got a lemon" suggestion any more - where are all these working P380's?

(The only people who claim to have one of these also say that they are shooting like about 20-30 trouble-free rounds or so).

I'm thinking more and more that after I quit with this P380 thing all the pain will end.

I'm usually very careful about my big $$$ purchases but this time I think that I have just screwed up in a major way. But, I have to hand it to them - cleverly sold Mr Kahr! Yes, you fooled me.

I even saw some videos where guys were saying that this P380 was a good pistol and so I thought that I'd done my homework on it.

Oh well - lesson learned (at least I hope so), IMO Kahr sucks!

They may eventually debug this thing but I'm not about to buy 1000's more rounds of .380 while they do their belated R&D on this problem.

What does 3 frame changes tell you? These are not lemons they are the result of some basic design flaws combined with a cheap manufacturing process and almost zero quality control.

Bob

[JFootin]

Marketing and selling something that really doesn't work properly is really fooling people in my book. I just don't buy the "you got a lemon" suggestion any more - where are all these working P380's?

(The only people who claim to have one of these also say that they are shooting like about 20-30 trouble-free rounds or so).

I believe that a large percentage of handguns are purchased and NEVER fired. I can't guess what that percentage is, but it is large. This idea might not have occurred to anyone here on the forum because that idea is off the radar to people who love to shoot their guns—a lot, and many others who take the possession of and carry of a firearm seriously enough to insist on a lot of range time and a lot of ammo being used to keep owner and gun ready for action.

This said, it seems that among the P380 owners who have actually been shooting their guns, there are major problems with the gun. Kahr must have a good idea of the percentages of shooters and non-shooters in the general handgun owners population. So they must know that this gun is a POS to maybe a majority of the actual shooters who own them. Among posters on this forum, for every one person who says they own one and it is flawless, there are a bunch or people having problems, multiple and prolonged and repeated problems. In fact, it seems that most of the ones with flawless guns say they have been back to the factory at least once before working consistently.

It really is way past time for Kahr to pull the P380 off the market until they can solve these problems. And they need to come across with some generous remuneration for these people who have spent over $1000 and months of frustration, now left with a gun that they can in no way trust—on a case by case basis.

[garflys]

you guys hit the nail on the head, p380 is a pos and maybe some work but i agree that most, dont shoot them as much as they should. no its not a range gun but you sure as hell want to be able to shoot a few thousand rounds if its a carry gun. there are people here say no more then 50 rds at a time? Its a gun not a fashion statement.Kahr should make good on all those not working. Who has ever heard of 2 and 3 frames being replaced. jmo