Another soon to be P380 owner

[JayinAZ]

Howdy,

I was looking for a nice .380 pocket gun and found several good reviews of the P380. so I stopped by Cabela's a couple weeks ago just to look at one. They had them on sale for $475 which was the cheapest I'd found anywhere. I didn't have it all so put it on layaway. Then I started finding th horror stories online. Funny how that works. Anyway I'll be picking it up tomorrow and will do the recommended prep, then try running 2 or 300 rounds through. I hope I get a good one :).

[JFootin]

We all hope so, too! :) Welcome to the forum!

[jocko]

fingers are crossed:

for sure go to the kahr tech section ahd hit onb two good stickys before going out with that gun.

#1 kahr lube chart

#2 propper prepping of ur new kahr

keep us posted.

[LMT42]

Based on my limited experience, I'd recommend cleaning your gun after every hundred rounds during the break-in. I had lots of shavings in mine after the first few outings. I think anything more than a hundred may be a waste of ammo. If I ever break in another Kahr, I'll probably clean it after every fifty rounds. I don't think it does much good to keep running them when they're full of crud. Just my little observation.

[garflys]

Theres a reason that there selling at this price. Wish you the best.

[yqtszhj]

Even with the stories if they hit $400 I may get one too. Then if there is an issue invest in getting it running good. A micro .380 with a good trigger would be nice. I'd sell my LCP w/ CT to help finance it.

[JayinAZ]

Ok, I took it out today. I got home later than planned since it it takes about an hour to get through Cabela's process. I field stripped it and cleaned it, then lubed it up per the diagram in the Tech forum. I didn't rack the slide a full 500 times but I did give it a few dozen. I was running out of daylight.

Then I headed down to the local shooting spot in the desert. Conditions were far from ideal. The temperature was a perfect 80 degrees but the wind was blowing 30-35 mph and the air was full of dust despite last night's rain.

I shot about 300 rounds through it. The first 100 were Magtech FMJ. I had 4 premature lock backs and 4 FTRB. I also accidentally dropped the mag twice until I figured out where my thumb should be. The next 100 were WWB. By round 130 I wasn't getting any more lock backs and could run through 2 or 3 mags straight without a FTRB. No actual FTF during the whole session, btw. No light strikes either. One stovepipe when I shot weak hand unsupported, I'm pretty sure that was my fault. Next up was 24 rounds of Federal "Classic" JHP that I had. It did not like those very well, several FTRB. Then about 30 Speer GD, which it ate no problem. Then a dozen Hornady Critical Defense which went through fine. And finally I shot another box of WWB. I had one lock back but I think I caused it. The pistol was also quite dirty by this time and my hands were getting tired. But the last 40 rounds or so I fired straight through the pistol as fast as I could pull the trigger, with no malfunctions.

Throughout the session I kept refining my grip on the gun and I think it helped. The serial number on this one is RB9XXX. I'll try to take it out again this week, maybe Friday, and go to a real range and actually see how accurate it is. It seemed fine but it was really a pretty poor day for shooting here. Overall I believe I got a good one as it certainly did smooth out as I went on. A little more testing (and practice) and I think it will be good to go.

[JFootin]

Man, that's great to hear! You got a good one. A real beautiful gem of a pistol when its right.

[roscoguy]

I was looking for a nice .380 pocket gun and found several good reviews of the P380. Then I started finding th horror stories online. Funny how that works.
With some details removed that was pretty much my story, too. I thought I'd done extensive research online which ruled out several other pocket .380s. I then decided on P380 because nearly everything I read, as well as accounts from shooters I met at a local range, was positive. I ended up buying an unfired gun from a user of another forum. He was offering an excellent price for a package deal including a CT laser, 2 holsters & 200 rds of ammo.
Then I stumbled across a bunch of posts (not here) detailing recurring problems. :( The jury is still out, but 2 of 3 trips to the range were very satisfactory! The 2nd range session had me pretty worried, with a couple of premature slide lock-backs & about 5 or 6 ejection failures.
I'm not ready to give up, but it'll take a few more trouble-free range sessions before I'll be ready to trust this as my everyday carry.

Oh BTW, I'm another new guy here. Hello to all from roscoguy! :biggrin1:

[Bill K]

Welcome to the forum!

Best of luck with your P380. Prepare for the worst and hope for the best. A reliable pocket .380 will be a joy to own.

[TominCA]

I wouldn't worry too much - some of them do have problems but if you look at the posts most of the really bad ones get running. Remember, for every bad post here there are probably 500 or 1000 p380's that are perfect. I came to this forum only because of p380 problems - ended up staying an buying 3 more Kahrs. The other three were good. The original p380 got fixed and is now 100%.

But, you should do the sticky's and prep your p380 because the steel on these little pistols is so hard they take a loooong time to wear in.

[jocko]

oh contrare. one out of 500. no way. if that was true we would be sound praises big time. I realize we read bad stuff first as tha tis what some people come to fourms to do also but the P380 is a problem child, their maj\or major recent changes has even shown this jto be true. I wish u were right Tom, u finally got ur running right. others here are atill hoping for ur results...

They got a problem, sure they are workng on it but many thousands are out there now that are marginal at best. Most buyers also don't know what we know about the P380 either...

[roscoguy]

I wouldn't worry too much - some of them do have problems but if you look at the posts most of the really bad ones get running. Remember, for every bad post here there are probably 500 or 1000 p380's that are perfect. I came to this forum only because of p380 problems - ended up staying an buying 3 more Kahrs. The other three were good. The original p380 got fixed and is now 100%.

But, you should do the sticky's and prep your p380 because the steel on these little pistols is so hard they take a loooong time to wear in.
Yep, read those & they pretty much say the same as what I had been doing already. I've also stoned some burrs & sharp edges and buffed other areas. After my 1st session, I actually over-lubed & probably caused most or all of the errors myself.
Went back to minimal lube for the 3rd trip to the range & everything was perfect! I'm not sure if this could have effected anything, but I used PMC Bronze ammo the 1st & 2nd times and went with WWB for the 3rd.

Note to JayinAZ (http://kahrtalk.com/member.php?u=7531): really sorry if I hijacked this thread. :o

[garflys]

Hey Tom now you want to say its the hard steel, you must be kidding. And to say there are thousands that run right, you are living in Kahrland. I call it as I see it. The gun got major problems. I didnt start having problems until I had about 8 or 9 hundred rounds. you can make all the excuses you want but it still has major problems. I do hope they get it right as it is a very nice gun when it works. Good luck to all the p380 owners.

[JayinAZ]

I don't think I'd call it hijacking, we're still talking about P380s :).

Still hoping to take it out again tomorrow.


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[KahrOwner]

Howdy,

I was looking for a nice .380 pocket gun and found several good reviews of the P380. so I stopped by Cabela's a couple weeks ago just to look at one. They had them on sale for $475 which was the cheapest I'd found anywhere. I didn't have it all so put it on layaway. Then I started finding th horror stories online. Funny how that works. Anyway I'll be picking it up tomorrow and will do the recommended prep, then try running 2 or 300 rounds through. I hope I get a good one :).

Good luck Jay! I have a feeling that you are going to need it. You can read my experiences in other recent P380 threads posted here.

Personally I have decided that this particular pistol is not something that I would want to be using if my life actually depended on it unless I had NO other choice of firearm.

Which really makes this pistol useless to me. I need to feel very confident that the thing will work when it is needed and in the case of my P380 I simply DO NOT.

You should have contacted me - I would have beaten that Cabela's price by a wide margin (and my pistol is almost new with mostly new parts since returning from Kahr's repair folks).

Bob