My "repaired" P380 range report....

[KahrOwner]

So, I finally got to the range this evening with my P380 as returned "repaired" by Kahr.

Here is my range report - but first, the complete info from the docket accompanying the pistol which said (problem description seemed to be missing a few details from my letter):

Problem Reported:

INSPECT BARREL FTFEED STOVEPIPING FAILS TO RETURN TO BATTERY 1 MAG

Action Taken:

REPLACED FRAME WITH NEW S/N XXXXXX, SLIDE STOP, RECOIL SPRING, EJECTOR, EXTRACTOR. POLISHED FEED RAMP. LUBED TEST FIRED GOOD.


So.... I took my P380 to the range with 200 rounds of Winchester White Box .380 ammunition. I was less concerned with accuracy as I really wanted instead to see if things had improved.

In short things had improved - but only slightly. First the good news:

The problem with rounds getting stuck part of the way into the chamber has been completely resolved.

The problem with things deteriorating rapidly as the pistol fouls up (with only a few shots!) also seems to be completely resolved.

The problem where the slide needed to be nudged forward had almost completely resolved (now I only needed to do this once in all two hundred shots).

Now for the bad news:

- I had four or five failures to eject (including 2 stovepipes).

- I had 3 or 4 occasions where the slide locked open with ammo still remaining. This is a completely new problem! It WAS ABSOLUTELY NOT caused by my fingers touching or brushing the lever.

- I had one or two occasions where the tip of the bullet got stuck on the feed ramp (So... WWB ammo has a flat nose - which might have contributed to this new issue. Well... maybe).

So, on average I am still having about one issue for every 20 or so shots. THIS IS WAAAAY TOO UNRELIABLE FOR MY PURPOSES BUT SOME FOLKS MIGHT BE OK WITH IT.

My pistol however is better than it was before and I feel like I can sell it with a full disclosure of the facts and possibly still find a buyer.

VERY DISAPPOINTED IN KAHR OVERALL.

I'm guessing that the factory guy fired a couple of shots.

Bob

[jocko]

I wish I could say somethng to make u feel better about ths but u did all u can, so IMO PEDDLE IT.

[KahrOwner]

IMO there are some very fundamental design flaws with this pistol. Tolerances are just waaaay too tight for it to ever be reliable.

I suspect that it might be an example of what can go wrong if you simply shrink down one of your existing designs on a computer screen and then tell your CNC machines to go ahead and make it.

IMO that approach ignores some basic physics.

Bob

[KahrOwner]

I wanted to add that I am also seeing another new problem with my "fixed" P380 - the firing pin is (only now) often left protruding and as I discovered it can then jam up solid on the next round and lock everything up tight. The only way to free it seems to be with the magazine removed.

This problem often happens with my P380 now on the very first round if the trigger was pulled at all with the pistol empty and it has been reported elsewhere on this board - along with a possible fix(es).

That's a pretty serious problem IMO if you had been carrying this thing and then tried to rack the slide to chamber a round in a real emergency (I guess one solution is to carry it with a round in the chamber).

But all things considered this P380 pistol is really becoming a bit of a bad joke in my eyes - I only hope that nobody gets hurt.

I don't care how good the other Kahr models are they are only p'ing off and losing potential future customers with this serious bit of junk. How can they manage to pack so many problems into one tiny pistol?

Let us hope that nobody (eg. off-duty officer) gets killed pulling out this junk in a genuine emergency.

You might be better off handing it to the bad guy and then running away while he tries to get it to work :eek:

Bob