P380 New frame, wont eject unfired rounds-its fixed now!

[rogerthedodger]

I have put about 150 rounds thru it in 2 range sessions. After cleaning it today, I decided to polish the barrel hood and chamber. I then loaded one live round to check out if it would feed a brand I have had probs with, and when I tried to eject the live round, the slide would not go back far enough to eject the round and lock open. I had to hold it open with one hand, and push the round out the bottom. Then the slide goes back far enough to lock open.I tried several brands of ammo, the flat nosed wwb ejects, the blazer(independence) wont. Any help out there?
Roger

[TominCA]

Check your recoil springs for proper installation - Can you lock the slide back?

[rogerthedodger]

Check your recoil springs for proper installation - Can you lock the slide back?
The gun is functioning correctly, will lock back empty, fires rounds correctly, this is only when trying to eject an unfired round, and only some brands ie WWB flat nose ejects, Blazer will not, hangs up on edge of barrel overhange. Another member here has had similar probs, had to send CW40 back for repairs. I am hoping for a field fix, dont want to wait another 10 weeks for repair and return. Thanks for response TominCA.
Roger

[DaveInCA]

I had the same issue. Lube the barrel hood and the underside of the slide well, they rub and you might have cleaned the lubrication off when you polished it. I used grease but oil will work fine.
Mine bound up tight, I thought it was hitting something.

[rogerthedodger]

DaveInCA, I did lube the barrel hood. No Help. I think it has more to do with the clearance of the unfired round to barrel extension when round tries to eject, some brands work and some dont. Thanks for the help.
Roger

[OldLincoln]

If it's hanging up on the barrel I suspect it may not be getting the full extension of the slide. What happens if you rack it back and lock it? If still hung up we need to dig into it further, but my hope is it that simple fix. Please let us know.

PS: The usual safety warning! Please don't get distracted and get you finger anywhere near the trigger. :)

[rogerthedodger]

It cannot lock back with an unfired round, because the round tip is hitting on the corner of the barrel, and the slide is bound up, and will not go further back. Apparently it is minimal clearance because some brands work and some dont. Another forum member, Husky44 had a similar prob with a CW40, sent it back for repair, and someone else had the same prob with their CW40 and filed a little off the barrel extension, allowing the round to eject.

[rogerthedodger]

PS: The usual safety warning! Please don't get distracted and get you finger anywhere near the trigger. :)

I probably wont mess with it too much until I get some snap caps and see if it fails with them. I worry about AD's, thank you.:eek:

[OldLincoln]

I know it's right up there with "Don't drink your coffee too hot", but ....

[rogerthedodger]

Yea, who knows, maybe I'll get used to holding the slide back with one hand while poking the unfired round out the bottom with my other. Maybe I will get good enough to catch the round before it drops from the magazine hole and drops onto the ground. LOL:cool:
Roger

[KahrOwner]

The gun is functioning correctly, will lock back empty, fires rounds correctly, this is only when trying to eject an unfired round, and only some brands ie WWB flat nose ejects, Blazer will not, hangs up on edge of barrel overhange. Another member here has had similar probs, had to send CW40 back for repairs. I am hoping for a field fix, dont want to wait another 10 weeks for repair and return. Thanks for response TominCA.
Roger

This was how I noticed the issue on the left side of the breech area with mine. It was VERY difficult to manually eject an unfired round - it was sticking on that surface there because (at least on mine) there was a lot of roughness, tightness and machine tool swirl marks.

I removed the slide and inserted a round under the ejector - then pushing it the same way that the round is actually ejected by the rod you can feel the roughness and the tightness. Mine was catching.

So, I polished mine up with a hand cut stick that I made for the job, some elbow grease and Flitz polish (I may even do this again with a little light filing as some tool swirl marks still remain) and I added a tiny lick of grease to finish.

Unfired rounds all now eject very smoothly just like they should.

This thing is just badly made and Kahr seem to be quite incompetent to me - but now that I have accepted all that I am becoming more interested in trying to fix it myself.

Bob

[OldLincoln]

Okay, so the bullet nose is in the chamber, the rim under the extractor and it hits the ejector and hangs preventing the slide from locking? Sorry I'm so dense but I haven't heard of a situation where the round feeds and fires normally, but you cannot lock the slide back by hand. Can you lock it back with a mag still in the gun? Then while still locked back drop the mag? Are you putting enough pressure on the slide to lock it back?

I know this has to frustrate you but it is brand new to me. Maybe not Greg or Jocko, but it is to me.

[rogerthedodger]

Ok, now it is ejecting those unfired rounds which before I worked on it, wouldn't. I decided to put the "original" recoil spring set in it. These are the springs which came with the gun, and they sent me new ones, when I had lite strikes. The problem as I now see it, when the slide retracts, the spring takes up too much space, causing the barrel to retract less, and the round catches on the barrel when rejecting. The old spring, when compressed, is taking up less space, allowing the barrel to retract more, allowing the round to eject. Now, if the gun will fuction with the original spring?? I will go to the range and find out. Stay tuned to this station. LOL
Roger

[KahrOwner]

Ok, now it is ejecting those unfired rounds which before I worked on it, wouldn't. I decided to put the "original" recoil spring set in it. These are the springs which came with the gun, and they sent me new ones, when I had lite strikes. The problem as I now see it, when the slide retracts, the spring takes up too much space, causing the barrel to retract less, and the round catches on the barrel when rejecting. The old spring, when compressed, is taking up less space, allowing the barrel to retract more, allowing the round to eject. Now, if the gun will fuction with the original spring?? I will go to the range and find out. Stay tuned to this station. LOL
Roger

Check the left breech area as I mentioned (where the left rim of the round contacts the breech block).

If you have crappy unfinished machining there (eg. rough/sharp edges, cutter swirl marks etc) just as I had then it is well worth polishing that area up to improve case ejection smoothness.

My own pistol ejects much more smoothly now which you can really feel when testing the ejection process slowly (manually).

Adding a tiny smear of grease helps too. And also check the bottom edges of your slide for scratches - I also found tooling/cutter marks there on mine which can add friction and cause stovepipes.

I think that these rough unfinished areas that I am finding are a big part of Kahr's P380 problems - on such a tiny pistol with such tight tolerances the parts need to be precision made like a Swiss watch to work together smoothly and reliably.

But (at least in mine) they just aren't.

Presumably their prototype P380 actually worked but I'll bet that it had smooth polished edges everywhere.

IMO, they get away with this poor manufacturing in the PM9 model because the 9mm round has a lot more energy (which masks these friction issues) and because the tolerances are not quite so critical in the bigger pistol.

Bob

[rogerthedodger]

I see the area you are talking about. I think I will do some more polishing in that area also, but it would be easier if the extractor were removed.
I went to the range today, and this gun performed the best it has ever performed, a range report to follow in a new thread.
Thanks to all for the help.
Roger

[KahrOwner]

I see the area you are talking about. I think I will do some more polishing in that area also, but it would be easier if the extractor were removed.
I went to the range today, and this gun performed the best it has ever performed, a range report to follow in a new thread.
Thanks to all for the help.
Roger

This is encouraging. I'll buy some more .380 and retest mine after some more polishing.

I'm also going to polish (or file) out those tooling marks and scratches on the bottom of my slide and wherever else I can find them.

I think that this is just the result of sloppy manufacturing tolerances (which may be OK in much larger pistols - but this one is really small).

It is just a bit sad to me that Kahr seem quite useless at debugging these issues for us.

Bob