P45 break in report

[ptoemmes]

After three weeks of fondling the beast I finally got some time away from end of year work to run the first 200 rounds through it. Yeah - did the pre-clean and manual break in per the "tech sticky".

Gun shoots where you point it and my skills are not - yet - up to the ability of this fine piece. Got to work on not pressing the mag release with right thumb (right handed) under fire - doh!

200 rounds of Remington UMC 230 grain "white box" value pack practice ammo. I had one stove pipe on a single round re-load from a mag using the slide release (get to that in a bit). Otherwise no failures to load or failures to eject (don't have my FT acronyms down yet). No forehead impacts of ejected casings. Both mags drop clean.

The recoil was much less than I had expected - only ever fired 9mm full size pistols prior - and towards the end follow-ups were becoming more natural. No cheese grater hand effect.

Still have a bit of technique to work on.

The only problem was about 12 or so failures to fire. My son was with me and he's much better versed in this stuff than me. I concur with him that most appeared to be legitimate light strikes based on a visual of the primer of the "problem" rounds. Two or three looked, visually, as if they should have fired - the strike mark was maybe marginal. The rest - definitely light strikes. In all cases the round fired on a reload so we are thinking probably not bad rounds. It was here that I got the one stove pipe the one and only time I reloaded with a single round from a mag. I'm thinking that's a no worry corner case. No real pattern to the failure to fire round count - sometime the fist round, more often in the middle, once at least the last round in a mag. I think, but cannot swear, that on each I felt/heard a click. I do believe there was a trigger break on each.

I will say that I had no failures to fire in the last 50 - or so - rounds. Just in the first 150 - so call it 12 out of the fist 150.

So, what say you about the light strike failures to fire? Expected break-in period stuff?

SHe gets a good cleaning tomorrow and then based on what you all say next up would be to run some SD ammo though it: thinking Speer GD 230gr short barrel and Cor Bon 185 gr DPX

Thanks,

Pete

[ripley16]

...Remington UMC...
This ammo is the brand that has generated many light-strike reports, myself included, therefore I'd suggest they use harder than normal primers. Switch to a different brand of practice ammo, say Blazer or WWB, and see if the problem disappears.

[WMD]

Ptoemmes,

Are you sure you are letting the trigger fully reset? After firing a round, you need to let the trigger move all the way back to its most forward position. If you don't you will experience what seems to be a light hit.

I have experienced this issue. Especially after firing a lot of rounds and my hand got tired. Kahrs have long trigger pulls. After firing a shot, I was still pressing the trigger a bit not letting it move all the way forward to reset.

In terms of ammo, I myself have never had any issues with Remington UMC in 45 caliber. Apparently, others have had issues. Interestingly enough, I have had issues with CCI Blazer and WWB! :D Ammo is manufactured in "lots". A particular "lot" could have an issue while others are OK.

If you are truly seeing light primer stikes, give Kahr a call and have them look at the gun. They will fix it right up for you. Good luck and kkeep us posted.

[gb6491]

Nice report:) Thank you for the time and effort involved with writing it.
If you haven't done so, I'd like to suggest that you break the slide down (http://kahrtalk.com/showthread.php?t=197) when you do the good cleaning and give the striker channel particular attention.:boink:
Regards,
Greg

[jocko]

for sure take the slide down or at least use tat little clean out hole on the bottom of th e slide to spray clean that striker channel area. It sounds like more rounds down range are smoothin things out to. I think I would give it another 100+ fmj rounds before getting ito the expensive defense ammo, ake sur ethe gun is runing right first, eliminate some of the possables that the members here suggested u look at..

[Bill K]

Great that you finally got around to firing your P45. Would have liked to have read that the first time out was without issue. But hey, you've come to the right place for help and I see above that you've already gotten plenty of advice. Great motivation to get back out with your P45 ASAP.

[ptoemmes]

Thanks all.

ripely - gonna try some Win WB. My son did mention rem had hard primers and seemed to think that, generally, hard primers are better?! I dunno - just gonna find something it likes 99.999999% of the time and then find similarly reliable SD ammo.

WMD - certainly might have not have allowed the trigger to reset more than once. Technique. I did forget to mention that the very first round went - click - though it showed a primer strike that my son and I though should have gone bang. Reloaded that round and it did go bang. With such a "bad" start it could only get better and I think, on balance, it did.

greg/jocko - okay you made me do it. I went in - disassembled the striker assembly and did a Mr. Clean on it. Got it back together: it "cycles" snap caps - can only hope it feeds, goes bang, and ejects later in the week for real. That took some prayin' on my part - there are some small precision parts in there - some spring loaded - as you know. I did not obviously see any brass/copper shavings, but it was wet and a bit gunky in the channel. I must confess I probably messed up a bit on the initial clean-n-lube and got the striker channel wet and striker assembly too wet. That channel is BONE DRY now and we are now to the letter with the lube sticky. Probably my imagination, but post-reassembly moving the striker spring - that safety check in the manual - seemed smoother. That's my story and I am sticking to it.

Oh - and the coat hanger spring keeper "invention" - brilliant ripley, simply brilliant.

Pete