Gman, could you explain to us exactly what you did to adjust your striker length and how you got it longer.
jfrey
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Gman, could you explain to us exactly what you did to adjust your striker length and how you got it longer.
jfrey
I've said in many posts that I believe the lightstrike problem with Kahrs, (a pretty common complaint), is caused by short strikers. The design specs seem to be too close, too "just enough", offering no over-engineering redundancy. Solving this problem as well as the magazine follower design shortfalls would render the Kahrs near perfect, IMHO.
Mr. Ripley16 I agree!!!
"Short Striker" contributed to my light primer strikes. My reloads sit in the chamber approx. 0.008 deeper than a factory cartridge, due to the slight taper crimp required on a lead bullet. This additional headspace makes the striker "short striker" maybe ?design not reliably lighting off the primer. So the striker gets to bounce the mass of cartridge before its gets backed up by the depth of chambering of 0.910.
This additional reload headspace of in my case 0.008 or a slightly shorter cartridge (0.898) absorb the striker kinetic energy making it sensitive to "harder" primers. Backing up the cartridge movement could also be possibly bullet seating depth in the lands.
Interestingly, my reloads checked in my pistol cartridge gage have exactly the same length as factory cartridges (WWB and Wolf black box Poly steel case). I see the seating depth in the barrel chamber be 0.008 between factory and my reloads, it's not the case length its the slight taper crimp and the cambering shoulder left by the chamber reamer.
How I got a modified the striker to obtain longer striker protrusion. Careful "smithing of the face of the striker shoulder " so stiker body could present the striker pin thru the breech.
What does a new vs a several hundred rounds have and what does a problematic FTF P45 have. My had 0.025 very sensitive to cartridges. I had one response indicated 0.035, others???
It would be great to nail this down, so we could depend on these guns going bang.
Like to see the machine drawings on the striker and slide dimensions, to see what the protrusion is really suppose to be. Machining the depth of striker channel could be a little short or surface burrs could easily take away a crucial 0.005 to 0.010 in that would need to have 200 plus rounds fired to "maybe" make it run reliably. Just a thought
Continued Happy Dance P45, Shot my IDPA match (80 RNDS) yesterday; moving shooting, weak hand, strong hand, rapid all the good situation firing. I'm beginning to trust this firearm for once. All of this fired with my standard reload, (Federal primers, 205 RNFP Bear Creek Black Bullet, 5.7 grains Win 231). Flawless running using all my 4 mags. NEVER WOULD have this gun done this before.
I firmly believe Kahr has a problem with producing short strikers. This is a problem seen in many posts. It is either a striker problem or a breech wall thickness problem. Kahr needs to develope a way to check this before shipping guns.
The only striker fired pistol I've ever shot that was plagued with light strikes is a Kahr. Other manufacturers have designs that work... Kahr needs to address this. Over-engineering is a good quality in firearms. "Just enough" is a poor quality.
Hi, I'm new to the forum. Bought a used P45 with almost no apparent use. Went to the range and had numerous failures to fire except with Hornady Critical Defense 185 Grain 45ACP. Disassembled and ultrasonically cleaned the slide and all its components, but there was no change. Read the thread on this forum and did some measuring. The striker protrudes past the breachface by .024" and the chamber as measured from the hood to the step where the rifling begins measures .909". (I realize both of these are .001" off, but that's what it measured as I measured it.) I measured from the hood to the cartridge face on twenty of the Hornady loads and all measured between .004" - .006". I have shot 60 rounds of this ammo and every round fed, fired & cycled. I measured my reloads the same way. These reloads work flawlessly in one single action revolver, two double action revolvers, three various size Colt 1911s and a Springfield XD. The measurements were from .005" - .015", with the vast majority being .012" - .015". These rounds were firing less than 50% of the time on the first strike, although if rotated and fired they did sometimes work.
I believe Gman is right about the critical nature of the head spacing and striker length. I hate to think how long I would have worked to figure this out by myself. I will try gunsmithing the firing pin to protrude .010" further, but not until I order a stock one to have in reserve. My thanks to those in the forum who did the leg work on this.
for sure get a new striker and order a new striker spring while ur doing it . I would also test out ur gun with new factory ball ammo to see how things goes. not saying it is ur reloads but workng perfect with new hornady ammo and not ur reloads might give some indication it could be ammo related. I would be surprised if the striker u have is out of spec but get a new one and then measure both and u will know...
You may find that the slide's hole is tapered, and similarly there is a radius to the shoulder on the striker...
The striker itself may be hardened. Did it file easily or did you sand it/grind it/buff it with a craytex wheel?
What is the total firing pin protrusion at this point?
and anudder thing
Who says you need a slight taper crimp on lead bullets?
The expansion ball should be sized to expand the brass to allow a snug fit on the bullet - jacketed or lead, either way. Some lead bullets very - but the real fix is not the crimp, but instead, the expander ball.
The taper crimp was designed to turn in the flare needed to start the bullet. The case and bullet should not be "resized" as a unit with the taper crimp - which can happen!
A small straight edge, and you'll see how much crimp is actually _not_ needed!~ :o
I did try 230 grain factory ball ammo (American Eagle by Federal and Aluminum cased Blazer by CCI). I also tried 230 grain Remington Golden Saber hollowpoints. All worked better than my reloads, but none were 100% like the Hornady Critical Defense 185 grain ammo. Unfortunately, I hadn't read this thread, so I wasn't smart enough to check the headspacing before I ran through all that ammo. I did order two new striker and recoil springs which should come next week. Also, I will have to learn some more about reloading to see if I can make reliable practice ammo for the Kahr.