P40 Will Not Eject Loaded Round, Stuck Between Barrel Hood & Ejector - Fixed!
I own many Kahr pistols in 9 and 40. They are my everyday carry and I am usually well pleased. I gave my son a Kahr P40 and after operationally testing it, I certified it fit for duty carry. The first thing he did upon receipt was attempt to unload the pistol so that his young son could touch it. Shazam! A loaded stoppage with the round stuck between the ejector and the barrel hood. Not a problem with shorter FMJ practice ammunition, but was an issue with high end Remington and Federal self defense ammo (a tad longer).
I studied a YouTube video and then surmised that there may be two ways to skin the cat. The other guy did surgery on his barrel hood, motor grinding some of it away until the loaded round cleared. I thought the ejector could be too long (Spoiler The Ejector Was Too Long).
I shortened the P40 ejector with a small file. Long Skinny flat metal ejector pinned into the plastic frame. I was careful not to scratch the polymer frame by inserting plastic between the ejector and the frame so the file would only work to shorten the ejector. A couple of thousandths of an inch shorter ejector provided for more room for the loaded cartridge case to eject past the barrel hood. Problem Fixed! About 30 short strokes with the small file and a slight rounding of the flat ejector towards the pistol center to provide another thousandth and all is well. The Kahr is back up!
That was easy with no signs of forced violence.
BTW, this malfunction is insidious because it is hard to detect in the normal range operation of shorter FMJ and no malfunctions were incurred with the Self Defense carry ammo until live ammunition was attempted to be ejected. I will modify my pistol testing to include a loaded for duty carry eject each round test to avoid this issue which I had never witnessed before. That is why I am sharing this story ... because I thought I had seen it all.
A malfunction with the longer Self Defense ammo like failure to fire and remedial action "Tap Rack Bang" and the pistol would be down hard (loaded round stuck between barrel hood and ejector) until you applied a screwdriver to lever on the loaded case to eject it. Try doing that in the dark under stress.
In this case, I declare that Kahr built a faulty pistol with a slightly out of specifications ejector that allowed me an very easy fix.
Those that cry shoot it more (200 rounds brake in) don't know.
Cheers.
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