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Well, a while back I bought a used P380. The shop let me shoot a few rounds through it and all was good. It fed and ejected without issue plus I was accurate with it.
The bad: fast forward about 50 rounds after I purchased it and I started to get light strikes. I did a quick visual and it appeared that the striker spring had failed.
The shop's new gunsmith verified it and said he'd get a spring on order. I decided to do likewise along with some spare parts. I received my parts in good order from Kahr. That was a good thing because the gunsmith dropped the ball on his order. I installed the new spring, but continued to have some light strikes. I also installed a new striker block. This didn't help with the light strikes, but because it was slightly oversize I ended up with a much better "fit' than with the original part. Another part I ordered was a PM9 striker spring, so I tried it in the P380; shot a quick 30 rounds without a misfire, but the slide would move rearward as I pulled the trigger (heavier striker spring overcoming the recoil spring). I didn't like this, but the results had me thinking the spring might be the issue. I played around with P380 striker spring: stretching it, putting washers between it and the guide rod, I even cut some coils off.
I still had light strikes.
Finally it occurred to me that perhaps the cocking cam was the issue. I thought that it might not be lifting the striker block enough, possibly high enough that the CM9 striker spring could power the striker past it, but not enough for the 380 striker spring. Grasping at straws, I ordered a cocking cam and another 380 striker spring (curiously, this spring proved a little stronger than the first one I received).
(L to R: broken 380 spring, cut down 380 spring, full length 380 spring, PM9 spring)
The ugly; The parts arrived and I proceeded to disassemble the frame. Removing the side plate, I immediately noticed that the bottom screw was not that tight...with the plate off, it looked like both screw holes had been drilled twice...not good.
I decided to deal with that later and continued with the dis-assembly. I made a small, non-marring taper punch from a bamboo chopstick and used this with an arbor press to remove the trigger axis pin (I hold the punch in place during this operation). The press is only needed to start the pin out, once it's past the retaining pin a brass rod can complete the job.
I used a dental pick to pry the cocking cam axis pin up enough to pull it out.
...to be continued
The bad: fast forward about 50 rounds after I purchased it and I started to get light strikes. I did a quick visual and it appeared that the striker spring had failed.
The shop's new gunsmith verified it and said he'd get a spring on order. I decided to do likewise along with some spare parts. I received my parts in good order from Kahr. That was a good thing because the gunsmith dropped the ball on his order. I installed the new spring, but continued to have some light strikes. I also installed a new striker block. This didn't help with the light strikes, but because it was slightly oversize I ended up with a much better "fit' than with the original part. Another part I ordered was a PM9 striker spring, so I tried it in the P380; shot a quick 30 rounds without a misfire, but the slide would move rearward as I pulled the trigger (heavier striker spring overcoming the recoil spring). I didn't like this, but the results had me thinking the spring might be the issue. I played around with P380 striker spring: stretching it, putting washers between it and the guide rod, I even cut some coils off.
I still had light strikes.
Finally it occurred to me that perhaps the cocking cam was the issue. I thought that it might not be lifting the striker block enough, possibly high enough that the CM9 striker spring could power the striker past it, but not enough for the 380 striker spring. Grasping at straws, I ordered a cocking cam and another 380 striker spring (curiously, this spring proved a little stronger than the first one I received).
(L to R: broken 380 spring, cut down 380 spring, full length 380 spring, PM9 spring)
The ugly; The parts arrived and I proceeded to disassemble the frame. Removing the side plate, I immediately noticed that the bottom screw was not that tight...with the plate off, it looked like both screw holes had been drilled twice...not good.
I decided to deal with that later and continued with the dis-assembly. I made a small, non-marring taper punch from a bamboo chopstick and used this with an arbor press to remove the trigger axis pin (I hold the punch in place during this operation). The press is only needed to start the pin out, once it's past the retaining pin a brass rod can complete the job.
I used a dental pick to pry the cocking cam axis pin up enough to pull it out.
...to be continued
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