? about plating coming off feed ramp and chamber on PM9.

[Singlestack_9mm]

Yes, I can feel the difference. I feel a "rough spot" and a small amount of resistance when I run an object over the area. Also, the spots are not circular. I just used the "head of a pin" comparison because I couldn't think of anything else that small. One of the spots is sort of like the number '8'. I studied your photo's and even though my flaking is smaller, it is definitely flaking of the nickel coating.

I appreciate your feedback. Even though I am hoping it won't continue, I am sort of expecting that it will. I know Kahr says it is cosmetic, but I can't help by think that the increased resistance is not good. After a number of rounds, I would think that particles could accumulate in the divots and that can't be any good. I may check with Kahr. Since my slide is already in there for night sights, this may be a good time to go ahead and switch the barrels.

Thanks again for your help!!!!!!

The 3 replacement barrels I received all showed heavy flaking within 200 rounds. All of my replacement barrels upon inspection before firing any rounds through them had imperfections in the chambers and one had imperfections on the feed ramp.These spots were slightly rough, IMHO they are a plating imperfection during manifacturing. Once I fired these barrels the spots did not change in size or shape, but I did get lots of flaking in other parts of the chamber that was not noticeable when new. My guess is you had these spots in your chamber from day one and in my case they did not get any worse. I have a 1000 rounds down with this flaking condition with no issues. The only reason I replaced my first barrel was because the flaking was on the feed ramp which IMHO could be a issue. The chambers seam to have a lot of clearance. After my 3rd replacement barrel I gave up and I don't want to burn up any more of my defense ammo. I will try again sometime down the road when they have this behind them. Since my gun fires reliably, I'm not to worried about it.

[wagon]

Interesting update, Singlestack.

I think Kahr should eliminate the plating requirement in their spec to get this monkey off the back -- that is, if it is indeed only to serve a cosmetic purpose.

Otherwise this is going to NOT only give them a bad rep, this is gonna affect customer confidence, as well as increase their cost due to warranty service to a bad "non-functional and cosmetic only" feature in their product. End-result, we the customers will pay more to bear their high operating costs... may be we are already paying for it.....

[jocko]

single stack has had more problems than any one person deserves. that being said kahr has been nickel plating there guns since day one and that has to be over 20 years, and this is the first issue of flaking on their barrels. It is a vendor issue and no doubt there are still more out there that will do it. Nickel plating is not cosmetic their comment to that to me is ridicoulos in that they are saying it will not harm functionality, which I believe it will not but nickel plating is more durable finish (when done properly) produces less corrosion and cleans easier. It has it purpose far more than a cosmetic thing.
the military when they introduced the AR's in the Nam era, had to replace all their barrel with nickel plated barrels to getthem to fucntion correctly. The Beretta M9barrels are nickel plated. It is not cosmetic.

It's just not a good thing when it happens to anyone person, be it a gun, toaster, car, tv or what ever.
More than likely some of the guns we own by other mfg-er have nickel palted barrels and we don't even know it..

If a person has a flaking barrel, he needs to get a hold of kahr and they will replace it. It certainly is not going to renickel itself if left alone. If it is on the feed ramp or inside the chamber, I would definitely send it in. If it is in the barrel, I would have to determine myself how bad it is , but more than likely I would have it replaced. We paid for a properly coated nickel barrel and is seems that 99%of the other kahrs are OK. I have heard no P380 kahrs barrels doing that. Seems to be in the PM9 barrels which to me could very well indicarte a vendor issues, as kahr does not nickel plate their own barrels.

For me, if offered a nickel plated barrel over a non nickel coated barrel, I would take the Nickel barrel any day. YMMV

[xzhync]

I did go ahead and send my barrel into Kahr. I told them that my slide is also there to have night sights installed. I asked that they check to make sure the new barrel fits in the existing slide. They told me they would check and then send both pieces back together. I'll give an update once I get everything back.

[Wayne's World]

I'm guessing this problem is on production barrels from Sept - Nov..(or there abouts). I've been blessed (so-far). If the SN thing works out as described above(and on Glocks site), my barrel was made in May. I feel bad for you folks that have had to go through all this crap. I know Kahr is taking care of the problems (one by one), but if they have a batch of barrels that are known to have this problem.....why not recall them and do what is right. Please do not get me wrong, I love my PM9 and would hate to be without it, but would gladly carry a PPK for two or three weeks if Kahr was to recall my weapon for a necessary repair or replacement part.

[wagon]

They have a bigger issue on hand.. mine (at least) has a July prod date.

As I said, just replace problem barrels with UN-plated ones... problem solve... after all, Kahr said that it is non-functional, just cosmetic, i.e. a non-value-added "feature".

I'm guessing this problem is on production barrels from Sept - Nov..(or there abouts). I've been blessed (so-far). If the SN thing works out as described above(and on Glocks site), my barrel was made in May. I feel bad for you folks that have had to go through all this crap. I know Kahr is taking care of the problems (one by one), but if they have a batch of barrels that are known to have this problem.....why not recall them and do what is right. Please do not get me wrong, I love my PM9 and would hate to be without it, but would gladly carry a PPK for two or three weeks if Kahr was to recall my weapon for a necessary repair or replacement part.

[500KV]

Good morning to everyone, In am new to the forum, but not new to kahr pistols. i own about 25 kahr pistols, they are my favoriT handguns. i have been buying kahr arms pistols and longuns for 20 yrs. plus. I been a gunsmith for almost 50 yrs. Jocko got it rite, polish bbl. and it will be good as new, it may be a bbl. that was added . in any case a highly polished bbl. will do as well as any other process. like any other tool or firearm keep it well cleaned and lubricated. TALK TO YOU MEMBERS SOON. ziggy

Hmmm?????

[jocko]

Please

Good morning to everyone, In am new to the forum, but not new to kahr pistols. i own about 25 kahr pistols, they are my favoriT handguns. i have been buying kahr arms pistols and longuns for 20 yrs. plus. I been a gunsmith for almost 50 yrs. Jocko got it rite, polish bbl. and it will be good as new, it may be a bbl. that was added . in any case a highly polished bbl. will do as well as any other process. like any other tool or firearm keep it well cleaned and lubricated. TALK TO YOU MEMBERS SOON. ziggy

GROUP PHOTO sure would look nice

[deadhead1971]

Mine was purchased in mid June # IB07xx--probably a May or June production. I was on a waiting list so it just came in.

[Wayne's World]

They have a bigger issue on hand.. mine (at least) has a July prod date.

As I said, just replace problem barrels with UN-plated ones... problem solve... after all, Kahr said that it is non-functional, just cosmetic, i.e. a non-value-added "feature".

"non-value-added "feature" or not. They included this feature and they should stand by it or delete it. One or the other.
I don't need "cosmetic" features on the inside of my gun. Just uncompromising functionality.

[wagon]

Wayne's World: You missed my point or .. should I say: thanks for echoing my point.. LOL

"non-value-added "feature" or not. They included this feature and they should stand by it or delete it. One or the other.
I don't need "cosmetic" features on the inside of my gun. Just uncompromising functionality.

[Wayne's World]

Then.... Ditto !
My bad

[wagon]

Nothing bad, Wayne I've learned to use some sarcasm instead of speaking out the way I see it, otherwise I might be tagged as "trasher".....

.. and truth be told, the PM9 is my primary CCW, I say it all along that, to me, it has best balance among size, weight and firepower. But I still say that Kahr coulda / shoulda do much better quality assurance at the price level they charge for.

Just one person opinion ...

Then.... Ditto !
My bad

[xzhync]

I did go ahead and send my barrel into Kahr. I told them that my slide is also there to have night sights installed. I asked that they check to make sure the new barrel fits in the existing slide. They told me they would check and then send both pieces back together. I'll give an update once I get everything back.

Ok, I got my new barrel today. Not bad...1 week from the day I shipped the other barrel. It looks good out of the box. It dropped right in. Of course, since my slide was already there for night sights I asked that they test the new barrel on the existing slide. I do a thorough inspection and I can't see any flaking on the feed ramp or inside the chamber. I will probably try and go to the range tomorrow to test. I cleaned it really well and inspected it. I am mildly optimistic. I also got the slide back today. As mentioned I had sent it in to have xs big dots installed. They look good. My only complaint is that I sent it to Kahr to help guarantee that there would be no damage done to the slide. I won't say there was damage, but I can see where a little of the DLC coating was chipped at the edge of the front dovetail. Not that big of deal, but I was hoping for a little better. I know the factory sites are in there tight so I am sure it isn't easy to remove them without a little chip here and there. I used to have a Springfield XD9. I had local gunsmith install trijicon sites last summer. In the process he chipped the edge of the dovetail. Just cosmetic, but it bugged me a little. I was trying to avoid that problem this time. The damage is less, so I won't complain too much. Anyway, I'll report back after I try out the new barrel.

[xzhync]

Ok, I went to the range today with my replacement barrel and shot 100 rounds. After a thorough cleaning I think I may be experiencing the same problem. I did a first pass cleaning of the barrel. I even used a bore gel. The barrel was basically clean, but I noticed a kind of haze inside the chamber (mostly at the top of the chamber). I had a hard time removing the haze. I put some of the bore gel on a cue tip and really worked it. It started to come off, but slowly. I then took a little flitz on a cue tip and started to work it. I got more of the haze out, but started to notice a few little areas where the "haze" wouldn't come off. I polished a little more. At that point I got the flashlight out and shined it inside the barrel. With the light shining in, the haze that wouldn't come out looked more like light flaking. I rubbed a fine point cue tip over the area and couldn't really feel any roughness or resistance, but it kind of looks like flaking/peeling. Yesterday, when I got the barrel I did an inspection. I didn't shine a flashlight inside, but I could tell that there was somewhat of a shine to the metal. I didn't look further because it appreared ok. I am a little surprised by the haze. I noticed that on my previous barrel. Maybe that is just residue, but it doesn't really come off with solvents and a brass brush. I wonder if the haze and the flaking are related. Not sure, but I have noticed both with both barrels. Again, at this point I can't really feel any roughness so maybe I am ok. I sure wish I would have shined the light in yesterday just to see if I could see anything going on. Maybe the barrels are coming from the vendor that way. Since Kahr says that it is only a cosmetic problem I will probably just cool my jets this time and test another 100 rounds or so to see if there is any change. It is a real pain to keep sending barrels in (with no guarantee or even likelihood that the next barrel will be better). It would appear that they haven't worked out the problem yet. I am not sure they are admitting to even having a problem. The customer service guy told me that this problem is rare. Not sure about that since I have had 2 barrels like this and I believe at least one other person on this thead has experienced the problem with multiple barrels. At this point, it is not causing any problems. I have shot a total of 350 rounds through my PM9 without a single issue. I also don't think anyone on this thread has stated that the flaking caused a FTE/FTF or any other issue with their pistol. I think what I may do is call Kahr to tell them that I am experiencing the same thing. I will tell them that I would like to hold on to the barrel for awhile to see if it worsens. I'll tell them that if it gets worse or I start to have performance issues that I will send it in for another replacement. I'll keep all of you posted.