I joined the broken striker club

[topgun1953]

These are great analyses but why are we, as the consumer, having to do this? I would imagine that the manufacturing process and material is the same so why are some guns plagued by continual problems? Again, it seems if you got a good one, you're ok but if you don't the problems continue. Unfortunately, there isn't another .380 on the market that I want to own. Still waiting for mine to come back from Kahr. They have had it for over two weeks and it still hasn't been looked at. I guess their repair department is really busy

Having spent many years in the Worcester area, I'm guessing the weather might have affected them a little. They're up a relatively long hill and not knowing their policies, it's possible they might have been closed some days. They got mine on a Friday and called me that Tuesday.... Hopefully you get yours next week. I have around 300 through mine since the latest new striker and will go to the range again today for more fun!

[Armybrat]

Having spent many years in the Worcester area, I'm guessing the weather might have affected them a little. They're up a relatively long hill and not knowing their policies, it's possible they might have been closed some days. They got mine on a Friday and called me that Tuesday.... Hopefully you get yours next week. I have around 300 through mine since the latest new striker and will go to the range again today for more fun!

Yep, that weather must be affecting a lot of business in that part of the country. Bud's Guns (in Ohio) closed some of their services the past few days because of the bad weather. I imagine the Great Lakes shipping is a mite inconvenienced too.

But it seems that Justin Moon might want to take another look at the .380 striker pin design, what with the breakages being reported here.

Keeping my fingers crossed for my CT380. Sure would hate to have it fail at the wrong moment.

[Chaplain]

Hypothesis and Speculation: Why do some have problems, and some not?

We tend to forget what a difficult engineering problem firearms are. For years I carried a LWSeecamp in .32 acp. Even before I purchased that pistol (in days of yore before the interwebs) I knew it was 'difficult' design. The Seecamp was specifically designed for one particular load. At the time only Winchester Silvertips were recommended. I never even tried anything else. This limitation was acceptable to me (and most Seecamp owners) to obtain the smallest possible form factor.

Kahr Arms p380 is an elegant design. But, we expect it to digest all manner of .380 ammo - various bullet shapes and weights. Kahr even goes so far as to 'approve' +P loadings of .380 acp which are not industry standard. In addition to this variability in ammo, Kahr seems to have an engineered goal of exceptional accuracy with the attendant tight manufacturing tolerances - and needs to keep the product affordable. The tightness of the manufacturing means that some units will work great out of the box, and some will need considerable 'breaking in' which is essentially 'work fitting' of the parts in contact with each other.

What we may be seeing is the attempt to combine 'target' grade precision with 'combat' grade reliability in a very small package. It is really hard to predict how parts are going to function over time when combined in the large number of possible manufacturing and wear tolerances when under the dynamic stress inherent in all the actions, moments, and stresses that happen when a gun fires.

My p380 presently has a flawless record with my selected carry ammo on the range. I would like it to function flawlessly and reliably with cheaper practice ammo. If I have a striker failure after hundreds of rounds, I'll fix it. I'll want to know why, and have the problem corrected. I would be nice to be able to identify the problem that others are reporting here on the web. In an earlier era we would likely not even know of these few problematic units. Those who own problematic units are going to help us all out when the cause is finally identified.

[RRP]

I enjoy reading your posts, Chaplain. Very well written.

[gun papa]

I agree with Chaplain. I love the direction that Kahr took with thisbpistol, even having stated my understanding of finicky digestion with all ammo.
My hopes are that they get issues squared away. It is the exact gun I have been looking for. My gun is a Kahr now. Hopefully it gets returned working Effectively.

[Armybrat]

Yes, well said.

One thing I like about the Kahr designs are the simple & clean lines that flow in my hand. And are very nicely proportioned.

[joat]

First post on this forum, have read and enjoyed many other posts. This striker problem has always been interesting to me because I have a CW380 with serial number RH. It has over 1600 rounds through it (reloads) so thought maybe a close look might reveal a problem. The CW needed cleaned so this was a good time to see any wear problems as the smoke print reveals wear areas better than any Prussian Blue or Dykem. What I found was to me revealing and my opinion only.
1. The striker is of a very unique design and attributes to why we like the gun so well. One of it's features is the striker spacer. This creates a way for the striker to work in a conventional way except for the last .060" of travel. The striker spacer contacts the rear of the breech at 3 and 9 o'clock while allowing the striker to travel forward as an inertia firing pin, hitting the primer. The primer absorbs the energy of the striker and looking at tracks in the striker bore the firing pin does not contact the breech except at the very end of the firing pin where it goes through the breech wall and well before the taper begins to open aft.
2. I do not dry fire this pistol. I know they say you can. You can dry fire any firearm probably. But should you? With this design I would say no. The reason is because as stated in previous statement, if the primer did not absorb the energy of the striker, that last .060 of travel will allow the striker to continue forward and hit the rear wall of the breech at 12 and 6 o'clock. As you all realize the front of the striker has been machined to very thin allowances and will not take the continued hammering. As designed, it appears to me to be as good or better than most. It is the dry firing that makes the firing pin break. I know there will be folks who have firing pins break without dry firing, I don't know why. If you dry fire the CW though, the firing pin will break at some point.
3. I used a borescope to look at this and use one a lot. The tracks left in the smoke were easy to follow and it was very apparent to me what was going on here. Of course this is just my opinion but I hope it will help someone out as this forum has helped me many times.

[RRP]

Good first post, joat. Thanks for the information.

Welcome aboard.

[Pteridine]

It appears as though the striker shoulders should impact the rear of the slide. The delicate firing pin should not hit anything but a primer or air unless the firing pin channel is somehow obstructed. Any obstruction would then tend to stress the base of the firing pin and lead to failure.

[tigman250]

Anyone ever notice the "smear" or elongation of the dimple that is left behind from the primer strike? The barrel is unlocking before the striker is retracted, this lateral pressure could be contributing to striker breakage, I always wondered why Glock had such a goofy looking striker, now I think I know why.....