CW380 misfire / click no bang issue

[BEARDOG]

York Co. here we have about 4" so far... Yes I won't know for sure till like I said I can get it out for some range time. But I have high confidence in it to work just fine.

[erichard]

Yes I won't know for sure till like I said I can get it out for some range time. But I have high confidence in it to work just fine.

Thinking about it more, I believe you will be proven correct. Although the spring compression will be proportionally less, the mod will also allow the striker pin to hit the primer without the foot being slowed down (had it hit the top round in the mag.) So it's entirely possible that with the mod, you actually hit the primer harder, ironically.

Would be nice if Kahr had a tech expert that monitored this forum to less us know if we are on to something or not. I guess it's hard for them to admit error given the financial consequences of potentially having to replace so many striker pins. On the other hand, their reputation would move a step or two away from Diamondback reliability towards Glock reliability. That's got to be worth a chunk of change.

[Buzzard45]

BEARDOG, did this mod change the amount of protrusion of the firing pin? I`m thinking not. just curious

[BEARDOG]

Buzzard45 I do not think so, but I did not take a pin protrusion measurement before I made the change, so I can not say for sure. Sorry

erichard I've decided till I can get out to test fire my gun to remove my mod info posts from yesterday.
So consider this me "grabbing you by the shoulders"

[Alfonse]

BEARDOG, did this mod change the amount of protrusion of the firing pin? I`m thinking not. just curious

Firing pin protrusion is based on the length of the pin from the front face of the striker. That change should not change it.

[tigman250]

Would be nice if Kahr had a tech expert that monitored this forum to less us know if we are on to something or not. I guess it's hard for them to admit error given the financial consequences of potentially having to replace so many striker pins. On the other hand, their reputation would move a step or two away from Diamondback reliability towards Glock reliability. That's got to be worth a chunk of change.

It seems like this forum is littered with guys tinkering with their Kahrs to make them more reliable! Many guys send them in 2 or 3 times to have them fixed! I think Kahr is really on to something with a well built firearm but I am surprised they have so many repeat customers with all the little bugs left in their designs, my CW 380 is my first Kahr......probably my last as well. I enjoy tinkering with firearms but to customize them, not to make them function!! Like I said Kahr has a well built firearm but their attention to detail and follow through suck! I can't imagine a company letting a design go to production with so many quirks, don't they do R&D or beta testing!? They are priced equal or higher than their direct competition but yet their reliability is down with the budget models.

[berettabone]

I'll start by saying that I don't "tinker" with any of my firearms, unless they need it for functionality purposes. The only bad one's you see, are on this forum. The rest of the thousands are just fine. Happens with every manufacturer, in all models.

[tigman250]

I agree, you only hear about the "bad" ones on the forums, that said, I have a large group of shooting/gun buddies, out of the 4 Kahrs we own all of them have needed some tweaking to get them to function reliably, 2 of which needed tweaking to get them to function pretty much at all. Between all of us I would guess we own in the vicinity of 40 pistols, out of Glocks, Smiths, Springfields, Rugers, Colts, Kahrs, Diabomd Backs, KelTecs, and probably some I am forgetting none have needed major tweaks other than a Diamond Back 380 (trigger wouldn't reset, light primer strikes) and a G34 (that gun never malfunctioned, it was only tweaked to adjust ejection) so in my personal experience Kahrs fall short of the reliability bar set by their competition.

[erichard]

erichard I've decided till I can get out to test fire my gun to remove my mod info posts from yesterday.
So consider this me "grabbing you by the shoulders"

I'll be on the edge of my seat waiting for the results. It was one of the better posts on the board. I measured mine and also got .14 inches. I assume everyone's is that dimension, although you never know. I was tempted to do the mod last night, but held off waiting for your testing.

One thing you've proved, without doubt, is that the striker foot is in fact hitting the top round of the mag, because by trimming it, the issue went away. This is proof positive, especially when added to the test mentioned earlier (with or without snap cap in chamber) and my seeing the strike on the back of the casing when colored with a Sharpie.

You do have to wonder if Kahr understands the cause of this phenomenon.

[Stingray]

When chambering a round in my cw380, I notice that the next round in the mag is shifted forward too. I am guessing that when the bullet it chambered, it pulls the next bullet in the mag with it somewhat.

This is my first Kahr firearm, and it has been nothing but trouble for me. I might as well have Kahr Arms on speed dial. Got the gun brand new and it wouldn't even chamber the first round when I went to the range. Called Kahr and they had me ship my gun in. Got it back the next week and their "fix" was a very unprofessional hack job to my brand new gun. After having to take pics and sending it back in again, they dressed up the original grind marks even though I claimed that a slide this out of spec should have been replaced in the first place. They were informed that at most 15 rounds were put through the gun before it was back in their possession. There is now a piece of metal with a crack next to the slide release and they said that would just be fixed with a file, IF is ship it back to them for a 3rd time. Needless to say, FedEx and Kahr have had my firearm longer than I have. Now they wont return my emails or phone calls including the gunsmith himself and Melanie.

I understand that products do fail even though I highly doubt this firearm was test fired since I couldn't even get more than one consecutive shot off while forcing the slide forward. The way the company treats customers says a lot, and this is why I went on this rant. I want people to know what they are getting into when dealing with this company. I know for a fact that this type of behavior would never be seen from a reputable company such as Sig. I love the size of the gun as well as the smooth trigger, but this will now be the last Kahr that I own. I did my homework before buying the gun, and heard nothing but good things from them.

Sorry about the rant guys. I am just upset with their lack of support and really want people like me who are trying new brands to be informed. The only good thing I can give the company is that they have around a 1 week turn around period.

If I get around to it, I will upload my images of their repair quality and maybe even make a YouTube video. I don't want this type of service to go unheard.

I can completely relate to what you're going through and feeling, but in my case it is with a Kel-Tec P32 that I really want to like and carry. I've probably spent more money on ammo trying to solve the problems than I spent on the gun to begin with. And the aggravation and time wasting factor is infuriating. So I went out and bought a PM9 to replace it as my EDC. My PM9 has been awesome and flawless from the 1st shot. Never a failure of any kind, even during the break in period, after more than 1000 rds of FMJ and about 300 of various JHP. In fact, it's the only semi-auto that I've never had any failure with, and I've owned all of the major brands, and still have a dozen or so. The PM9 was the only 9mm I could find that fits in most of my pants pockets.

So, totally impressed and happy with my PM9, I've decided to buy a Kahr 380 for those few times that the PM9 is too big, and to dump the P32 (in the ocean). I was initially going to go with the CW380 to save some money so I started reading this forum more thoroughly to check it out. Now I'm not so sure about it with all the threads I've seen re various issues like fining pin breakage an so forth. I'm wondering, do owners of the P380 have the same issues? Do they use the same firing pins? Maybe the extra money is well spent.

And to the OP, I would just replace the firing pin myself and see if that cures it before sending it back a 3rd time.

[bobbyh]

And to the OP, I would just replace the firing pin myself and see if that cures it before sending it back a 3rd time.

I actually sent it back already a week ago for it's third trip home. They returned it to me and the Service work sheet said that they reworked the slide and replaced the recoil springs and extractor. Lubed and tested good with 30 rounds (though I wish they would just list what ammunition they use).

I will test it out this weekend and report back if my light primer strike issue was solved and if any other issues arise or return!


*** Update on range trip 3/28 ***

I shot my CW 380 today after it's 3rd trip back from Kahr for light primer strikes. I shot 50 rounds of 90 gr. Freedom Munitions JHP XTP + 50 rounds of PMC Bronze FMJ.

My light primer strikes are finally gone and I had no FTF issues that I had when I sent it back the first 2 times as mentioned in other threads.

However; I did have 1 stovepipe of the spent case with the Freedom ammo and 2 stovepipes of the spent cases with the PMC. These all occurred at different times during the 100 total rounds.

As mentioned above they did replace the recoil springs so maybe that might be the cause of the stovepipe issues though maybe I was limpwristing or dragging the slide (though I doubt that is the case).

I will give it one or two more range trips with some other ammo to help break in the recoil springs and see if the stovepipes subside. If not I'll keep this as a range only pistol to play around with and buy either another CW380 or go back to my trusty, yet unfriendly to shoot LCP.

***Update on range trip on 4/3***

I shot 50 rounds of Hornaday CD today at the range with zero issues! Hopefully this is a start of a better trend than I've been having.

[bobbyh]

Bump for update in post #58 (sorry don't know how to bump a post I edited)!

[SmokyT]

Problem Solved

The striker indeed catches the top round in the magazine, ... I think one of two things are happening, either (like already stated) the striker is getting too much interference from the top round softening it's hit on the primer. ...

Using a snap cap and sharpie, and through many "pencil tests", I also confirmed that this was in fact the problem with my P380, which was suffering persistent light strike issues regardless of the ammo used. But I have fixed this critically debilitating problem once and for all by filing the foot of the striker slightly (i.e., 0.5mm - 0.7mm) as discussed in this thread.

(Before I modified the original striker in the gun, I had obtained a spare striker from Kahr just in case, though it is stilling in my spare parts box unused.)

... Although the spring compression will be proportionally less, the mod will also allow the striker pin to hit the primer without the foot being slowed down (had it hit the top round in the mag.) So it's entirely possible that with the mod, you actually hit the primer harder, ironically. ...

I have also range-tested this hypothesis (but with a slightly extra power custom striker spring I fabricated). With the modified striker and extra power striker spring in the gun, I test-fired:
* 31 rounds of Speer GD
* 25 rounds of Hornady CD
* 100 rounds of Blazer Brass FMJ
* 100 rounds of Federal American Eagle FMJ
* 50 rounds of UMC FMJ

There was not a single instance of light strike that used to occur so often (with the stock striker), no matter what ammo I had tried. The problem went away completely.

Now my P380 goes bang every time I pull the trigger no matter what commercial ammo I shoot. So the extra power striker spring may or may not be needed any more. But I am more inclined to keep it in just to be sure of reliable ignition and also because it does not make the trigger pull any heavier, anyway.

[SmokyT]

**UPDATE**
Last month I shot additional 165 rounds with the modified striker to make sure that the light strike/ignition problem has been eliminated:
15 rounds of Speer GD
50 rounds of Remington/UMC 90gr FMJ
100 rounds of Freedom Munitions 100gr RNFP (new)

Again my P380 with the modified striker fired every one of the 165 rounds with no malfunction of any kind. This makes a total of 471 rounds of 6 different commercial ammo successfully fired with the modified striker with no light strike or ignition failure of any kind.

Before the modification to the striker foot, the rate of ignition failure due to light strikes was at least 10% even with the striker channel completely cleaned before each range session. Since the modification, the rate of ignition failure has been 0.00% for the last 471 rounds of 6 different commercial ammo, across all of which (except for Freedom Munitions 100gr RNFP) light strikes used to manifest before the modification. (I used Freedom Munitions 100gr RNFP the first time for this session.) It is also worth noting that I have shot these 471 rounds (and more) without cleaning the striker channel like I used to do when I was having the light strike problems.

I will continue to document the round counts and future occurrence of light strike/ignition failure (if it ever happens again). However, I believe it is now safe to conclude that at least in my particular case, this simple but careful modification to the striker foot has completely solved the light strike/ignition problem that several P380/CW380 owners have reported.

[dirtengineer]

**UPDATE**
Last month I shot additional 165 rounds with the modified striker to make sure that the light strike/ignition problem has been eliminated:
15 rounds of Speer GD
50 rounds of Remington/UMC 90gr FMJ
100 rounds of Freedom Munitions 100gr RNFP (new)

Again my P380 with the modified striker fired every one of the 165 rounds with no malfunction of any kind. This makes a total of 471 rounds of 6 different commercial ammo successfully fired with the modified striker with no light strike or ignition failure of any kind.

Before the modification to the striker foot, the rate of ignition failure due to light strikes was at least 10% even with the striker channel completely cleaned before each range session. Since the modification, the rate of ignition failure has been 0.00% for the last 471 rounds of 6 different commercial ammo, across all of which (except for Freedom Munitions 100gr RNFP) light strikes used to manifest before the modification. (I used Freedom Munitions 100gr RNFP the first time for this session.) It is also worth noting that I have shot these 471 rounds (and more) without cleaning the striker channel like I used to do when I was having the light strike problems.

I will continue to document the round counts and future occurrence of light strike/ignition failure (if it ever happens again). However, I believe it is now safe to conclude that at least in my particular case, this simple but careful modification to the striker foot has completely solved the light strike/ignition problem that several P380/CW380 owners have reported.

Can you detail how you fabricated a custom striker spring?