CW380 range report

[Short Bus]

I just got a new to me CW380. I took it to the range today and I'll start with the good. It is very accurate for such a small gun and is a soft shooter compared to some other micro .380's. Noe for the not so good. First it was having nose dive issues that I believe are caused by the bullet hitting the slide stop. I plan on using Fiocchi Extrema or Hornady Custom, they both use Hornady XTP 90-grain jacketed hollow point bullets that seem to be more of a cone shape that I don't think will be an issue. The second issue is failure to go into battery (a lot) I have 2 things to try to fix this 1) polish the chamber 2) call Kahr and ask if my gun has the updated recoil spring. Is there something I'm missing?

[Alfonse]

I had failure to return to battery my first time out with mt CW380. Turns out it is so tiny that I wasn't gripping it tightly enough.

Never a problem with other Kahrs.

Next time out put a death grip on it and it fired every time.

[Short Bus]

You may be right about the "death grip", I tried that the last couple mags and it helped, in fact I don't think I had any failure to go into battery with the "death grip". My friend had his Bodyguard with him, and it had o issues other than a crappy trigger. I think a little polishing may help, but the the "death grip" is also a must.

[Coppertop]

A firm grip is a must for any automatic, but I don't think the CW380 rises to the level of requiring a death grip.

The CW380 is small, but there are other automatics just as small that function without issue.
I suspect most of the issues you see with failure to feeds are due to Kahr still not being able to decide what the proper recoil spring tolerance is or the magazine spring being weak.
You would think after all the issues this weapon has had Kahr would have figured things out by now. Instead, they rely on consumers to feed 200+ rounds through the gun to break the gun in and hope for the best.

Good luck with it. The CW380 has the potential of being a fantastic weapon. It just requires a ton of patience (and maybe a couple of trips to Kahr) to get to where it can function reliably.

[kwh]

I have also found it to be helpful to be sure to keep absolutely straight wrist for CW380. I have had the death grip so tight I cocked my wrist to the side and had FTRTB. Now moderate/strong grip and straight wrist for me.
Shooting 100 rounds, at no more than 30 rounds/session, to break in also helps. Operator "fatigue" seems to happen quickly in the tiny Kahrs.
Follow sticky lube notes.
XTP has worked well in my CW380. Can also order them from Precision One .com and Underwood, if not found in stores.
Remarkable lack of muzzle flip,fun to shoot, but not made for a range gun.

[Webmaster1]

I had the same problem (failure to go into battery) my first time at the range. I had fired about 150 rounds. Called Kahr as soon as I got home. They told me that, since the frame to slide tolerances are tight, this is very common during the break in period. Next time at the range, the problem disappeared during another 50 rounds. After that another 100 rounds of ball, some hydro shock, Hornady critical defense and golden saber worked perfectly. I fired Blazer (aluminum and brass) Winchester white box and some old Remington ball I had from my Walther days for break in. Now my Keltec P380 sleeps in the safe and the Kahr is in my pocket.

[SlowBurn]

I have also found it to be helpful to be sure to keep absolutely straight wrist for CW380. I have had the death grip so tight I cocked my wrist to the side and had FTRTB. Now moderate/strong grip and straight wrist for me.

Works best for me too. Encountered same thing with my first tiny 380, an LCP, after shooting larger semi autos for decades, so I think it's a matter of "tiny gun technique" not specific to Kahrs.

Get well Muggsy

[b4uqzme]

You may be right about the "death grip", I tried that the last couple mags and it helped, in fact I don't think I had any failure to go into battery with the "death grip". My friend had his Bodyguard with him, and it had o issues other than a crappy trigger. I think a little polishing may help, but the the "death grip" is also a must.

Yep polish and lube it up. I bet the need for a "death grip" will lessen over time. These guns are tight. I was a typical revolver shooter when I got my first Kahr. That gun taught me a lot about a good grip that has helped me with every semi-auto.

[b4uqzme]

Here's one of my favorite videos on "grip":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0HkjXpQBxc

The revelation for me was how aggressively he locks his support-hand wrist. IMHO that's more important than squeezing tight.

[DavidR]

My CW380 was plagued with battery failures. The mother ship was unable to make it right so I moved on.


Dave

[Ronni3_J]

It may be just a break in thing. I have 250ish rounds through my CW380 and only had one issue. I had 1 premature slide lock around 40-50ish round mark. Since then no issues whatsoever. I will try to limp wrist it on my next range trip to see if I can recreate your issue.

[Short Bus]

Thanks for the helpful comments, keep 'em coming, the more knowledge the better.

[sk73]

I have a new CW 380 still in the honeymoon, or rather break in, phase. I really don't grip it any tighter than other semi-automatics and I've had absolutely zero issues. I will say I shoot it almost exclusively one-handed, as I suspect that is how it would be used in a sudden and extreme "discussion" I can't evade. I believe that helps keep the wrist locked too. As I said, I'm still breaking it in, shooting about 30 rounds per session, so it doesn't get dirty enough to affect its function. But I'm finding it to be an absolutely pleasant gun to shoot and I'm so pleased it hasn't had the issues others write about. So far

[gb6491]

While I was working on my P380's light strike issue, I did note that some brands of 380 ammo (Fiocchi in particular) have a thicker rim than others. The thicker rim stuff was more difficult to push up under the extractor. I decided to follow this gent's lead and as a precautionary measure took some material off the rear pin of the extractor to better accommodate the thicker rim stuff:http://www.kahrtalk.com/showthread.php?26232-Found-solution-to-FTF-and-failure-to-return-to-battery-on-CW-380
Though I've not had any return to battery issues with my pistol, I'm not saying this needs to be done, but I do think it's worth keeping in mind if the RTB problem doesn't work itself out.
Regards,
Greg

[Short Bus]

While I was working on my P380's light strike issue, I did note that some brands of 380 ammo (Fiocchi in particular) have a thicker rim than others. The thicker rim stuff was more difficult to push up under the extractor. I decided to follow this gent's lead and as a precautionary measure took some material off the rear pin of the extractor to better accommodate the thicker rim stuff:http://www.kahrtalk.com/showthread.php?26232-Found-solution-to-FTF-and-failure-to-return-to-battery-on-CW-380
Though I've not had any return to battery issues with my pistol, I'm not saying this needs to be done, but I do think it's worth keeping in mind if the RTB problem doesn't work itself out.
Regards,
Greg

Thank you, I think this may have been the issue, I did the repair you posted polish the chamber and some internal parts to smooth the trigger out. Today it ran 100% on Geco FMJs and had some premature slide locks with some remanufactured ammo do to the shape of the bullet (I'm not worried about this). No "Death grip" is needed now, in fact one hand is fine. Now I know why this gun was traded in. If the last owner could shoot this little Kahr now, I bet he/she would kick their self for giving up on it.