New CW380 will not chamber a round

[eblingjp]

Did some searching and couldn't find an answer from the forum.

I I picked up my new cw380 the other night and went to the range to put a few rounds through it. Filled the magazine, inserted it, and pressed down the slide release and it went about 3/4 of the way but it would not close. Tried again and again and still the same. Tried a different two types of ammo and still the same. I sometimes can get it to close if I push the slide forward hard. Fired about five rounds through it until I gave up. Went home cleaned it and lightly oiled it and still doing the same.

I called Kahr today and they said to put 200 rounds through it before they can do anything. I think I may through this gun at the target of I have to push the slide forward with my thumb 200 times.

Looks like there's some marks and rough edges on the feed ramp.

Any suggestions?

[DavidR]

I had the same problem with a brand new CW380. It was unusable with some ammo and a little better with some other ammo. 200 rounds didn't fix anything, just wasted my money on ammo (although I did enjoy shooting the pistol when a round was chambered). The only ammo that worked all the time was Hornady Critical Defense.

After 400 rounds I sent it back to Kahr. It was a little better when it came back but still not close to being reliable enough to carry.

I cut my losses and traded it in at my LGS.


Dave

[gb6491]

Welcome to the forum.
Any chance you could post some photos of the malfunction?
Did you disassemble and clean the slide?
Regards,
Greg

[eblingjp]

[SlowBurn]

Some rounds are just bulgy enough that they don't feed in the CW380, for instance Fiocchi FMJ. Try taking the barrel out and just dropping a round into the chamber end, see if it falls in easily.

[Jollyrogers]

I don't have a CW380, but a P380. Concur 100% that certain manufactures ammo will not work. Fiocci FMJ is definitely a culprit. So what brand/loads of ammo are you using? The P380 I have definitely has a tight, but to spec, chamber and will run with brands like Blazer, my hand loads, or hornady CD. My S&W Bodyguard, will handle anything, including the Fiocci, chambers not as tight.

If the cartridge does drop into the chamber fully, I would polish the ramp, try different ammo, and send it back to Khar. When they ask about 200 rounds I would reply, uh huh.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Smouse]

I just made a post about this a lil while ago. I have 2 CW380s. The one ran flawless, the other jammed on almost every round (was doing the same as your). The extractor was biting into the rim of the cartridge causing it hang up. It was the extractor spring that was the problem. (was to long) If you slide the slide back down. (Make sure you keep your thumb over it to avoid the firing pin spring from flying) you will see the tiny pin sticking out on the right side. The pin on the one that jammed popped up flush with the back of the slide, the others pin was just above the groove that the slide back fits into. I took a small screw driver and pushed the pin down into the slide and crushed the spring till it matched the other. Has ran smooth ever since. I actually called Kahr and told them what I had found and had them send me a new spring but it was longer than the original.

[gb6491]

I just made a post about this a lil while ago. I have 2 CW380s. The one ran flawless, the other jammed on almost every round (was doing the same as your). The extractor was biting into the rim of the cartridge causing it hang up. It was the extractor spring that was the problem. (was to long) If you slide the slide back down. (Make sure you keep your thumb over it to avoid the firing pin spring from flying) you will see the tiny pin sticking out on the right side. The pin on the one that jammed popped up flush with the back of the slide, the others pin was just above the groove that the slide back fits into. I took a small screw driver and pushed the pin down into the slide and crushed the spring till it matched the other. Has ran smooth ever since. I actually called Kahr and told them what I had found and had them send me a new spring but it was longer than the original.

I agree that with Smouse that the extractor might be the issue. His fix is worth a try, but first I suggest taking the slide apart for inspection and cleaning (to include the extractor tunnel).

The suggestion to try different brands of ammo has merit as well. Some brands (Fiocchi in particular) have thicker rims that make them much more difficult to slide up under the extractor. Another member has a fix for this:

Bought a CW 380 in December, I shot 200 rounds through it in the first couple outings, 100 rounds of Remington and 100 of Fiocchi. The Fiocchi was terrible, it fell short of battery about 90% of the time, the Remington ran "better" but still failed at least 30% of the time. The problem seemed to be the extractor, when the round was at an angle going into the chamber it was binding on the hook of the extractor, the Fiocchi rims were .015" thicker than the Remingtons and both were gouged from the extractor. Originally I tried simply deburring and softening the sharp corners on the extractor, this defiantly helped but failure to return to battery was still a huge problem. I wanted to try adding a little more clearance between the breech face and extractor hook but the extractor was already pretty minimal so I didn't want to machine anything off the hook, and removing material from the breech face is not an option, after some thought (and buying a spare extractor!) I decided to remove some material off of the front of the pin located at the rear of the extractor which would allow the extractor to move forward. I removed about .015" of material and I am happy to report that after 100 rounds (50 Fiocchi and 50 Remingtons) I had zero, thats right ZERO FTF and failure to return to battery! Just a lack of clearance, the gap between the extractor hook and breech face was too tight to allow the shell to tip in as it was stripped from the mag on it's way into the chamber. I still need a full range trip with a couple hundred rounds to be sure but going from such a high failure rate to zero I'm pretty sure I can call this thing fixed.

http://www.kahrtalk.com/showthread.php?26232-Found-solution-to-FTF-and-failure-to-return-to-battery-on-CW-380

Here's the spot where tigman250 removed material from:

Regards,
Greg