Help! Brand new CW380 cannot chamber a round

[tkarl]

UPDATE: Back to Walmart. Took the Perfecta ammo back. Got Federal FMJ. Loaded Federal round in magazine. Hit the button. Round chambered completely and slide closed! You guys are PRICELESS! Shouldn't there be a Sticky on this site advising others not to use Perfecta ammo in their CW380's?

ADDED: Yes, I was expecting a battle trying to return the Perfecta ammo, but WM did, with no questions asked.

[topgun1953]

Great! Glad to hear that. Also surprised took back the ammo. I didn't know they did that.

[Alfonse]

The Perfecta and Fiocchi have issues in more than just the Kahr, as noted by the Walther owner above. It sounds like you are probably good to go now and that is super!

[gun papa]

What powders would you recommend for .380 in the CW380? What quantities are you buying (or from where) to get your price/round that low? I'm new to .380, and the per-round prices I've calculated are $.20/round with once-fired, polished brass and $.14 without brass with plated bullets. That's about $7/box of 50 w/o brass. Do you make your own bullets? Where are you getting your lead from? It's kinda hard for my to cast -- I'm living in an apartment presently -- but I have the cast pot, molds, etc. But I will try at some point.

I have used ww231 powder in all of my semi auto guns. I have been working on a several pound lot from the 1990's. There may be something better or equivalent, but WW231 has been flawless from a Dillon progressive machine. 380 is a fun round to load.

[Bobshouse]

Great! Glad to hear that. Also surprised took back the ammo. I didn't know they did that.

Me either, scary huh?!

[getsome]

Hi tkarl and welcome to Kahrtalk....Sounds like you found the problem is with ammo and not the gun... Fiocchi and Perfecta don't get along with Kahr .380 pistols but if you use the Remington or Blazer Walmart ammo things should work much better.... I think the Winchester white box has a flat tip so stay away from them and go with round nose FMJ bullets....Keep shooting it and collect several hundred rounds of the brass that will work to do your reloading....I don't know if you have a press or are still shopping for one but for new beginning reloaders I suggest a simple single stage kit from RCBS or Redding for about 300 bucks for everything...Get a Lee primer tool and an inexpensive digital scale which will make it much easier....Get more than one manual and compare loads....Start off with standard loads and don't experiment from what the book says and you will be fine....

I reload for .38 .380 9mm .44 mag/special and .45 acp and only use one powder Universal Clays and it works good in all of them and I can get it at a decent price....There may be better choices but it works for me and I like the "KISS" method, keep it simple stupid and this way I don't have to worry about using the wrong powder by accident.....I would buy plated bullets and start using them at first since they are fairly inexpensive and easy to load....Good luck and keep on shooting your pistol, the more you shoot it the better it gets and you will learn to love it

[Tilos]

It is unclear exactly where the bullet needs to drop to from your description. The chamber face is not even. Please clarify.

The very back surface of the barrel, the surface that touches the slide face/surface.

[tkarl]

Hi tkarl and welcome to Kahrtalk....Sounds like you found the problem is with ammo and not the gun... Fiocchi and Perfecta don't get along with Kahr .380 pistols but if you use the Remington or Blazer Walmart ammo things should work much better.... I think the Winchester white box has a flat tip so stay away from them and go with round nose FMJ bullets....Keep shooting it and collect several hundred rounds of the brass that will work to do your reloading....I don't know if you have a press or are still shopping for one but for new beginning reloaders I suggest a simple single stage kit from RCBS or Redding for about 300 bucks for everything...Get a Lee primer tool and an inexpensive digital scale which will make it much easier....Get more than one manual and compare loads....Start off with standard loads and don't experiment from what the book says and you will be fine....

I reload for .38 .380 9mm .44 mag/special and .45 acp and only use one powder Universal Clays and it works good in all of them and I can get it at a decent price....There may be better choices but it works for me and I like the "KISS" method, keep it simple stupid and this way I don't have to worry about using the wrong powder by accident.....I would buy plated bullets and start using them at first since they are fairly inexpensive and easy to load....Good luck and keep on shooting your pistol, the more you shoot it the better it gets and you will learn to love it

I have all Lee presses: Classic Turret, Load Master, and their shotgun press. I have all the Lee dies, except I need the 9mm Makarov die for use only with the Lee Bulge Buster Kit. I've not loaded recently, but my dad always used Red Dot for shotgun, and I thought a faster burning powder would work best in the CW380's short barrel. A few years ago, I got 8lb of Red Dot. I have load data for Red Dot for both .380 and 9mm, then someone suggested to watch the Red Dot in these small pistol rounds -- because of its larger, flattened doughnut-shaped grains.

One other item I'll be getting is a Case Gauge for .380 and 9mm.

I can't find "Universal Clays" on my burn rate chart, did you mean "Hodgeton CLAYS" or "Hodgeton Universal"?

[Tilos]

I have all Lee presses: Classic Turret, Load Master, and their shotgun press. I have all the Lee dies, except I need the 9mm Makarov die for use only with the Lee Bulge Buster Kit. I've not loaded recently, but my dad always used Red Dot for shotgun, and I thought a faster burning powder would work best in the CW380's short barrel. A few years ago, I got 8lb of Red Dot. I have load data for Red Dot for both .380 and 9mm, then someone suggested to watch the Red Dot in these small pistol rounds -- because of its larger, flattened doughnut-shaped grains.

One other item I'll be getting is a Case Gauge for .380 and 9mm.

I can't find "Universal Clays" on my burn rate chart, did you mean "Hodgeton CLAYS" or "Hodgeton Universal"?

Wow awesome thread drift right there...by the OP

FYI: the barrel IS a case gauge

[dctwn35s8]

I took my new CT380 to the range today and successfully went through ammo from Winchester, Magtech, Aguila and Hornady Critical Defense. There were no issues until I tried Perfecta. I was unable to chamber any Perfecta rounds from the magazine. I measured the Magtech and Perfecta with my calipers and found the Magtech to be .0003 longer than the Perfecta and both measured exactly the same diameter. I found the only difference between the two cartridges to be the angle between the ejector groove and the case body was more abrupt on the Perfecta. I checked this angle on the other ammo and they all resembled the Magtech. I have read about the touted tight tolerances of the Kahr firearms so maybe this is not just hype.

[skiflydive]

I took my new CT380 to the range today and successfully went through ammo from Winchester, Magtech, Aguila and Hornady Critical Defense. There were no issues until I tried Perfecta. I was unable to chamber any Perfecta rounds from the magazine. I measured the Magtech and Perfecta with my calipers and found the Magtech to be .0003 longer than the Perfecta and both measured exactly the same diameter. I found the only difference between the two cartridges to be the angle between the ejector groove and the case body was more abrupt on the Perfecta. I checked this angle on the other ammo and they all resembled the Magtech. I have read about the touted tight tolerances of the Kahr firearms so maybe this is not just hype.

So. Not to split hairs or anything but .0003" is about 120 millionths of an inch. Not gonna make any difference even with Kahr's tight tolerances. If you meant .003, or 3 thousandths of an inch that's still only about 30% of the diameter of the average human hair. I doubt that's making any difference either. Your guess about the extractor groove might be more on the money. I have a Bersa Thunder 22 (I nicknamed it the jamb-o-matic) that was very finicky about it's extractor and I found it had a bunch of crap stuck in the extractor hook. There are other posts on this board about relieving the extractor/extractor pin for the same reason.

[tkarl]

I took my new CT380 to the range today and successfully went through ammo from Winchester, Magtech, Aguila and Hornady Critical Defense. There were no issues until I tried Perfecta. I was unable to chamber any Perfecta rounds from the magazine. I measured the Magtech and Perfecta with my calipers and found the Magtech to be .0003 longer than the Perfecta and both measured exactly the same diameter. I found the only difference between the two cartridges to be the angle between the ejector groove and the case body was more abrupt on the Perfecta. I checked this angle on the other ammo and they all resembled the Magtech. I have read about the touted tight tolerances of the Kahr firearms so maybe this is not just hype.

Wow, my Perfecta .380 ammo was way different -- visibly. It had a noticeable bulge at the seat of the bullet, and it had a row of dots -- very small depressions in the brass -- at this same bullet seat point. No other ammo I have ever seen has a ring of small depressions in the brass midway up the brass case. As previously stated, as soon as I exchanged that ammo for another brand, chambering was possible.

[gun papa]

Has anyone slipped a Perfecta round into a case gauge?

[berettabone]

Want to keep using cheap, garbage ammo???????????? Then what do you expect????????? If you have to keep buying s#1t ammo, maybe you should own a slingshot...............no one said shooting was a cheap hobby

[Alfonse]

Want to keep using cheap, garbage ammo???????????? Then what do you expect????????? If you have to keep buying s#1t ammo, maybe you should own a slingshot...............no one said shooting was a cheap hobby

I've used the 9mm and it worked just great in my Kahr and other pistols. I bought a box of .380 and confirmed it didn't work in my Kahr, but there are lots of other options within a buck or so per box. It is brass cased. For practice ammo, I buy the least expensive ammo that shoots reliably. That can be WWB, PMC, Federal, etc. And, that can be Perfecta, just not .380.