New CW 380. Wish me luck!

[skiflydive]

I picked up this CW380 today. Got a good deal from Grab A Gun. I thought I'd chronicle my experiences as it gets ready to ride in my pocket.

It arrived clean and not overly oily or greasy. There are no shards of plastic or crappy machining. I've field stripped it twice. The slide pin is hard to get out and VERY hard to line up/get in. I'll pay some attention to that when I buff and shine it this weekend. The nasty sharp corner on the ejection port and the top right of the trigger need a little attention too.

Functionally I loaded a mag and hand racked every round so I guess no issues there. Still I'll take a little emery cloth to the mag lips. They both have a little burr.

I'm looking forward to this.

[vinnier6]

Just got mine from grab a gun yesterday, hope they work out, can’t wait till I can carry this thing in my pocket...

i bought 2 boxes of ammo while I was there picking it up. The maxxtech I bought will not chamber from a mag doing a slide stop release...the honaday critical defense however will...we will see what happens at the range

[Old No7]

Good luck with it!

Then again, "luck" is only part of it, as I also think "proper prep" helps a lot too!

Check out this older posting of my Flawless CW380 (click for link) to see what I did for prep, as well as what I added for accessories.

Tight groups!

Old No7

[skiflydive]

Weekend update… Functionally everything appears fine. Ammo hand racks well. Striker slides smoothly with no gritiness. Filled the mags, locked the slide open, left it alone for a day to go the the Grandkid’s 2^nd birthday in the socialist state of Illinois. Sunday I loosened the slide pin spring screw about an 1/8^th of a turn. That solved the tight slide pin insertion issue! Tore down the mags and gave the followers a good wipe with Scotchbrite just to remove any harsh edges. Used some emery cloth on the mag lips and latch notch for the same reason. Wiped all mag components with Johnson’s paste wax and buffed. Took a brass “toothbrush” to the frame rails and slide to remove any fuzz and debris. Lubed and reassembled. The trigger travel is a little lumpy but I’ll shoot it before I address that. The extractor looks to have been radiused and relieved at the factory the same as recommended on this forum. This seems to be a smooth operator so far. No complaints. Off to the range at noon.

[yqtszhj]

Keep us posted. My recent cw380 has been good since day one. Mine hand racked well too. About 300 flawless rounds so far.

[skiflydive]

Range report... The 1st 4 mags were flawless. 1 and 3 were easy slingshots, 2 and 4 slide release. All locked back on an empty mag. I thought, COOL, I got a runner! Mag 5 had a FTF on the 6th round and didn't slingshot, twice, likely my fault. Mag 6 had a FTF on round 3. And so on... In total I had 5 FTF's between round 29 and round 61. Mag 12 everything was back to perfect but the slide stopped locking back except on the second to the last mag with only 4 rounds loaded in it. Last mag didn't lock back.

So...106 rounds, 18 mags, 5 FTF's but none before round 30 or after round 61, and 7 failures to lock back. Every round fired once chambered.

I'm not ecstatic but not discouraged either. Another good clean and lube and we'll see how it goes.

More later... My new cell phone was much more frustrating than this.

[Armybrat]

Thanks for the report.

[Bawanna]

Were you using good ammo. Weak underpowered could cause all those issues. The slide lock as well or it could need the spring tweaked.
Might just need more time too. Still hope.

More than I can say for cell phones. I'm technology challenged I think.

[yqtszhj]

I bet you clean it up and go out again and you'll be good to go hopefully.

[Ed M]

It's better to have the slide stop work correctly than to have it easy to remove. It'll get easier to remove as things break in.

Greg to the rescue once again.....

[vinnier6]

I don’t think I am even going to bother try to slingshot this thing...it’s to damn small for that. My cm9 on the other hand is very easy to rack a round by slingshot or hand over....

i am planing a range trip trip Wednesday so we will see how it goes

i have so far, hand cycled it 110 times or so, broke it down 3-4 times and today added a rubber talon grip

[Ed M]

vinnier6 - If I could offer you one bit of advice, it's this:

Ditch the Maxx Tech ammo. It's made by the same folks that bring us Perfecta and some Fiocchi ammo.

These brands have been known offenders in Kahr 380s. Some of us have modified the extractors in our 380s to provide additional clearance between the extractor claw and the breech face. This allows those non-SAAMI spec rounds to feed in our Kahr 380s reliably. Even Kahr does modifications to 380s that have feeding problems similar to what some of us have done to our 380s.

If your 380 has problems running MaxxTech ammo, don't blame the gun. That ammo is not made to SAAMI specs, and Kahrs are. Per Kahr's recommendation, use quality domestic made ammo. Brass cased stuff is a good choice, as is something with a round nose bullet. Lots of options - Federal, Remington, Blazer Brass, Speer Lawman, and even PMC Bronze (Korean made) are all good choices. Avoid foreign made ammo, as the primers are often harder than domestic made stuff.

Those brands can usually be found for about the same price as the bargain brands of ammo. For the break in of 200 rounds, give your 380 every chance to succeed. At least you'll be following Kahr's advice if you DO have to send it back to them...

Good luck - let us know how your range trip goes.

[CPTKILLER]

I agree about using quality ammo. Quality and reliable defense ammo is key. Youtube tests are your friend on this.

I would suggest a good pocket holster to keep debris out of the pistol as well as a pocket mag holder. There many good ones out there.

[skiflydive]

Thanks for the ammo recommendations everyone. I’ve been using Blazer Brass exclusively so far. Never had any problem with it.
Things are way better but still a little to do. Yesterday I stretched the mag springs out a little to resolve the slide lock issue. People say that has no effect but it’s worked before for me. Didn’t really make a difference this time.
So, down to 2 issues. Failure to lock back and failure to feed. Detail stripped last night. Tightened the slide lock spring screw back up (never should have loosened it before running the gun…) and file dressed the extractor. It had been radiused and relieved at the factory but touched it up anyway and took a little off the front of the post.
Went to the range at noon today and ran 10 mags of 6. Every mag locked back so I’m calling that issue resolved. Still had 3 FTF’s which is better than the other 2 trips. It looks like the rounds are hanging sliding up the breech face behind the extractor. A little more filing on the extractor and we should be good to go. This is way more fun than setting up the electronic dashboard on my car…

Oh yeah...it slingshots every time I try...

[Armybrat]

Sounds like you're almost there.