First Range Trip: FTF light primer strikes - ammo or pistol?

[Colt41]

Well I finally got a chance to take the new PM9 up to the range this morning for the break in and had some mixed results. First of all, I took the PM9 through all of proper prep stages except for the polishing job on the feed ramp as I don't have a dremel just yet.

Through the first 150 rounds of Monarch 115 gr. brass cased ammo purchased from Academy I had absolutely no problems. 100% reliability and things were going wonderfully. The gun ran perfectly and I must say I am extremely impressed with the accuracy of this little pistol. I certainly have much room to improve but, considering the short 3" barrel, it faired far better than I anticipated. This pistol is an easy shooter.

Things were going swimmingly up to that point, where my fourth box of ammo presented several issues. I had two failures to chamber around the third and fourth round using the seven round magazine. I feel as though this may be due to shooter fatigue considering the previous 80 rds or so I put through the seven rd magazine had no problems. I'm sure a good polish job and some looking at the magazine won't hurt here either.

My main concern, however, was that I experienced three FTF's due to light primer strikes in this last box. After safely clearing the firearm each time, I checked the rounds and they showed what appears to a decent dent in each of them. I tried reloading one of these three rounds two more times with the same result, although I noticed the strike mark looked slightly off center on two of the attempts. After seeing this I decided to check the other light primer strike rounds and one of them appeared to be slightly off center as well.

I finished the session with two successful mags, but the issues experienced naturally have me concerned. I did some research on this ammo when I got back and there does seem to be a lot of people who experience issues with it, although if I had stopped at 150 rounds instead of 200 I wouldn't have a complaint to stand on.

Could these FTF's be due to the ammo or do the slightly off center strike marks indicate something may be wrong with the PM9? I'm inclined to believe it is the former but any comments and assurance would be helpful. I tried researching past threads but couldn't find any concrete evidence of this occurring with the PM9 before. Any help would be much appreciated.





Colt41

[jocko]

hard to say, but I would try a box of like WWB at wal mart in teh 100 Pak. . Those primer strikes should have made a bang. If it wa smy gun I would pitch tghat damn 7 round extended magazine as far as I could. Stick witht he 6 round flush fit, they just work as they should. It just seems the extended is catch and catch can. Nout sure about the fatique thing as where your having the issues with the 7 ropund mag and the rounds where it is occuring is what I just read earler on another thread of the same thing. Ihave theory's about why, but I won't go into it again. The 7 rounder shold work, but if it was mine I would send it back to kahr and ask them to send you a 6 rounder and forget about it. Before you go out and retest with another good brand of fmj ammo, spray clean that striker area good, using that little clean out hole on the bottom of the slide up by the breech face. If you read the propper prep thread in the kahr tech section it gives some good pointers.

The fact that you got 150 perfect rounds tells me those primer hits are OK. U need to eliminate the possable, lite strikes are not good but make sure all is clean in the striker channel and with different brand of ammo. Retest and if it still occurs, then you need to call and talk to kahr. use the 6 round magazine to do your retesting though. U probably dn'tneed to do a feed ramp polish but just good ol 600+ grip auto paper rolled up on a dowel will polish that feed ramp and isde the chamber perfectly. Do polish if possable inside the chamber..

keep us posted, but personally I think our gun is OK. Maybe not that 7 round mag,. You bought that gun for concealment, so that butt ugly extended magazine IMO serves little or no purpose and if it is not totally reliable, then for sure it serves no purpose..

Trade it for a 6 rounder, Kahr will do that..

[ripley16]

Looks like a case of some hard primers, but IMHO, Kahr needs to figure out how to make their strikers "strike" with more energy.

[Colt41]

Thank you for the helpful comments and advice. The funny thing is while I was walking into the range another shooter saw I had this ammo and had mentioned he had just picked some up and was having all kinds of FTEs with it out of his Taurus. So after firing the first 100 rounds I was feeling really good! After 150 I was feeling great! ... and then on the last box I was humbled, lol.

I will say, though, that I haven't compared it to any other ammo yet but the stuff is extremely dirty. When cleaning it there was a significant amount of residue just about everywhere but especially on the feedramp and in the barrel.

I'm going to pick up some 3M Brake Cleaner and 600 grit auto paper tomorrow. I'll also be contacting Kahr Monday about replacing the 7 rounder with a 6 round mag. I really would like to have two magazines I can depend on. I'll check out the WWB from Walmart this week as well. Hopefully I'll get a chance to retest everything out next weekend.

Colt41

[ltxi]

Kahrs don't like hard primers. Part of the trade off for the compact design. Not a problem with quality ammo. Why anyone would run junk ammo through a really good gun is beyond me in any event.

[tomwalshco]

.... as I don't have a dremel just yet... Colt41

Careful with that dremel - nickel plated feed ramp.

....Things were going swimmingly up to that point, where my fourth box of ammo presented several issues..... Colt41

My experience with new Kahrs is that they can be very sensitive to "shooting dirt" until it's well broken in. After 50-100 rounds in a row, it can get a little fussy. My P380 was especially touchy until I got 300-400 rounds through.

...My main concern, however, was that I experienced three FTF's due to light primer strikes in this last box. After safely clearing the firearm each time, I checked the rounds and they showed what appears to a decent dent in each of them. I tried reloading one of these three rounds two more times with the same result, although I noticed the strike mark looked slightly off center on two of the attempts. After seeing this I decided to check the other light primer strike rounds and one of them appeared to be slightly off center as well....Colt41

Probably was not getting into full battery because of the dirt in the chamber. Some ammo dirtier than others....

I always clean the striker channel on new guns. Anything could inadvertently find its way in there in the manufacturing process.

Once that chamber opens up a bit, you'll be good. Take a bore snake along with you to the range and run it through a couple of times when you're doing marathon range sessions. No worries.

[frank_drebin]

I would gladly sacrifice some trigger pull for the option of a +10% striker spring. Why Wolff doesn't offer these is beyond me. I wonder if any other springs from other guns would work.

[Jeremiah/Az]

I too would like to see heavier striker springs, especially in the P380. I have never had a misfire with it or the PM9, but the P380 striker does not seem to hit with much authority upon dry firing.

[deadhead1971]

I won't touch foreign-made ammo with a 10-foot pole. I hope federal is still made in the US--about $11 a box a WM.

Have you looked at the owner's manual? It states the primer strike is not dead-center--but tear drop shaped.

[ripley16]

I just went back and read my range log concerning the numerous lightstrikes I had with my CW9. The predominent ammo was Remmington UMC, but other were noted as well. It was lightstrikes on Hornady TAP, my prefered carry ammo, that really soured me on the gun. I think that the problem was as much to do with an out of spec striker as it was the spring, (which I replaced to no avail). One range visit resulted in 11 lightstrikes out of 54 rounds, another 2 out of 35, 2 out of 45, and these were all after I replaced the spring.

No other Kahrs I own have performed so poorly. Something was wrong with the gun. I gave up and traded it.

[jocko]

light strikes are a sign of something else being wrong with the gun. Not to say a heavier striker spring might over come that issue either but IMO one is just masking over the problem. I have had the 5# striker spinrg in my PM9 since almost day 1 and I have never changed it either and never a light strike, My K9 is also the same way with the same results. normally light strikes are related to trigger bar issues causing premature cocking cam release of the striker.. Kahrs normal striker spring is around 7.5# which should more than do the job, if allthings are workng as they should..

Again in a semi, it is all about timing, so many things can cause light strikes even, that we don't have any way of solving unless we have a bevy of parts sitting in front of us, including new slides.

[pappy42]

I got light strikes from not cleaning the striker channel correctly. They cleared up after folowing Jocko's advice for cleaning the channel.

[jocko]

man u got to be shooting some dirty ass ammo to clog up that striker channel. If one would just get into the habit whenever cleaning to just spray cleaner of what ever kind floats your boat even in that little clean out hole, you will never have light strikes BECAUSE of a clogged striker channel.

[sharpetop]

I had light strikes early on with my CW9. I e-mailed Kahr and their response was the ammo had hard primers. I e-mailed them back and called B.S., that I had used five different brands of ammo with same light strikes. They finaly sent me a new striker spring and recoil spring and the problem was solved. [Yes I did clean the striker channel with brake cleaner and compressed air after the first light strikes].

[pappy42]

man u got to be shooting some dirty ass ammo to clog up that striker channel. If one would just get into the habit whenever cleaning to just spray cleaner of what ever kind floats your boat even in that little clean out hole, you will never have light strikes BECAUSE of a clogged striker channel.

FWIW it looked like brass shavings (maybe primer material) and debris from the manufacturing process. When I read the posts about preping a new kahr and your posts on how to clean that channel got me curious so I pulled her down and took a look.

I know how to keep her clean there now, thanks to you.