Help! CM9 Slide Not Always Locking Back

[crzy4guns]

Hi I am a noob on here and I bought a new Kahr CM9 and took it to the range this evening. I fired 200 rounds of PMC Bronze 115 grain FMJ thru it with no problems at all.

However the slide is not locking back everytime after the last round is fired. I have a spare 6rd. magazine and it is happening to both magazines. No FTF's or FTE's or nosedives and the slide locks back everytime with both magazines when they are empty as it should.

I made sure sure that the magazines were fully seated and that I kept a tight grip on the pistol at all times. This happened several times to each magazine as I marked them with tape on the floorplate as 1 and 2. I am happy with the pistol except for this one problem. Can anyone here tell what is going on?

[BEARDOG]

Easiest thing first...Make sure you have a firm grip. Try some different ammo next time, the gun may just still be a little tight and that ammo may not be real powerful. Also confirm the mag spring is facing the right direction, should be on same angle as follower.

If that don't work it could be the slide lock and or slide lock spring.

[crzy4guns]

Thanx Beardog, I did make sure that magazine springs were correctly inserted before I cleaned them this evening by referring to the forum. I am wondering if the slide lock lever is off a bit. It does slide up with an empty magazine so I am perplexed as to why it only does it sometimes when I am firing live ammo.

[Bawanna]

I'm a little confused, you say it locks back when empty every time as it should and then say it didn't several times. Maybe you just type like me.
If you look in the tech section GB has a fix for polymer guns thread and in there it shows how the slide lock spring should look and how to tweak it if needed. As beardog said a few more rounds won't hurt to try different ammo. That ammo might work fine when things are running smooth.

Do be careful of that slide lock spring screw. It's steel into tupperware so you can strip it real easy and its bad news for bonzo if that happens.

Keep us updated and there's lots of help here if you want it.

[crzy4guns]

Cool beans Bawanna! I meant to type that the slide sometimes locks back after shooting a fully loaded magazine until it is empty. The slide always locks back when I insert an empty magazine and pull the slide all the way to the rear.

I did notice that the screw that holds the slide release spring is getting shiny, possibly from contact with the slide. I don't know if that is normal wear or not.

[jocko]

tht shiny

Cool beans Bawanna! I meant to type that the slide sometimes locks back after shooting a fully loaded magazine until it is empty. The slide always locks back when I insert an empty magazine and pull the slide all the way to the rear.

I did notice that the screw that holds the slide release spring is getting shiny, possibly from contact with the slide. I don't know if that is normal wear or not.

screw thing is OK, it is not the slide rubbing it, it is the slide lock lever. that is normal. u should look up in the kahr tech section under cw45 fixes. It is a sticky and it will address your issues and should be of greathelp to you, also read that same kahr tech section under propper prepping of your new kahr, it also address that slide stop spring area.

not sure how many rounds are throguh the gun either but maybe anoter 50-100 might gets things better. It sounds like a timing thing or a bad slide lock spring, neither which should have been happenig. Give it some more rounds ..

[JBarbaresi]

you can find instances of the slide not locking back from time to time with pretty much any brand of auto handgun. in my opinion it is not a huge issue, like you said you gun fed and functioned fine otherwise.

there are a couple of reasons this may be happening:

1) weak or underpowered magazine springs; not likely your problem because the magazines are new and it is happening with both of the ones you own.

2) weak or underpowered ammo; 115gr pmc bronze is not necessarily the hottest stuff out there, it may be a combination of the weak loads and your new gun still getting broken in. you can take the advice others have offered and try a more powerful round just to see if it fixes your problem and at least you will then know its the ammo and not the gun.

3) oversprung recoil spring not allowing the slide to fully cycle, especially in combination with weak ammo like most of the 115gr loads readily available. as you shoot more, the recoil spring will soften and the gun in general will break in and the problem may go away on its own.

4) you may be accidentally resting your thumb on the slide release while you are shooting. with the small frame of the cm9 this is highly likely and would be a good reason to explain why sometimes the slide locks back and sometimes it doesn't. usually if the issue is the ammo or the gun, it would be more consistently failing to lock back.

5) "limp wristing" will cause the slide to short stroke and not fully cycle all the way to the rear. with a new recoil spring, and weak ammo the slightest limp wrist will manifest a lot more easily than normal. i know you said you have a tight grip, but just squeezing tightly will not necessarily eliminate excessive recoil hop. a lot of people don't realize how easily a lot of the polymer framed pistols will malfunction from limp wristing.

play around with those things and just shoot more to continue to break-in process, i'm sure you'll figure it out from there.

[wyntrout]

The free end of the slide lock spring may be out of position, too, though it usually causes premature slide lock back. The free end of the spring could be under the actuator or pushed in and bent. Pull the slide lock out and see what the spring end looks like.

Wynn

[wyntrout]

See the takedown video at Kahr.com:

http://www.kahr.com/Pistols/Kahr-CM9.asp

at 4:30 he discusses the slide stop spring and insertion.

Wynn

[jocko]

#3, 4,5 of what Barbereshi stated is deal on target and what why stated to is possable. but normally if u have a sprngout of whack it is gonna do it alla the time. again read the kahr tech section of propper prepping of your new kahr and also GB 6491 great sticvky cw45 fixes. He address what why was talking about.

Let another shoot try the gun to, who u feel knows what he is doing, If he can \duplicate, then "assume" it might be gun related, if not, then look in a mirror and u will see the problem.

Kahrs arenbot ammo sensitive so #1 and #2 IMO have no bgearing on ur issues..

[wyntrout]

I keep saying... go to Kahr.com and look at the info on your pistol. There are DOWNLOADS and VIDEOS showing how to take apart and re-assemble your pistols!! They are better than the manual... which is better than SOME free advice.

Wynn

[crzy4guns]

Thanx everyone, I will try all of your advice and if I still can't resolve the issue, I just may send it in to Kahr to see if they can fix it.