CT 380 1st range report - multiple failure to go into battery

[franco45]

I took my new CT380 to the range today. I shot 100 rounds of Fiochi 95gr fmj with failure to go into battery at least 3 or 4 times each magazine. I wasn't too concerned because I figured it was a break in issue. The slide usually stopped just short of battery and a tap on the back put it into battery. I switched to Fiochi 90gr XTP hollow points and the strangest thing happened. I shot 4 magazines with not 1 malfunction. I'm wondering if this is an ammo issue rather than a break in issue. I guess I'll try some other ammo to find out.

[Ed M]

I'm wondering if this is an ammo issue rather than a break in issue.

Good guess. Fiocchi ammo is a known offender in some Kahrs, especially their FMJ offerings.

[Armybrat]

Mine wouldn't run WWB at all, but ate up all the Remington, federal, & Hornady Critical Defense it was fed.

Hope you can find something that will run through yours. I think they are very neat little guns that are easy on the hand to shoot.

[gb6491]

Good guess. Fiocchi ammo is a known offender in some Kahrs, especially their FMJ offerings.

I agree. While I was working on my P380, I did note that some brands of 380 ammo (Fiocchi in particular) have a thicker rim than others. The thicker rim stuff was more difficult to push up under the extractor. I decided to follow this gent's lead and took some material off the rear leg of the extractor to better accommodate the thicker rim stuff: http://www.kahrtalk.com/showthread.php?26232-Found-solution-to-FTF-and-failure-to-return-to-battery-on-CW-380
I've not had any return to battery issues or extraction issues with my pistol post doing this. Now, I'm not saying this needs to be done (many pistols are probably fine as they are), but I do think it's worth keeping in mind (plus I'm happy with the results in my P380).



Regards,
Greg

[mark7mod0]

Taking and rounding a small amount of the extractor bottom corner as in the video is what I did also. In addition I lightly sanded the entire length of the extractor face to smooth the face of the lip, but not taking any of the lip edge away. The Fiocchi, S&B and the cheap Perfecta all will now feed with no problems.

By the way....great photos to show the rim difference in thickness.

[Ikeo74]

How long should it take for a pistol manufacture to correct it's design problems? Seems to me like Kahr takes excessive time to make corrections to minor flaws. This has to have an effect on their total sales and bottom line profit.

[mark7mod0]

Just noticed something else. Been concentrating on the thickness of the bottom rim of the casing and just noticed the substantial difference in casing head gap and the smaller extraction groove area of the Fiocchi!

[Ken L]

How long should it take for a pistol manufacture to correct it's design problems? Seems to me like Kahr takes excessive time to make corrections to minor flaws. This has to have an effect on their total sales and bottom line profit.

The issue I see is that Fiocchi ammo is out of spec, or are running a rim that's at the maximum dimension allowed per caliber, and the extractor groove that's at the minimum. There is always a +/- tolerance, so if you're already at the max and you hit the +, then you're way over and that's where the issues come in. I had the same type of feeding issues with my CW40 with Fiocchi. I rounded and ramped the extractor and the issues stopped, yet the feeding of other brands wasn't impaired.

Yes, other pistol brands don't have issues with Fiocchi. Each manufacturer has a slightly different geometry and approach to their extractor. That is exactly the reason that each pistol needs to be shot with any and all carry ammo, to ensure that it functions when it's truly called upon. Heck, even 1911s need to be tuned at times to reliably handle certain brands of ammo.

[dccmadams]

The thickness is the issue. The Fiocchi FMJ failed 100% of time, until mod to extractor was made. My extractor looks like Kahr has already curved the one edge. I bought this pistol days ago. I filed a little more from the same spot and got vast improvement. I shot 100 Fiocchi FMJ, and had only 1 failure when I tried to drop the slide on a full mag about 50 rounds in. I then shot 3 other brands without incident.

[Cymerej]

Great photos. I have never noticed such differences in ammunition before. Thank you.