Problem with Kahr PM9

[Sleepy60]

Hello, new member but have owned a Kahr P45 And a Kahr P380 which I really like and trust. I purchased a PM9 two days ago, cleaned it, relubed it and worked the slide probably close to a hundred times. Went to the range this afternoon and ran 3 magazines of ammo through it without a problem. On my 4th magazine, third shot using winchester ammo, the round fired but it sort of exploded in the process. The right side plate blew down range and it left me with some powder burns to my hand and a pretty good bruise (I suspect where the side plate blew off and hit my hand). The cartridge had ruptured at the base and had remained partially in the barrel. The range where I was shooting took the gun to return it to Kahr for evaluation but I really have lost my trust in the PM9 for range or particularly ccw. Thoughts?

[JustinN]

Sounds like an ammo problem more so than a gun problem.....

[Sleepy60]

Could be but had fired the same ammo without problems. The range officer thought it may have fired before fully closing. Not even sure if that's possible.

[JustinN]

When I say it's the ammo, I'm meaning one round had a problem....a weak point in the case, bullet seated too low, etc - something that allowed it to rupture and vent gas backwards instead forward and out the barrel. I doubt anyone here has had a Kahr blow up in their hands from shooting factory ammo that went boom correctly....they're just not designed to do that.

You said it was Winchester, WWB I assume? a split case or something may go unnoticed if you're not inspecting your ammo closely. I know on the cheaper range stuff, especially Remington UMC, I've had multiple boxes that had rounds I threw in the trash because the primer was seated wrong (had holes around it), the bullet was pushed way way in, bullet was crushed, etc. Again, it may not have been the ammo and something catastrophically failed in your pistol, but I'm still thinking something bad happened with that one round.

I highly doubt the gun fired before it was in battery.

[2edgesword]

Document what happen to the best of your ability, take picture of the firearm from every angle and send the firearm back to Kahr for failure analysis.

[JimC]

It sounds to me like your PM9 fired out of battery.

Looks like a trip back to Kahr on their dime for a physical and repair is in order.

[MW surveyor]

Did you look in the barrel after this occurred?

[K.C.]

I would say ammo issue. I found a short video that may apply to your situation.

[JustinN]

I'm still not sure how it could have fired out of battery. On my K9, once I move the slide enough to get the barrel to move at all, my trigger gets disconnected. IF the firing pin didn't get pulled back into the gun, I would think it would have had to slam home all the way before it would have been able to hit that round hard enough to set off the primer, and not just kept pushing the round forward.....

I'm still sitting on the side of the round had a massive failure...

[Cubby]

MMM, no more info from the OP. And no Pic's?

I'm on the sidelines with this also to see what develops?

[Popeye]

Until I see something more than just a few words from a new member but owns other Kahr pistols (so he says) but we've never heard a word from him before all this about how his Kahr PM9 blew up, I'm thinking Troll. Sorry for being so up front and blunt about it, but we've been down this road to many times in the past,For me to give this post another thought.

[Sleepy60]

Hello,
I have some photo's but as I said, new to this and have not figured out how to get them off my computer and onto this thread. FAQ talks about a album but I have yet to able to find it. Sorry for the delay.

[JustinN]

The easiest way is to just put them somewhere like imageshack and then use the insert image button with the URL.

[jocko]

kahr out of battery will not fire. no doubt it was a bad round, but hell lets blame the gun as the rest of the rounds were OK--DUH???? Nophotos sure doesnt tell us much either.

Nice of the range to send the gun back for evualtion.The casing should have been with the gun to give kahr a betterdirection to look to,but my guess is 10 to 1, it is an ammo thing.

But its ur gun, if u lost faith in it, then peddle it and keep shootin the winchester ammo

[Ikeo74]

I am wondering why the range is taking responsibility to send the gun back to Kahr. Did they sell you the gun? Or did they sell you the ammo, or both, or neither? I think the ammo was defective for some reason. I have never heard of a Kahr firing out of battery.

Edit: Was the gun a rental and Range owned?