[BLiTzNicK]

I recently acquired a Kahr K9 from a fellow via the internet. The K9 will handle any ammo I put in it except for my personal favorite Speer Gold-Dot 124 +P. I took the pistol to my mom's to shoot (can't do it here). I had it loaded 7 + 1 with the Gold-Dots and after firing the first round the pistol Failed to Feed from the magazine. The round was jammed on the bottom of the feed ramp. I quickly performed a TRB, and fired the pistol, and the pistol failed to feed the top round from the mag, producing the same jam. I performed another TRB, and proceeded to fire the entire mag. I then switched to some cheap practice ammo which all fired flawlessly. I then used some old 147 grain Hydra-Shock, which worked perfectly. I had no problems with WWB 115 Personal Protection either. Then I decided to mix the mags with GDs and the WWB PP load. I had quite a few more jams, of the same nature, but always with a GD round. This is driving me crazy. At first I thought recoil spring or mag springs, but the pistol only malfunctions with the Gold-Dots.

I'm not carrying this thing yet as I'm still waiting on a holster to be delivered. Any ideas?

[Penforhire]

Is it always the top round of a fully loaded mag? Are the failing mags new?

[riddleofsteel]

"Doctor, doctor it hurts like heck when I do this!"

"Well don't do that!"

Seriously one sure fix is to choose a round your weapon likes and is suited for your purpose and save a lot of grief. I have lost count of the rifles I could not get to shoot a particular bullet I wanted to use accurately. However, the same rifle would drive tacks with another type of bullet just as good for the intended job. The angle and polish of your feed ramp as aligned with the mag follower just may not be suited for the Gold Dot profile.

Have you tried the new CorBon PowRball 9mm? It is supposed to be a real stomper and all the PowRball I have tried feeds slick as owl snoot.

Keep us posted.

[dfariswheel]

I'll second riddleofsteel.

Not all guns "like" all brands/types of ammo. Sometimes the problem can be fixed, and sometimes not.

With the wide variety of really first rate defense ammo available, I'd just select something else.

This should also be a good lesson to folks. How often do we see people buying a gun and ammo, and not positively verifying that that combo is reliable.

Breaking a gun in, and verifying it with the chosen ammo is not optional, if you'd like to keep breathing.

[BLiTzNicK]

The gun had less than 700 rounds through it when I bought it. The jams with the Gold-Dots happen anywhere in the mag, it is not always the top round, but it's always a Gold-Dot. The Gold-Dot is +P so maybe the snappy recoil, combined with my grip was causing it. I've tried to recreate the jam by locking the slide back, and pushing the top GD nose down into the feed ramp, then easing the slide forward. It won't jam. I however am not willing to pay another $40 to test some more GDs which will probably fail.

I disassembled the slide, and boy was it grimey. It has a weird extractor plunger, which was hard to get out, and a real pain to get back into place.

I've decided to use the Winchester White Box Personal Protection round. Only because it's inexpensive, and readily available at Wal-Mart. This is a good thing since the closest gun shop is at least 40 miles away. I'm going to take the pistol and shoot a few boxes of the stuff on Thursday. If I get no problems (didn't last time), I'm using that stuff.

I'm still pretty disapointed that I can't use the GD though!

[WonderNine]

Hmm, there's lots of better hollowpoints out there....

[cratz2]

Hrmm... well, my Kahr P9 Covert (also bought off the internet.. this forum as a matter of fact) feeds the 124 +P Gold Dots just fine. That's what it's loaded with everyday.

One maybe silly thing to check is to take the mags apart and make sure the spring is installed correctly... This is easy for a former owner to possibly install incorrectly. And while they're apart, clean and very lightly lube them if you haven't already.

If that doesn't fix it, I'd buy a couple new mag springs and a recoil spring while I was at it.

http://photos.imageevent.com/cratz2/guns//aDCP_2790.jpg

[boing]

FWIW, my old K9 didn't like 124 gr GDs, either. Same malfunction: nose-dive.

[mini14jac]

My PM9 handles the Gold Dots just fine, but it has burped a few times on the Winchester jhps.
I agree with the other guys: Don't sweat it, just shoot ammo that the gun likes.
If you do a search, somebody here has chronographed the WW Personal Protection ammo.
It is loaded slightly hotter than standard ammo.
I think it will serve you well, if your gun likes it.

[PCRCCW]

Id say make sure you have good mag spring ( on a Kahr not likely to go bad) and the rounds are seated correctly.
Nose diving rounds are a sign of mag issues not extractor or feed ramp problems...
Kahrs should feed any and everything. You guys shooting even alittle hotter ammo through them remember your recoil springs will go by by very quickly....well under 1000 rnds.

Shoot well

[BLiTzNicK]

You mean that the recoil spring could be bad after about 800 rounds or so? If that's true, something is very wrong.

[tomkatz]

Javier in the shop at kahr told me to replace the recoil spring every 1000 rds if you are shooting hot ammo.....tom

[cratz2]

You mean that the recoil spring could be bad after about 800 rounds or so? If that's true, something is very wrong.

For one thing, how can you be absolutely sure of the round count from the previous owner. Things go wrong and things settle in differently. For $20 for a new recoil spring and one mag spring... why not just replace them, to be sure?

1,000 rounds is a good round number. I get more use out of 1911 springs but then, that's a slower round and a longer spring. And again, if you (or whomever) is shooting that much hot +P ammo, a recoil spring every few months shouldn't be that much of a stretch.

[BLiTzNicK]

My K9 is one of the very early models, and is at least 4 years old, so I just ordered a recoil spring and mag spring. I'll buy a box of GDs when I receive the parts. After I test everything out, I'll post back.

[FunYet]

I have the same problem with the same round in my PM9. Happens about 99% of the time. I just use a different round and have no troubles. Aside from this specific problem the gun has run well with over 1000 rounds through it. I just put in a new recoil spring.

[BLiTzNicK]

I received the recoil and mag springs this week. I took the K9 out to my parents farm, and fired of about 200 rounds. I couldn't find any Speer Gold-Dot locally (on order), so I went to Wal-Mart and bought the Winchester White Box JHP.

I fired 100 rounds of the JHP, and 100 or so rounds of the WWB 115 gr. value pack. These rounds were broken up over the course of 2 days. 50 rounds of each load were fired each day.

All rounds fed and ejected fine except for one Type II malfunction (stovepipe), towards the end of the first 100 rounds. An instinctive "Tap Rack Ready" cleared the stopage quickly.

The lone malfunction was probably shooter error. My hands really start to shake after about 50 rounds or so from the K9, and I probably moved a hair while shooting, causing the jam.

Looks like my problems are solved for now. When the shop gets some more Gold-Dots in, I'll buy a couple of boxes and see how they do.

[twolf]

Those Speers might not have been seated right and have been too long. I would try another box.

[BLiTzNicK]

I still haven't found a 50 round box of the GDs. All I can find is the 20 rd boxes, and I ain't paying $12 for 20 rounds. The WWB 115JHP load works fine, so I'm gonna stick with it in this pistol for a while.

The Kahr is at the "gun plumbers" right now getting a nice new "blue job", so testing ammo is not a priority.

[emc]

Another thing to consider is trying a different magazine. While hopefully things are working well now, I had to get a magazine replaced when I first purchased my Kahr K9. They were very nice about it.

FWIW,

emc