Kahr Kaboom.....

I think thumb pressure is pretty hard to define. I lean place mine against the side of the bench and lean on them pretty hard before I measure them again. If the measurement's the same then I figure I'm good to go. It's usually pretty obvious to me if I'm using too little crimp as you can feel/see the bullet moving back.

Just my .02

Regards,
Dave

Yikes! Never use brass without knowing it's history (number of loads, charges) It just isn't worth it. I'll grab my own brass but no way I'll pick up brass off the range and use it. I'd say you got a little scre that could've been much worse. Take it as a lesson learned and don't be discouraged about shooting or continued relooading. if it makes your reloading more carefully watched. It wasn't a completely bad thing. Hopefully Kahr will be able to repair your gun w/o a huge bill.

Classic double charge kaboom, what type loading set up, progressive.?
Just curious. I doubt a weak case with the load stated would do this damage.

Make up a magazine worth of dummy rounds. Run them thru like you normally would reload but with no primer and no powder. Measure the OAL of the rounds. Load the mag and cycle each thru the gun from full slide back ("slingshot" loading). Measure the OAL of the ejected rounds, if any are shorter you need more crimp. If they all pass repeat a second and third time.

Even factory rounds will setback from multiple cycles thru the gun eventually, but two or three trips shouldn't cause a measurable difference -- if you can measure it, its a problem. How many times thru before you get set back varies with the gun, bullet shape, and brand of ammo. With revolvers you have the opposite problem of bullets walking forward from recoil which can lock up the gun very solidly and ruin your day.

--wally.

Id say double charge/weak brass/and the possibility of to much OAL that pushed the weak part of the case out of the chamber. Kahrs have a better chamber design than Glocks...but not as supported as CZ and the likes.......
Glad your ok.............Shoot well.

One whack with the kinetic puller for your reloads vs. three for the factory rounds, I'm betting that's your problem, you need more crimp. Even if 999 out of 1000 don't set back, it only takes that one with 50-100% more pressure to wreck you gun!

When setting up the Lee factory crip die (I thought you said that's what you used, a very good choice IMHO) I find with lead bullets I usually need about two to three turns in after first touching the seated bullet (vs. one or two for jacketed). When filling the pipeline on my Hornady progressive the extra handle force required when the first round comes to the crimp die is very obvious. I always err on the side of extra crimp.

One long shot, check your powder measure drop path to make sure there is no grease, oil, wax, etc. inside, as this can cause a "log jam" during the power drop leading to a light charge one time and a overcharge another. Not likely since your chrono's loads seem pretty consistent, but again it only has to go wrong once. Never happened to me, but I've heard it offered as a reason for poor consistancy or possible overload situations. Basically you should never find powder flakes clinging inside the drop surfaces, if you ever do is a major warning sign!

The dummy round test is a good idea when using a different bullet for the first time. Three times thru the gun with no change in OAL leaves me feeling good that crimp is adaquate, but its also wise to make it a policy to never rechamber one of your reloads, trash it if you need to clear it. Probably wise to do this with factory ammo too, but I don't unless I see signs of set back, in whach case I'd stop buying that brand for sure!

When you get your Kahr back, I'd not shoot lead bullets in it because of the "Glock-like" polygonal rifling. Kahr recently introduced a "low end" Polymer 9mm (P9 sized, I forget the name, but its ~$150 less than the P9) with standard rifling to compete on price and for those who want lead bullets for practice.

--wally.

People that reload 9mm have too much time on their hands. Sports Authority is selling 50 round boxes for under $10.00 this week.

As soon as I start reading one of these kb threads and I see that reloads were being shot when it happened I just roll my eyes and go on to another thread. I think thats what alot of people do, though. As soon as you mention you were using your own reloads it is automatically your fault, not the gun's. While that may not be true in all cases, it usually is 90% of the time.

You gotta love them good ol progressive presses. Handloading should be quality over quantity. Especally when wallyworld has Winchester white box 9mm for $11 per 100.

It's easier to make mistakes on presses other than progressives. Once the brass is started in the press it stays there until completion. It's less likely that step gets skipped or done twice.

You can reload 9's for about $70/K using quality bullets. That works out to a free 1000 rounds for every 3000 you reload. On a good progressive that is about 4 hours of work to save ~$45/K.

Of course it takes a lot of reloading to pay for a blown up gun.

A friend of mine owns a PM9 (as do I) and he had the EXACT same problem as you. He was shooting his own 9mm reloads through his PM9 and it blew that side panel off. He sent it back to Kahr and they replaced the panel and fixed the gun under warranty.

GlockNation said:

People that reload 9mm have too much time on their hands. Sports Authority is selling 50 round boxes for under $10.00 this week.

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That's expensive, yesterday I just picked up some Blazer 9mm (50 round box) for $3.89 per box at Academy Sports and Outdoors. With that price I can easily justify to the wife that I can go to the range more often.

Larry...I had a similar incident with my P40.I had owned the gun 300+ rounds.It did not seem to want to go completely in battery.I could push it the last 1/10th of an inch.I changed the recoil spring (to the next heavier spring weight) and things appeared to be OK.Next time out I`m shooting 155 gr Federal H/Ps and firing somewhat rapidly.It blew out in the same spot and as you say it stung me like my 3rd grade teacher and her infamous ruler on my palm.I found the bulged piece of brass and sent it to Kahr with my pistol.It took about 2 months but I finally got my slide and a new frame back.
Wouldn`t shoot.Sent a new slide . Finally got it running.Kahr seems to have a 10 step plan to resolving problems but at least it`s resolved.Johnny

You mean $3.86!

jlh26oo said:

You mean $3.86!

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Yes sir, you are correct!

That's good news. Score one for Kahr customer service.

The $3.86 CCI 9mm is at Academy, which is only as far west as texas right now. Can't reload them (aluminum), but much cleaner than WWB. And for a dollar more you can get CCI in brass, if you must reload 9mm.

But FYI when you are buying your WWB at walmart- yes the 100 box, the so called "value pack", is almost $11.00. But notice how much the fifty packs are of the same stuff- $4.63! COst more for the "value pack"!

Larryect said:

Update.
I talked to Kahr today. They said there would be no charge to repair the gun

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Its good PR for them, after all why spend 10's of thousands on ads when one "my Kahr blew up" will generate a lot of bad word of mouth even though dollars to donuts it was his own reloads to blame. Whereas Kahr comes out ahead since "my Kahr blew up but Kahr fixed it for free" is at least neutral if not a little positive knowning they stand 100% behind their product.

Zippo lighters have a 100% no questions asked repair/replacement policy. My friend ran over his with the power mower so he sent the pieces back and sure enough got a new Zippo for free. Years later there was a TV special and one of the segments was about Zippo's "Hall of Shame" replacements that clearly were 100% the owners fault -- my firend's pieces were there

--wally.

Larryect said:

The case is marked "WIN 9mm LUGER"

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If that's Winchester 9mm Luger range/target ammo, that stuff is $11 for a box of 100 rounds at Wally World, which works out to 11 cents a shot. One, can you reload for less than that, and two, for that price, I'd think it was possible that it was cheaper brass?

And as to scrounging brass off the range floor that you have no idea of the origin of? That I would NOT do. Remember how old the 9mm cartridge is...some of that brass could be from someone's WWII-era stock, reloaded who knows how many times, or cheap knockoff from somewhere else in the world, bad metallurgy, stored improperly...who knows?

GlockNation said:

People that reload 9mm have too much time on their hands. Sports Authority is selling 50 round boxes for under $10.00 this week.

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Sports Authority in NH doesn't have anything but airsoft toys anymore. I'm jealous.

My guess is your handload (haven't looked at any tables) is on the hot side and the Kahr doesn't support the case as far down as the other nines you've been shooting, blew out at the feed ramp where it doesn't support.

IOW, I blame your load. Gotta be careful when shooting hot loads in an autoloader. Buy a new gun, load lighter and work up for THAT gun.

I can load JHP 9s for five bucks a box, about. I can buy 'em for a couple bucks more. But, reason I reload is I was shooting IDPA pretty heavily and I worked a load for my IDPA gun that was accurate and reliable to minimum IDPA power factor (least muzzle flip). I do have a Dillon progressive that takes some of the work out. And, I can load hand cast bullets much cheaper, but don't. 9s are finicky to cast bullets for and to load cast loads for.