StrikeFire83
Member
Hello everyone. I've been eying a deep concealment .380 handgun for situations where I can't carry my Glock 26. I was going to pick up something last year but then I began following the CW380 since it turned up at SHOT last January. We were expecting it at the end of the summer but they delayed production and they're starting to arrive at dealers now. I went to the local gun show today and found one for $349 + tax.
So what to do? I bought 200 rounds of .380 of differing manufacture and headed out to my range to break the thing in.
My Shooting
50 rounds Monarch FMJ at 7 yards (21 feet)
50 rounds Privi Partizan FMJ at 7 yards (21 feet)
50 rounds WWB FMJ at 7 yards (21 feet)
3 mags of Monarch FMJ at 15 yards (45 feet)
Function
Kahr has a 200 round "break in period" and I remember from my PM9 that it is a real thing. The good news: I did not encounter any failures to feed, double feeds, stovepipes, or failures to return to full battery. HOWEVER, throughout the first 150 rounds the slide kept locking back on a partially full magazine. In the first 100 rounds it happened about once per magazine. Between rounds 100-150 it happened several times, but slightly less. In the last 50 rounds, the slide locked back exactly TWICE, and did not do so on my last 3 mags. So, hopefully this was just the standard Kahr break in period and the gun was just loosening up. We will see on future range trips. I'm hopeful and optimistic.
Accuracy
In a word…excellent. I'm not the world's best pistol shot, but I'm decent, and I had no trouble obtaining the groups above while firing fairly quickly. The Kahr trigger is really great. Different than Glock and XD, but I have no trouble transitioning to it. The sights are great, simple, and they work. To be able to keep (almost) all the shots on 5 inch Birchwood Casey @ 15 yards with this tiny gun was surprising and made me happy. Also, 200 rounds in a single range session and my hands don't hurt, I have no blisters, etc.
Competition
I did a pocket .380 comparison some time back. Honestly, if this gun proves reliable over time, I see NO REASON why anyone would buy a Ruger LCP, Taurus TCP, Diamondback. The DB 380 is garbage, and while the Taurus and the Ruger function reliably, their triggers/sights don't even begin to compare. At $349, I see no reason NOT to get the Kahr. Only S&W's Bodyguard 380 comes close.
Nit Picks
So when I disassembled the gun to clean it I noticed a small burr on the "half moon" cutout that the slide stop goes thru during disassembly:
Hopefully this won't affect function. I simply don't care about tiny tooling marks inside my guns.
Well, that's it. Please post your thoughts. I'll periodically post new threads about my experiences with this gun, because I don't know of any long term testing of Kahr 380s, and very few reviews of this gun are online other than Jeff "I love everything" Quinn's Gunblast write-up.
So what to do? I bought 200 rounds of .380 of differing manufacture and headed out to my range to break the thing in.
My Shooting
50 rounds Monarch FMJ at 7 yards (21 feet)
50 rounds Privi Partizan FMJ at 7 yards (21 feet)
50 rounds WWB FMJ at 7 yards (21 feet)
3 mags of Monarch FMJ at 15 yards (45 feet)
Function
Kahr has a 200 round "break in period" and I remember from my PM9 that it is a real thing. The good news: I did not encounter any failures to feed, double feeds, stovepipes, or failures to return to full battery. HOWEVER, throughout the first 150 rounds the slide kept locking back on a partially full magazine. In the first 100 rounds it happened about once per magazine. Between rounds 100-150 it happened several times, but slightly less. In the last 50 rounds, the slide locked back exactly TWICE, and did not do so on my last 3 mags. So, hopefully this was just the standard Kahr break in period and the gun was just loosening up. We will see on future range trips. I'm hopeful and optimistic.
Accuracy
In a word…excellent. I'm not the world's best pistol shot, but I'm decent, and I had no trouble obtaining the groups above while firing fairly quickly. The Kahr trigger is really great. Different than Glock and XD, but I have no trouble transitioning to it. The sights are great, simple, and they work. To be able to keep (almost) all the shots on 5 inch Birchwood Casey @ 15 yards with this tiny gun was surprising and made me happy. Also, 200 rounds in a single range session and my hands don't hurt, I have no blisters, etc.
Competition
I did a pocket .380 comparison some time back. Honestly, if this gun proves reliable over time, I see NO REASON why anyone would buy a Ruger LCP, Taurus TCP, Diamondback. The DB 380 is garbage, and while the Taurus and the Ruger function reliably, their triggers/sights don't even begin to compare. At $349, I see no reason NOT to get the Kahr. Only S&W's Bodyguard 380 comes close.
Nit Picks
So when I disassembled the gun to clean it I noticed a small burr on the "half moon" cutout that the slide stop goes thru during disassembly:
Hopefully this won't affect function. I simply don't care about tiny tooling marks inside my guns.
Well, that's it. Please post your thoughts. I'll periodically post new threads about my experiences with this gun, because I don't know of any long term testing of Kahr 380s, and very few reviews of this gun are online other than Jeff "I love everything" Quinn's Gunblast write-up.