P380 Won't Run

[gbran]

[/IMG] My all time favorite gun was the Kahr PM9. It was such a dream for carry, but I could never get it to be reliable. I have an MK40 that runs fine. So all these years later, I took a chance on the P380.

Went to try it out Sunday. Would never load 1st round in mag. Had to fiddle with it. Then it wouldn't run more than 2 rounds without stovepiping with both mags and 3 different types of ball ammo.

Went home, stripped it, cleaned and oiled it. I did oil it before I took it out. Will go try again next weekend.

Open to all recomendations. I really want this little gun to work.

 

[Zaydok Allen]

Try different ammo. If the problem persists, contact customer service.

 

[jhb]

doesnt kahr say a bunch of rounds break in to get it working?

i never believed in that myself. gun should run from first round until something breaks. that aside...pretty sure kahr will say to put so many rounds through it first, so guess ya might as well to eliminate them leaning on that.

 

[Tirod]

Kahr does say shoot at least 200 rounds thru it.

Mine (residing in a shoulder holster as I type this) is going to see it's third box of 50 cheap steel cased rounds, uncleaned from purchase, and it works just fine. The low priced junk fodder does tend to keep it from locking back on the last shot, but Hornady American Gunner has no issues. I have yet to clean it.

What three brands and loads did you shoot? It makes a difference. A personal defense gun in the smaller sizes cannot be held to the same "shoots anything" standard of a large frame duty gun. They all have a narrow window of higher power ammo that ensures reliability. No one expects them to handle things like a full size 3Gen S&W automatic which can load empty cases. Smaller guns need full power ammo - the original Rohrbaugh was only given one load it would work with from that maker. Others did but it was only one recommended load they would warrant.

Bullet weight makes a difference, too, so it goes to what ammo was being shot? Run at least the 200 rounds, first, and expect the cheaper stuff to malfunction. It's normal and you get to familiarize yourself with the gun in the process. After 200 rounds it should be running without fault - on good, "expensive" defensive ammo.

Keep shooting. Those who have spent $1,100 for a carry 1911 report the same issues - guns are not guaranteed to work flawlessly until the sharp edges are broken. The trigger will improve some, too, although Kahrs are legendary for great triggers out of the box.

 

[gbran]

Kahr does say shoot at least 200 rounds thru it.

Mine (residing in a shoulder holster as I type this) is going to see it's third box of 50 cheap steel cased rounds, uncleaned from purchase, and it works just fine. The low priced junk fodder does tend to keep it from locking back on the last shot, but Hornady American Gunner has no issues. I have yet to clean it.

What three brands and loads did you shoot? It makes a difference. A personal defense gun in the smaller sizes cannot be held to the same "shoots anything" standard of a large frame duty gun. They all have a narrow window of higher power ammo that ensures reliability. No one expects them to handle things like a full size 3Gen S&W automatic which can load empty cases. Smaller guns need full power ammo - the original Rohrbaugh was only given one load it would work with from that maker. Others did but it was only one recommended load they would warrant.

Bullet weight makes a difference, too, so it goes to what ammo was being shot? Run at least the 200 rounds, first, and expect the cheaper stuff to malfunction. It's normal and you get to familiarize yourself with the gun in the process. After 200 rounds it should be running without fault - on good, "expensive" defensive ammo.

Keep shooting. Those who have spent $1,100 for a carry 1911 report the same issues - guns are not guaranteed to work flawlessly until the sharp edges are broken. The trigger will improve some, too, although Kahrs are legendary for great triggers out of the box.

This thing won't run 3 consecutive rounds. Pretty hard to run 200 rounds thru at this rate. All ammo was 95gr fmj, Win, Aguila and Rem. I need to find both ball and sd ammo it will work with. Will try again this coming weekend, though not optimistic.

 

[Taurus 617 CCW]

I had to fix a guy's P380 several years ago. Similar problems as you described. After looking at almost everything in the gun it ended up going back to Kahr for repair. It had an out of spec extractor. I would also take a look at some fired cases/and inside the chamber to see if it is rough. That will most definitely cause FTE's.

 

[Yanus]

This thing won't run 3 consecutive rounds. Pretty hard to run 200 rounds thru at this rate. All ammo was 95gr fmj, Win, Aguila and Rem. I need to find both ball and sd ammo it will work with. Will try again this coming weekend, though not optimistic.

I have a P380. They are VERY picky about mags. One of the two mags that came with the gun simply would not function at all. I threw it in the trash and bought another mag and it works flawlessly. The other thing, as was previously mentioned, is ammo. Stay with quality US ammo and you should be fine.

 

[unclenunzie]

You might want to try running some synthetic safe gunscrubber through the striker channel as it needs to be completely lube-free. If you're handy you could strip the slide and remove the striker, and make sure there are no flakes of machining leftovers in there.

You could also see if a brass case will hold to the breech face while the gun is field stripped - just to see if the extractor really is gripping the case properly.

 

[Paul7]

I gave up on Kahr plastic guns a long time ago. I hear the steel versions are good.

 

[gbran]

I gave up on Kahr plastic guns a long time ago. I hear the steel versions are good.

I have an SS MK40 that runs fine, had a PM9 that never run great, but good enough to unload.

I can't let this little $800 POS go because I have a conscious, but if I can get it to run better, I'll dump it.

Went out today with 4 dif ball ammo and one box Hornady Critical Defense. I also stripped, cleaned and oiled it. Feed ramp looked good, maybe factory polished.

Ball ammo ran a little better than 1st outing, but still pretty poor. Damned little thing liked the sd ammo, but still not reliable enough.

Hard to believe, but Kahr says all this will clear up and be reliable by 200 rounds. Really hard to take on faith. It will take far more than these 200 break-in rounds for me to trust this gun. So I may still get rid of it. Almost 65, have owned guns for at least 5 decades, currently have 15 other handguns, some better than others, none have ever put me thru this.

Sorry, after gun, ammo, fees, and bs, I'm about a thousand dollars disgusted.

 

[redneck]

I've been down that same road with my girlfriends P380. It was completely un-usable out of the box with Fiocchi and S&B ammo, and not much better with winchester white box. Remington UMC was a slight improvement, and CCI blazer brass was night and day better, almost 100% reliable.

Now that the gun has 4-500 rounds through it it is more reliable. We shoot a fair amount of remington UMC and PMC bronze through it. It doesn't give me any problems whatsoever, but she still has the occasional malfunction. I think they are mostly grip related as she doesn't shoot very much.

It's very annoying and I find it hard to recommend the P380 to people because of it, but at the same time it has the best trigger and sights of any of the pocket guns I've tried, and she still shoots it better than any of the other guns she's tried.

 

[gbran]

I've been down that same road with my girlfriends P380. It was completely un-usable out of the box with Fiocchi and S&B ammo, and not much better with winchester white box. Remington UMC was a slight improvement, and CCI blazer brass was night and day better, almost 100% reliable.

Now that the gun has 4-500 rounds through it it is more reliable. We shoot a fair amount of remington UMC and PMC bronze through it. It doesn't give me any problems whatsoever, but she still has the occasional malfunction. I think they are mostly grip related as she doesn't shoot very much.

This was a mistake, even if I can get it running.

It's very annoying and I find it hard to recommend the P380 to people because of it, but at the same time it has the best trigger and sights of any of the pocket guns I've tried, and she still shoots it better than any of the other guns she's tried.