Anyone have problems with Federal HydraShock?

bigweb2001 said:

Just picked up a couple boxes at Dicks yesterday. Didnt get a chance to go to the range, but when i loaded a mag and tried to feed the 1st round and the slide just locked and would not to into battery. Looked like the hollow point was too wide/not tapered enough to feed smoothly vs. say a Hornady round?

Thanks....

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question. did you try to rack the slide to load that first round???If you did, then go back and try it using the slide lock release lever and see if it feeds OK. I would be suprised if it was the federal round .

Unless you can't find any fmj ammo to break it in with then defense ammo is OK to break it in with but why use such expensive ammo for break in until it is right.

I can tell you on my P380 that recoil spring is one tough umbrey and is very diffiicult for me to rack the slide properly,but using the slide lock release lever, it works perfect. I know I will get better with it but there just isn't alot of slide to grab ahold of to rack properly and with what I think is heavy recoil springs, only adds to the difficulty. I have about 500 rouonds through mine and it works perfect when I do my part right alsol.

Major said:

I had the same problem racking the slide with Fed HS and WWB. Speer GD didn't cause a problem.

But, after reading this forum and Jocko's advice and going back to the manual ... I tried the slide stop lever technique. I was able to chamber the first round for every type of ammo I have. I don't understand why ... but it works.

Big confidence boost.

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try this: For some reason if you load one round shy in your magazine, u can rack that slide with much better success. My shooting drills has provent his to be true for my anyhow. Load one shy and rack away, u will also get better at it to, as ur success will get better and your confidence also.

When I load to carry I used to load full magazine and with slide lock lever it would load any round I wanted, and then I just popped out the magazine and put that extra round back in it. Ifyou gonna do what I do and want to rack the slide to load, then just load one round shy and thenpullthe magazine and load 2 rounds and you are good to go.

I can say that after 1500 rounds through my P380 it is for me the most difficlult of any gun I have ever tried to rack to load--successfully. There is no doubt those recoil springs are stout as hell, maybe also we are getting so many reports of a "nice" shooting low recoil gun also.

I don't worry about that stuff, for when I carry,it is loaded and I don't carry a spare magazine, so racking for me is a no brainer . YMMV.

they are rackable, some never have any issues doing it. My P380 is as smooth as glass but still not easy for me to rack with perfection and if you don't have faith in doing it, then use the slide lock lever, it won't let you down. It will release that slide every time with the same velocity needed to load a round properly. Using the slide lock lever eliminates any possably riding of the slide...

Bizarre slide rack technique-works flawlessly for me!!!

I have put 75 rounds, cleaned, and then on another day, put another 75 rounds thru P380 without a problem at all. I agree, THE most difficult gun to rack the slide to load but I found a weird techniques that works every time for me. Maybe I discovered it because I was sweating in an indoor range and had trouble gripping the small gun or whatever but, when the slide locks open and gun is empty- I press the slide release and let the slide return, insert a new mag into the gun- switch to my non shooting hand and "slingshot" rack the slide smartly without riding it- with my shooting hand, then return the P380 back to my shooting hand to fire again with new mag.
If I am loading to carry on the street- I do the same routine and then pop out mag and add another round.
Not sure if I explained it correctly but I have been able to practice that technique (and can do it quick now) 500 times consecutively without once not being able to raqck the new round in.

Not sure why switching to my non shooting hand and doing what I call "slingshotting" the slide with my strong hand works so well for me ( I admit I would be skeptical to hear of the technique) but it does. The only reason I say I have been able to do it 500X in a row is because I have not tried more but I am sure I can.
Hope this makes sense?
Also, I wanted to give a thumbs up and sho ;Dut out to Ian Burr in Kahr Arms customer service. When I purchased the P380, one of the magazines butt plates would not lock in place and was able to slide off.
I mailed the mag back to the factory and also ordered an additional mag from the Kahr website. Both magazines came together, via UPS in one week!!!

2 of us fired 250 rounds yesterday (it was the only .380 we could get). There had already been 250 Aguila through the barrel for break in (again all I could get at the time).

A THOUOUGH cleaning had been done after the initial 250.

The Federal was fine for the first 150 and then we started getting stovepipes on every magazine (6 different mags) in the middle of the mag.

Reloaded all of the mags to make sure that the rounds were all of the way back, did a field cleaning and the problem continued the same way through the remainer of the 250.

I didn't have time to talk to Kahr today but will do so next week. I had way too many stovepipes, FTE's and FTF's in the inital break in (at least 20 after the first 50 rds). There were only a couple that were my fault.

Needless to say, I'm very unhappy with the performance and certainly can't rely on this as a carry pistol.

All of my disassemblies and reassemblies followed the video carefully and the springs are positioned correctly. I am not and have no desire to be a gunsmith so if there's something to be done, it'll be up to Kahr to do it after I speak with them.