[Palindrome]

My pistol is still new to me, has about 800 rounds through it. Took it to the range today at lunchtime and shot 100 more. I shot the first 50-60 rounds two handed or one-handed (right) and switched to the left hand at about that point. I understand that the gun gets dirtier as it shoots more rounds but EVERY shot with my left hand resulted in the brass becoming lodged in the slide port and jamming up the works. If I switched back to two handed or right handed shooting, there were no problems at all. Maybe just coincidence in a gun that was getting dirty by sixty rounds or so or is there something mechanical in the trigger mechanism or elsewhere that causes the gun to not fully eject spent brass with maybe slight leftward trigger pressure? I'm a little embarrassed asking this because I can't imagine a mechanical reason for this phenomenon today but it did happen consistently. Thanks in advance.

 

[pfgrone]

Are you right-handed. If so, I would suspect your left hand has a weaker grip than your right and you might be "limp wristing". Just a thought. I have had my P380 for about a year now. Kept having troubles with stove pipes. Sent it back to Kahr twice. The last time, they couldn't get it to have stove pipes. I am 75 and getting weaker hands. I've worked with hand grips and squeezing a rubber ball for about three months. Guess what - no more stove pipes.

 

[Palindrome]

Did a little research on "limp-wristing." I am a cowboy action shooter and don't have these problems with my full case black powder .45s, one revolver in each hand. This little gun is completely and totally different and I didn't fully understand the limp-wristing concept. I'm sure that's the answer and gives me something to work on. Thank you for your help.

 

[TominCA]

I'm a lefty and I was having problems with my P380 stovepiping. For a while I thought it was the gun but it turned out that I was letting it twist to the right under recoil. I thought my grip was great! Here is how you fix this bad habit:

Get a box of "range" ammo of normal power (not Corbon or Speer Gold Dot of Black Hills, etc because these are too powerful and won't do it) The best ammo for this is Fed Red Box, Rem UMC or Winchester White Box because it is normal power. Fiocci also works pretty good.

Remember that ole Marine Corps one hand hold? That's what you should use. You will look like an old time but hey - this will cure the problem. Next shoot the gun but DO NOT look at the sights or the target. Just watch the case eject. You will have trouble doing this at first because you are probably trained for front sight and target - but keep it up and soon you will be watching that empty pop out of the chamber. Once you get that down finding the proper grip was easy. I am a pretty experienced shooter but I was allowing the P380 to rotate to the right. The gun would be rotating as the case was coming back and catch it in the slide as it closed, before the case could clear the port. So I changed my grip (to the one I learned from the Marine shooting instructor - ha ha they were right!)

You will also notice that there is a lot of variation in some of this range ammo. You can tell the power by how the case ejects. The little P380 functions much better with the hotter stuff and the increased slide velocity usually gets the case out regardless of hold. Hope this helps!

 

[Palindrome]

Thank you. Excellent suggestion that I will try to implement this week.

 

[Palindrome]

To the range today with attention to grip. ZERO problems, no stove-pipes. That was it, Thanks.

 

[natrab]

Just picked up my P380 today and took it to the range. I put about 80 rounds through it and had the same thing happen about 6 times (spent case catching sideways in the ejector). I am left handed normally and have a good grip, but I did find this tiny gun a little more difficult to keep control of. I put on a hogue wrap around tonight and will try it again to see if that helps. This mostly happened when practicing point shooting or one handed shooting, so the rightward recoil thing makes sense.

Using two hands it still happened, however. When really concentrating on keeping the muzzle straight forward, I could get all 6 rounds off without a hitch. This is something I really need to master since I intend to use this as a CCW.

The accuracy is incredible on this little guy and I was able to put 25 rounds within a 10 inch circle at 25 yards right off the bat. Better than my Sig 239 that this is replacing.

 

[TominCA]

Hi - I love the p380 - but had a lot of trouble with mine initally. A good place to get info is the kahr talk forum. Which is where I learned most of mine! Here are some things I've learned about the little pistol. Keep in ming I am not a "skilled" gun person so use the following as information - not gospel !

1) At 80 rounds you are not near broken in! even 200 is marginal for the p380 - I know what you are thinking - wow lots of money for ammo - and you are right - but on the other hand the pistol has much harder steel and lasts virtually forever.

2) Lube - Lube - Lube - Clean often <100 rounds and keep it lbed - especially at first!

3) Last round jams or stovepipes - Can be caused by rim of last case hitting the left tab of magazine and getting knocked out of the extractor by hitting the left mag lip too soon in the extraction cycle - you need to slightly re-profile the top of the left mag lip (see Kahr Talk) It only does this on the last round because when there is a round below the extracting case it is held higher and clears the left mag lip. Again - not all guns do this.

4) Nosedive between round 3/4 (or is it 2/3?) can be caused by the follower hitting a too long magazine catch during feed and slowing down the cartridges in the magazine. Solution: Relieve edge of follower that passes slot in magazine between round 3/4 and / disassembel mag, insert body in fram and see if the mag button penetrates too far into the frame. - if so fix with rat tail file.

5) Does not go fully into battery - usually you get light strikes - this can be too much tension on the extractor spring causing too much resistance to the new cartridge slipping up under the extractor on the return stroke, slowing down the slide.- solution (first buy a new pin for $1.10) is to grind a very little off of the rear extractor pin (about 1/16 inch but go slowly and check frequently. This may or may not be a problem on many guns - check your extractor tension with slide off and cartridge first if you get return to battery problems.

Hope this helps!

Tom

 

[natrab]

I actually bought mine used with 350 rounds down the pipe. The previous owner said he had no FTF or FTE. So this points towards me being a left as to why this is happening. I thoroughly cleaned and greased the gun and added a hogue grip. Hopefully next time at the range will be better.

 

[TominCA]

Some more lefty stuff - There are 2 problems with being a lefty and shooting the p380 - one is bumping the slide lockback during recoil and the other is the gun rotating to the right (rifling twist I think) and catching the ejecting empty case. If you shoot powerful ammo (Cor Bon - Speer Gold Dot) you have a lot of slide velocity for the heavy springs - but if you are shooting variable power range ammo - you don't have that power and have to be real careful of your grip.

I found a solution! I got some "decal grips" from Kahr (about $10) and put them on the right side of the gun. They come in pieces and you just put on the ones you want - I experimented with both the sand surface and the rubber surface ones and ended up using just the one piece of the sand finish grips which fits on the right side below the ejection port. When I shoot I make sure my left index thumb is on that area and the rotation stops completely! They have some kind of no-mess sticky stuff so you can peel them on and off. I liked the sand better.

Now I can blaze away with the cheap stuff!

 

[Cokeman]

Did you get the pink ones? Let's see them.

 

[dougtally]

Same... misfeeds but I thought I 'should' try a heavier recoil spring, but I'm not familiar enough with the mechanics to know it's clearly right or wrong. Would you ever put in a heavier recoil spring to resolve misfeeds? I'm assuming my misfeeds with the P45 are due to my inability to handle a 45 in this size. I'll have to go look at the diagrams to understand shortening the ejector pin.

 

[Toney]

This thread was about limpwristing. A stronger spring will make it worse

 

[dougtally]

Thanks... any merchanical merit to clipping a loop off the single recoil spring?

 

[Toney]

Your pistol could get battered, or you could get feeding problems.

How many rounds has it been through?

You might try locking the slide back for a while.

 

[dougtally]

New Nov 2013, 1100 rounds, purchased two new mags, replaced the main spring and Kahr looked at it and replaced the slide lock. So keeping the slide back will compress or 'loosen' the main spring?

 

[ron54]

It has been known to help loosen it up a bit.......
From what you say it does sound like limp wristing the gun......

 

[dougtally]

Front Sight taught me to frame it like a vice. Right handed, left foot forward facing 1:00 lets my left arm extend a little longer than my right which is stiff-straight. Then I pull-back with the left arm/hand to grip the gun like a vice. It make a difference but I still get misfeeds. I cannot imagine anyone being able to fire it without misfeeds while going through the drills we did at Front Sight. And anyone saying they can shoot it single handed without a misfeed, in my opinion is not being truthful. In some thread months ago... somewhere, a guy said he bought the P45 for his wife due to the nice fit and didn't mention any misfeeds or difficulty for her handling it. I may be off base, but it's hard for me to believe there are not more folks than me fighting to gain reliability in a 45 of the P size handguns.

Engineering can accomplish wonders... but not design a small, light handgun in a large caliber that can manage any handling on its own!

Sure appreciate you're contribution.
Doug

 

[ron54]

The problem is as you mentioned small light handguns are in fact difficult to shoot. Due to steeper feed angles, close tolerances and little mass in the slide to carry the momentum during cycling. Hence the stiff springs and need for a tight grip to eliminate loss of energy during shooting and the slide not having enough energy to cycle properly.....

 

[dougtally]

Wow... that is incredibly knowledgeable and helpful for me to understand the mechanics. Thanks!