[mobidutch]

My wife and I took our new P380s to the range today. We got them for CCW, hers is pink with serial RB4xxx, mine is black with serial RD7xxx.

I cleaned and lubed both guns before we shot them.

Between the two of us we shot about 175 rounds. The pink P380 performed quite nicely. PMC Bronze is not its best friend, with 3 failures to feed and 2 FTEs. Only one feed failure using American Eagle FMJ, and flawless using PMC Gold Starfire. I think that if we find the right ammo to feed this gun, it will perform very reliably.

My black P380 was another story. At least 7 or 8 feed failures using PMC Bronze, plus a few FTEs. Also a few feed failures using American Eagle, and one with PMC Gold. Disappointing. I guarantee you that I am not limp-wristing this gun.

But most annoyingly, my black P380 refused to lock back the slide on empty magazine. Not once, no matter which ammo. I am not holding my thumb on the slide release lever.

Could I have done something wrong when reassembling the gun with the slide lock nut or spring?

 

[Toney]

Does your slide lock back on a empty mag cycling the slide by hand?

 

[mobidutch]

Yep, no problems there. As long as the mag is still in place, it easily locks the slide when cycling it.

 

[mobidutch]

Just started cleaning the gun, and looked a little closer at the slide lock spring. Could it have been possible that when I reinserted the slide lock nut, the slide stop spring was BELOW the protrusion on the slide lock nut, instead of resting on top of it? If that happened, would I still have been able to make the slide lock back manually?

 

[Toney]

It might.......

 

[mobidutch]

Shot another 150 rounds today. This time it locked back the slide on empty mag perhaps 50% of the time. Seems to do better on more powerful rounds, I guess that makes sense. But not consistent at all.

What really annoys me though is the many many failures to feed. Starting with slide locked back and feeding it a full mag, then releasing the slide stop, it would jam many times. I made sure to slap that magazine in place nice and tight. Also gave me many feed issues on 2nd and 3rd round, no matter the ammo. Tried round nosed PFC Blazer Brass, PFC Striker HP, and Hornady Critical Defense. They all have feed issues, on both my magazines?

Is this normal??

 

[Toney]

Are you shooting the pink one 100%?

 

[mobidutch]

Are you shooting the pink one 100%?

No sorry, should have mentioned that. Today was just my black P380.

 

[Toney]

No insult, but my p3at would limpwrist pretty easy. These little pistols are harder to shoot than most people think. Just cause a person can shoot a full-size or compact doesn't mean you can shoot a sub compact.

 

[mobidutch]

Yeah, that's a fair suggestion. But I assure you that I am not limp wristing this gun. I'm strangling that puppy like it needs to be killed. My wrist is definitely rigid when I fire. I am not experiencing these issues when I shoot my wife's P380...

 

[Toney]

I now how it sucks to have to send in a new pistol, but if your not having trouble with the pink one its not you.

You know I had the dreaded third round feed problem with my db9

I wonder if you need a new slide stop ? Might try and swap them out and see if the problem follows. Could even swap slides.

 

[ron54]

Here is a suggestion, try swapping the slide stop and the recoil spring from the other P380 as its not having those problems. Then see if the problem still happens when shooting it. Do it one at a time to see if either is the problem. Just a thought since you have 2 of the same guns....If the gun still does it after that at least you know it will have to go back to Kahr, as something more serious is going on....

 

[Toney]

Wow beat you by a minute! !!

 

[ron54]

Wow Toney we were both on the same track at the same time and posted at almost the same time, how did that happen.......,,,,,,,

 

[ron54]

Too funny again.......

 

[mobidutch]

Good suggestion! May take me a few weeks before I get around to shooting again, but I will post back here with results. Thanks for the replies.

 

[mobidutch]

One more update, before I start swapping slides. I think the magazine spring was NOT installed correctly, as far as I can tell. It was installed as depicted in the documentation on Kahr's site, like in the parts diagram here, where it shows the lowest portion of the spring sticking out the magazine. With the spring installed that way, the "highest point" of the spring rests against the "lowest point" of the magazine follower.

It seems to me this a) could cause nosedives while feeding bullets and b) would not push the little notch in the magazine follower up high enough to engage the slide stop in time.

My wife's P380 had the springs reversed, which seems more logical. I have reversed the springs in mine as well, and will test again at my earliest opportunity. If it still does not lock back, I'll try the mag from my wife's P380, just to rule out issues with the little metal notch in the follower.

I'll report back here. Thanks for the suggestions!

 

[Toney]

You now I bought a m96 that wouldn't lock back, got it home and it was the mag spring in backwards. Got a good deal on it!!!!!

 

[ron54]

You just may have solved your problem. The highest point on the spring end, is the one that should be pushing against the feed end of the follower. I hope I described that clearly.......if you have it that way you are good to go.

 

[mobidutch]

Shot another 100 rounds with my P380 last night. Perhaps a slight improvement, but things are still too unreliable for my taste. Still getting at least 1 failure to feed on every 2 mags, and with at least 1 (random) out of 3 mags no slide lock back. Also tried swapping in my wife's mags, but getting same result. Her P380 performs better. On hers I get perhaps 1 failure to feed every 8 mags, and no issues with slide lock back.

I suppose I could swap slides between the P380s to continue testing, but the best I could accomplish with that is pinpoint the issue towards slide or frame, at the expense of quite a few more rounds.

So I contacted Jay at Kahr, and I'll be sending my P380 in for inspection today. Will post results here again in a few weeks.