[brent375hh]

P380 Mag Follower & slide stop

My new P380 had numerous failures to feed both Hornady & Federal HP ammo this weekend long after 200 rounds. It appears that the follower is the problem. When I look at the front of the follower it seems lower than the rear so that when you have loaded ammo into it the second round is pointed down compared to the first. When the slide comes forward, the top round dives down before hitting the feed ramp then goes back up. With ball ammo this is not a problem since the round shape is deflected upwards, but flat nose and hp ammo does not like it.

When I load a magazine to capacity on my HK guns or even my NAA Guardian, the bullet of the second round is touching the first as opposed to being 5-10 degrees from perpendicular. This prevents the top round from nose diving into the feed ramp. My guns that keep the nose of the bullet up are the ones that run thousands of rounds between malfuntions.

Could anydody tell me if they have the same follower design?

Also do the rest of you have a problem with your thumb touching the slide stop and keeping it down on the last shot?


Thanks

 

[jocko]

Re: P380 Mag Follower & slide stop

call kahr and run your issues by them. The slide stop thing is shooter hand postion. Ur gonna have to change your thump postion. I havenever had one issue, but I am left handed.

Have u taken your magazine apart to check them over to see if all is OK inside the magazines. I am assumning that both of ur magaznes are doing this also???

One thing to check is also the recoil springs. (both of them) The open ended part of both recoil springs MUST go towards the front of the slide. Otherwise u will get feed issues...

 

[brent375hh]

Re: P380 Mag Follower & slide stop

The springs are installed correctly. Just wondering if anybody else could load a magazine and see if the top two rounds were touching in the front or not.

I realize that I need to move my thumb, I kind of think that the slide stop is too big for a gun this size. Perhaps I will buy another and make it (grind & polish) until it is Glock size.

 

[jocko]

Re: P380 Mag Follower & slide stop

I modified mine on my PM9 that is about half the size it was. Just took a dremel and a sanding drum and aobut 10 minutes of my time. It is worth a try, at best you can just screw up a slide release but I don't really see how even.

I don't think the slide release is to big on this gun definitely not the size of the glocks as u stated but the glock is a slide release only, this release is also the take down part also and the way this is designed to work the slide lock is completley different than a glock or for that matter any other gun I have seen, but u sure can modifty it to be smaller and contoured 360 degrees to..

 

[brent375hh]

Re: P380 Mag Follower & slide stop

I think that polishing the mag lips will help somewhat and all the procedures you describe are common, I doubt that they will fix the problem I describe. While I suppose that I don't have to use Hydra Shoks, it would be reassuring that it does not choke on them either. The problem I have is with the geometry of the round feeding in the chamber. In a good design it does not nose dive into the bottom of the feed ramp and then go in, but rather hits the middle or top of the ramp and feeds in. Once again if the second round from the top is not pushing up on the top round from the front, the top round will start nosing down as it feeds forward until it hits the ramp. Hydra Shoks are a little shorter (.940) than many rounds and have a fairly wide mouth to boot, so that is also part of the issue. I will bet nobody has got 50 of these to feed in their P380 without some of the issue I detail. Ball does work just fine due to the profile.


I have not comtacted Kahr yet. My brother in law contacted them about many failures to fire on his PM9 and was told to try hotter ammo, which shows they are not so smart.
He purchased a new firing pin that had more protrusion than the original defective one and now it runs 100%. Read reveiws of the PM40 for more customer service stories.

 

[jfwandrn]

Re: P380 Mag Follower & slide stop

Jocko

The video on this forum (Media Section) shows the small spring closed end facing out and the large spring closed end against the stop. They even have a blow up picture showing this. Are you sure both open ends are supposed to face out?

Jack

 

[jocko]

Re: P380 Mag Follower & slide stop

Jocko

The video on this forum (Media Section) shows the small spring closed end facing out and the large spring closed end against the stop. They even have a blow up picture showing this. Are you sure both open ends are supposed to face out?

Jack

No ur are dead right. the inner spring has the closed end towards the front of the slide. thanks for catching that...

the outer spring MUST be on correctly or issues will occur, that is for sure.

thats an excellent video, I guess I should have watched it instead of think ing I knew it all-huh??

 

[jfwandrn]

Re: P380 Mag Follower & slide stop

Thanks Jocko for confirming what I was seeing. I have been shooting mine the way the video shows and haven't had any problems, but I was beginning to wonder if you had gotten some newer information from Kahr and the video was incorrect.

Jack

 

[brent375hh]

Re: P380 Mag Follower & slide stop

Could I pester another owner to look at their magazine loaded with 6 rounds and tell me if the top two rounds are touching in the front, or is there a gap?

Also does your feed ramp extend all the way at the same angle or does the last .200 point straight down the mag well?

Thanks

 

[jocko]

Re: P380 Mag Follower & slide stop

Could I pester another owner to look at their magazine loaded with 6 rounds and tell me if the top two rounds are touching in the front, or is there a gap?

Also does your feed ramp extend all the way at the same angle or does the last .200 point straight down the mag well?

Thanks

my two are not touching at all. and if ur referring to the magazine follower, the best I can tell you is that mine from looking at it from the left side where the metal pin sticks out that makes contact with the slide lock lever, when the magazine is totally empty, I can barely see part of the magazine spring.

 

[brent375hh]

Re: P380 Mag Follower & slide stop

Thanks Jocko, that is what I needed.

 

[jocko]

Re: P380 Mag Follower & slide stop

Thanks Jocko, that is what I needed.

maybe kraigster or one of the other guys here can post a photo of a loaded magazine where the top two rounds are show and not touching as u indicate is happening to yours. I can't post photos. ur damn lucky to get what u can get from me on these sites.

 

[RobR369]

Re: P380 Mag Follower & slide stop

Thanks Jocko, that is what I needed.

I can't post photos. ur damn lucky to get what u can get from me on these sites.

Lucky????? boy I would hate to see UNLUCKY!!!! ;D ;D

 

[TkFF]

Re: P380 Mag Follower & slide stop

Here is a pic of the mag without the front ends of the gold dots touching

 

[brent375hh]

Re: P380 Mag Follower & slide stop

TkFF,

Since I know you have Gold Dots...

If you were to lock your slide open and slowly insert a loaded mag, does the slide stop just nick the bullet as you insert the magazine?
Mine does, but if I filed it down, I am afraid it might fail to catch the follower and work properly.

I still think that XPT and Critical Defense are the way to go with this gun.

 

[jocko]

Re: P380 Mag Follower & slide stop

TkFF,

Since I know you have Gold Dots...

If you were to lock your slide open and slowly insert a loaded mag, does the slide stop just nick the bullet as you insert the magazine?
Mine does, but if I filed it down, I am afraid it might fail to catch the follower and work properly.

I still think that XPT and Critical Defense are the way to go with this gun.

brent, u can't hurt a darn thing with what u are considering. Many 1911 owners have to rework the slide lock lever to get proper functioning. I had to do it on my Para carry 9 before it got right.. Evidently your slide stop is alittle to big on the indside. If you know it is hitting, just take a small fine file and work that area down slowly,using the bullet as ur guide to see if it clears. U would have to take a ton of metal off to screw up the magazine follower from not making contact with it. You won't hurt one thing.

Also call kahr and tell them what it is doing, and I bet if u ask they will send u a new slide lever no charge. sure beats sending it back and no doubt they wiill just install a new slilde lock lever. A very costly and time consuming thing and totally not necessary. You should do the first choice first IMO but call kahr, I know they will send u a new slide lock lever.

your slidle lock lever is machined forged steel, If there is a drawback it is tolerances can change as the machine changes. Alot of people hate MIM parts but IMO a MIM slide lock lever (which is on every cw series kahrs bythe way) is true to form as they are mold poured. I have never heard ever of one Kahr slide stop MIM lever ever breaking. There is just no force in that area even.

You can send your gun back to karh and be without it for 2 to 4 weeks or IMO you can make this small adjustment yourself. At the worst case scenario, you can ruin the slide stop lever (but I doubt it) and then just install the new one that u called Kahr and had them send to you and THEN if all that b. s. fails then box it up on kahrs nickel and send it back...

 

[TkFF]

Re: P380 Mag Follower & slide stop

TkFF,

Since I know you have Gold Dots...

If you were to lock your slide open and slowly insert a loaded mag, does the slide stop just nick the bullet as you insert the magazine?
Mine does, but if I filed it down, I am afraid it might fail to catch the follower and work properly.

I still think that XPT and Critical Defense are the way to go with this gun.

I will check when i get home from shift tomorrow morning, but witht he GDHP i have had no issues, granted it was just 43 rounds worth. I get 100 more tomorrow which I bought off a seller on glocktalk, and will put another 75 though it just for my piece of mind.

 

[TkFF]

Re: P380 Mag Follower & slide stop

Hey all, just checked my p380 to see if the slide lock made contact with any of the rounds in my mag, and guess what? With GDHP, Golden Sabers and WWB, all of them contacted the slide lock, quite considerably. I called kahr 5 minutes ago, and asked If they had the part in stock, he said not yet. I then asked Glen from Kahr if I can Dremel away a little at a time until it clears the round, he said that would be OK, just like Jocko said.

 

[jocko]

Re: P380 Mag Follower & slide stop

Hey all, just checked my p380 to see if the slide lock made contact with any of the rounds in my mag, and guess what? With GDHP, Golden Sabers and WWB, all of them contacted the slide lock, quite considerably. I called kahr 5 minutes ago, and asked If they had the part in stock, he said not yet. I then asked Glen from Kahr if I can Dremel away a little at a time until it clears the round, he said that would be OK, just like Jocko said.

NO CHARGE FOR THAT ADVICE ;D ;D ;D

 

[TkFF]

Re: P380 Mag Follower & slide stop

Dremeled a small amount of the slide lock, still holds open on an empty mag. Taking it to the range with the Gold Dots and its middle brother the PM9...btw the PM40 with big dots is very very nice ;D