I purchased my Kahr CW380 in April of 2014 to not only fill my love of small handguns, but primarily as a deep concealment gun with a locked breech and compromise between size and caliber.
I will not go into the prep and other things about the gun, but I will go into what I found.
First and foremost, the gun is a light recoiling gun for a small package. It is very accurate.
In firing about 1000rds of various loads, the gun had many failures to chamber, mainly failures to feed with bullets nose diving in the magazine, or getting hung up on the ramp to the chamber. A handful of lightstrikes. A less important note, the gun repeatedly would not lock open on an empty magazine.
On a critical note, after about 700 rds, the striker broke.
I was determined to like this small gun, but it just wasn't reliable for defense at all. More concerning than the feed issues, was the fear of the striker breaking again at a critical time.
Well I set the gun aside, but I didn't give up hope. The broken striker issue was not an isolated incident to my pistol alone. Several people had the striker break. Kahr Arms just shrugged off the issue. In my mind, it was curtains for the little gun. This, in my opinion poorly designed striker, made of (MIM metal injected molded) material was an undeniable Achilles Heel. The gun was to be relegated to range status, or more than likely to be sold off.
I was pretty bummed, as I had high hopes for this accurate little pistol.
I almost wrote the Kahr CW380 off completely, but while surfing the net I came upon a part that would be exactly what I wished for. A small company redesigned the two pieces that make up the critical parts of the striker, fixing the critical flaw, and this time, the parts were made not from liquid metal, but from S7 steel, and for under $40.
I couldn't believe it. The parts that arrived looked like works of art.
I began working with the pistol again. I found that the feeding issues, at least in my pistol's case are due to bullet shape. Round or flat nose bullets feed only so well, while conical shaped bullets feed flawlessly, as they provide little friction in the magazine, and are better suited to chamber from the offset feedramp.
Holding my breath, the gun ran 50, then 100rds without an issue, well other than the now occasional failure to lockback, but the gun runs as I had hoped in the beginning. My primary carry load is 95GR HPR conical hollow points.
Once again I feel confident in the reliability of this tiny pocket gun.
I will not go into the prep and other things about the gun, but I will go into what I found.
First and foremost, the gun is a light recoiling gun for a small package. It is very accurate.
In firing about 1000rds of various loads, the gun had many failures to chamber, mainly failures to feed with bullets nose diving in the magazine, or getting hung up on the ramp to the chamber. A handful of lightstrikes. A less important note, the gun repeatedly would not lock open on an empty magazine.
On a critical note, after about 700 rds, the striker broke.
I was determined to like this small gun, but it just wasn't reliable for defense at all. More concerning than the feed issues, was the fear of the striker breaking again at a critical time.
Well I set the gun aside, but I didn't give up hope. The broken striker issue was not an isolated incident to my pistol alone. Several people had the striker break. Kahr Arms just shrugged off the issue. In my mind, it was curtains for the little gun. This, in my opinion poorly designed striker, made of (MIM metal injected molded) material was an undeniable Achilles Heel. The gun was to be relegated to range status, or more than likely to be sold off.
I was pretty bummed, as I had high hopes for this accurate little pistol.
I almost wrote the Kahr CW380 off completely, but while surfing the net I came upon a part that would be exactly what I wished for. A small company redesigned the two pieces that make up the critical parts of the striker, fixing the critical flaw, and this time, the parts were made not from liquid metal, but from S7 steel, and for under $40.
I couldn't believe it. The parts that arrived looked like works of art.
I began working with the pistol again. I found that the feeding issues, at least in my pistol's case are due to bullet shape. Round or flat nose bullets feed only so well, while conical shaped bullets feed flawlessly, as they provide little friction in the magazine, and are better suited to chamber from the offset feedramp.
Holding my breath, the gun ran 50, then 100rds without an issue, well other than the now occasional failure to lockback, but the gun runs as I had hoped in the beginning. My primary carry load is 95GR HPR conical hollow points.
Once again I feel confident in the reliability of this tiny pocket gun.
