# Anybody's P380 slide lock shut?? (range report too)



## dino92g (May 30, 2010)

Hi all -not here to bash Kahr in ANY way, I LOVE my PW9 but I have a couple questions on my new P380 - above the usual break-in process. Here goes:

Out of the box: Tore it down, cleaned it, and lubed it.

Loaded (1) round in the mag, shot it; loaded (2) in the mag, shot it. Needed some help closing the slide on the second round, but not bad.

Ran the following types & quantities of ammo through it to break it in:


(200) WWB 95 gr FMJ
(200) MagTech 95 gr FMC
(50) Win 95 gr T-Series Rangers
(50) Fiocchi 95 gr HP
PLUSES:


Great machining; finish, and appearance
Absolutely serves the purpose for which it was made - a deep carry or BUG in the pocket.
I can get (2) firm fingers on the grip when firing, which led to . . .
Very controllable and minimal felt recoil. I tell you - I've heard some horror stories on some 380's - this one is fine. (500) pain-free rounds in one session.
Pretty good sights - especially for a small pistol like this.
Minuses:


Shot low-left: 2" down and left at 7 yards.
Slide locked shut after (500) rounds.
Pricey for a pocket gun, but I'm a firm believer in Kahr. My 9 is a GREAT pistol.
Expected: New-Kahr-pistol unbroken in jams.

I listed the ammo in the order of feeding - good to bad. After 2 full mags, the WWB & MagTech fed pretty well - not pefect, but well for that quantity. The SD ammo will be a challenge for abit yet I think. It took nearly all (50) Rangers to start to cycle OK; still not ready for a CCW with them yet. The Fiocchi's were horrible. It was truly painful getting those down the tube. It looked to me that their truncated-like HP cone design made them too long?

Of the misfeeds, except for the Fiocchi, they all started to go into the chamber, but the rims of the cartridges were getting hung-up on the extended (!?!) firing pin. I'd have to drop the mag, jiggle the slide/push the roung out with my finger, and then reload. No tap-rack-and slap fixed these. VERY painful - if 2 mags worth went through fine, it was a miracle.

The firing pin was free to move back and forth and I didn't get any slam-fires, but I found it very odd that the rim of the cartridge was catching it.

The firing pin jam would happen every 3rd or so mag for the first couple-hundred rounds I shot, got a little better, but still there. It maybe happened once or twice in the last 50.

Then - I got home and went to clean it. I couldn't pull the slide back more than a 1/16th of an inch; it was LOCKED. The slide lock was seated properly. I could tell it wasn't loaded from the position of the extractor so I pulled the trigger and it was still tough, but I could open the slide then. I couldn't see anything hanging-up or blocking it from looking at the frame. I closed it - same thing. Had to pull the trigger to get the slide to move. Tried this 6 times.

It didn't matter if a mag was in or not and I tried 3 different mags - same result.

I took the slide off and the pistol was really DIRTY inside! I cleaned it like crazy, lubed it, and closed the slide - it locked again! :smt120 I pulled back fairly hard on the slide and it did open - after it had a slight "catch" on something and locked open. After that - so far it's been fine. Of course, I haven't shot it again after the cleaning.

I'm going to call Kahr Tuesday and ask about the firing pin, slide, and low left POI.

Has anyone else experienced any of these anomalies? I did search here and on the 'net and didn't find either of the mechanical issues I experienced.

The POI issue - I'm surprised; my PW9 is right on and even at 15 to 20 yards it prints better groups than I would expect out of that short barrel.

Whaddya folks think? Sounds like my P380 is going on a little trip to the doc's?

Thank you!

Regards,
Dino


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## Steve S (Aug 12, 2009)

Did you get your P380 problems resolved?


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## dino92g (May 30, 2010)

Well . . . it took three tries and three weeks to get the process of Kahr paying for the return shipping. A week between all that of being our of town . . .

Accordingly, it just shipped out last week.

When I spoke with Kahr about the problems they said they never heard of a slide locking up like that and - get this - the firing pin being out like that is a result of dry-firing it. They said it won't happen with a live fire. Well - it did. I hope it's something simple and obvious that is causing this. I did resist taking the whole slide down to see myself, but I didn't want to take a chance at voiding the warranty - or breaking something else. ;-)

Stay tuned folks - I hope to hear from them next week.


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## Steve M1911A1 (Feb 6, 2008)

...As for the "shooting low-left," I suspect that this is you, not the gun.
It's tiny and light, so it's easy for your trigger finger to push the gun downward and leftward as you work through that moderately stiff trigger pull. This would be especially true when you remember that you're really only holding it with two fingers.

The P3AT's firing pin is retained by the same screw that holds the extractor in place. If the tip of that screw becomes battered by dry-firing, the firing pin will malfunction in one way or another.
If you have never dry-fired the pistol, and you bought it new, I suggest that the shop from which you bought it allowed prospective purchasers to "try out the trigger," which is (of course) dry firing. Thus the screw tip got battered long before it came to your hands, and thus the firing pin finally malfunctioned.
Other than needing cleaning, when a pistol's slide won't open easily I begin to suspect that either the barrel's cam slot boss or the assembly pin is broken or burred. However, the problem could also be that the recoil spring's guide rod is bent, burred, or broken.
But then it may only have been a lot of dirt under the feed ramp, between it and the frame. That would've wedged the barrel up into the locked-into-the-slide position, and kept it there.


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## linksrds (Jun 15, 2010)

If you read the information put out by Kahr, they state that there is no problem dryfiring their pistols.


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## Steve M1911A1 (Feb 6, 2008)

Whoops! My apologies.
I read P380, and saw "P3AT."
I was writing about Kel-Tec, while you were asking about Kahr.
Sorry 'bout that...


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