Kahr Cw380 on the way

[gotime242]

+1 on Fiocchi not working at ALL in my cw380. Seems they have discussed it on the Kahr forums as well. I gave my remaining Fiocchi to my buddy with a SW Bodyguard and he said it worked fine for that gun.

I seem to have the best luck with WWB. I also tried Buffalo Bore 90gr +P and wish to never shoot anything like that again. When i tried Barnes TAC-XPD it had a couple of FTF's as well (still under the 200 rd break in)...so for now I will stick with Winchester White Box until more testing/break in has been done.

 

[gotime242]

Well, bought the pierce grips.

-Fits great in the hand, really changes the guns control-ability.

-Plastic that holds on to bottom of mag is very thin and after the many reviews of it breaking off after very little shooting...it makes me nervous to leave on there considering the reliability could be greatly compromised. If the bottom breaks off the gun will be useless.

-The gun is overall bigger obviously and is starting to get away from that original pocket gun / what it was designed to be.

Ill shoot it later today and see how it does with that.

 

[Jlr2267]

My CW380 chokes on Fiocchi, or anything in G.F.L. stamped brass. My LCP eats *everything* ...never had a single failure right out of the box. I like both guns, but don't yet trust the Kahr.

 

[ulflyer]

I bought a CT380 mag which is slightly bigger but it seems substantial enough. I wanted the' extra grip for range plinking.

 

[george burns]

I pocket carry the PM9 for 3 years now. It carries just fine in my pocket, I don't think the 380 is that much smaller. I had an LCP and didn't care for it after about a year of carrying it as a secondary gun. I just feel that if you can get that 380 in your pocket, you should be able to find a 9mm that does the same.
I am going to look at the 380 Taurus Curve, but only as a backup gun. Honestly anything smaller than mu PM9 is just too small a frame for my hands.

 

[gotime242]

ulflyer - Hmm...and it fits / functions well in the cw380? Thats not a bad idea...

Pm9 def seems a bit bigger...for me anyway. Im not a huge fan of pocket carry but its probably due to the clothes I wear / etc...so even the 380's find their way to my small IWB holster.

 

[Jlr2267]

The cm9/pm9 is significantly larger than the cw380...especially for a pocket gun

 

[redneck]

We were getting a lot of stovepies and a few FTFeed in my friend's brand new Glock 42 using American Eagle, PPU, and Fiocchi. I was not impressed,

None of the ammo had any issues in my SIG P238, blame the ammo if you want ...

I'd sooner call it a bad combo than bad ammo in Fiochi's case. My LCP eats it no problem and I have good luck with their 9mm offerings in my M&P. I think the P380/CW380 is just made extremely tight, and would benefit from the slide being 1/4" longer and having a less severe feed angle. I found ammo that works in it and that is what I will buy from now on.

 

[kokapelli]

Have to agree since all nine of my 380 pistols run just fine with Fiocchi.

Oops! Make that all ten since I purchased a second G42 that also has no problem with Fiocchi.

 

[Vodoun da Vinci]

Congrats...nice looking gun and they feel great in the hand. Good luck making it run and put up a range report about how it works out.

I'd love a reason to try another Kahr .380 but we have not been able to make them run reliably.

VooDoo

 

[gotime242]

Got to the range today.

The pistol was 100% with no failures of any sort this time. Still very pleasant to shoot and really really accurate. This is about 250 rounds in for me.

After watching this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNtPHYwcDts

I bought this ammo:

http://www.precisiononeammunition.c...oducts_id=63&zenid=hfjhbl7o8vlrvai22iemhj2tn1


The sights of the gun are great and with the precision one JHP functioning perfectly...it has really turned into a favorite of mine.

While I really enjoyed shooting it with the pierce grips....I can't comfortably leave them on there due to the fear of them breaking and rendering the gun inoperable. So back to the metal plate for now and will do more testing with it later.

 

[ulflyer]

ulflyer - Hmm...and it fits / functions well in the cw380? Thats not a bad idea...

Pm9 def seems a bit bigger...for me anyway. Im not a huge fan of pocket carry but its probably due to the clothes I wear / etc...so even the 380's find their way to my small IWB holster.

Gotime242...I emailed Kahr and got a quick reply that the Ct380 mag would fit. I bought one and added a chunk of JB Weld to the empty spot at the rear of the mag so that it
gives my hand even better purchase. Had I done my research I'd have bought the CT to begin with since I carry in OWB and slightly larger size would have suited me better. However the CW is functioning fine with the good supply of WWB I got in trade for some Mak ammo. It has nearly 300 thru the pipe now and I'm getting comfortable with it. However, when it comes to carrying, since I use OWB only, I can carry the Ruger LC9s just as easily and tend to do that more.

 

[dsk]

I've been running a P380 for about a year and a half now. At first it needed a thorough cleaning (I even found metal shavings in the striker channel) and lube, and it would run great until the fouling built up after 50 rounds and it would start to malfunction. Additional cleaning, lubing, and trips to the range allowed it to loosen up a bit, but it still hated gettting dirty. It also always required using the slide stop to chamber a round, as manually racking the slide would cause the top cartridge to nose-dive against the ramp. Finally I came across videos and threads where folks were recommending a modification to the mag followers, where you basically sand the top channel down with a wood dowel and sandpaper until the channel is straight from front to back. I first tried it on one mag, and when I went shooting last week that mag worked perfectly fine while I still had a couple failures to feed with the unaltered one. Then I modified the second mag and tried it again this week, and the pistol fired everything without a hitch, even letting me rack the slide by hand (BTW I was using Fiocchi ammo). I'm still not done testing the pistol, but so far it seems to be working a lot better. I just wish it wasn't necessary for me to keep playing around with a pistol I paid nearly $600 for just to get it to run 100%.

 

[ulflyer]

Sanding the Follower?

Do you mean you're sanding the existing furrow in the follower down so that its flat?
Can you refer me to the video on this? Thanks.

 

[dsk]

If you look at the channel/furrow in a Kahr follower you'll see how it's not straight. There are two angles to it, and the forward angle allows rounds to dip down instead of chambering. You're not sanding the follower flat, just changing the angles inside the channel. There are several YouTube videos about it, just do a search under "Kahr mag follower mod" or something similar. Most refer to 9mm and .40 mags but the issue is the same with the .380. Here's one example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkXUfG5_haE

I recommend trying it on just one magazine first, then if the results are positive you can modify your other ones. If it doesn't work then you're only out the cost of one mag follower.

 

[ulflyer]

DSK: thanks for the feedback. Have watched the video and one other and I understand the process now. Had never noticed the ridge in the Kahr followers before and now wonder why its necessary when other mags such as Ruger LCR, 1911, Makarov, that I have are all flat and straight.

Has anyone tried a flat follower?

 

[gotime242]

ulflyer - Any chance you could post a pic of the cw380 with ct380 mag inserted? Im considering picking one up as well and curious how much sticks out of the bottom, thanks!

 

[ulflyer]

Here You go. The back side left a gap which I filled in with JB Weld to give more purchase to my grip. Since I CC in OWB holster, the extra length works fine. IF you pocket carry it might be a bit much.

 

[gotime242]

Great, thanks!

 

[ulflyer]

http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=767984 entry #5 shows how it looks in
my hand.