rsu11
07-18-2014, 08:01 PM
Just a little human interest story for those with a new in the box Kahr. Picked up my new TP9 last week. This is my 5th Kahr, some used, some new, and it was the least impressive out of the wrappers. The trigger made a "springy" sound, although it was pretty smooth. Racking the slide produced a lot of untasty sounds and the mags were hard to seat and would not drop free. Soooo...to the bench it goes.
Applying the wit and wisdom from the honchos on this site, the drill went something like this:
A field strip inspection. Everything looked normal.
A touch of Wilson grease on the slide rails followed by about 400 slide cycles by hand. About 50 dry fires with reset & return to battery checks.
Second field strip & inspection. Again, all is well.
The guide rod and barrel exterior were smoothed and polished a bit.
Serious cleaning with CLP and Powder Blast, including all 4 mags (I had a couple extra 8 rounders). A couple mags were pretty gooey inside.
Squeaky clean parts get lubed with combo of Wilson Ultra and grease. Plenty of info on where to put the slick stuff from Kahr and this site.
About 50 slide cycles and 20 dry fires to work the lube in. Slide and trigger both sound much better now.
To the range: roughly 200 rounds (115gr FMJ) through with no cycling problems at all. However, the mags are stubborn but will seat with a generous whack. This resulted in the slide releasing by itself several times. Some folks consider this a feature instead of a bug. A couple mag inserts resulted in the nose of the top round catching on the underside of the barrel ramp, nose diving and jamming. It's definitely a tight fit in there, so LOA of the cartridge and making sure the top round is fully backed into the mag are important. The gun was dead nuts accurate and easy to control...many happy groups.
Home again to address the mag drop and seating issues. The mags would not bind until contact with the catch, so I removed the catch and smoothed the edges on a fine wire wheel. One mag would drop free most of the time, so I eyeballed and calipered all of them to discover that the sticky ones were indeed slightly wider in the upper third, above the mad catch slot. All were treated to gentle taps with a soft hammer to skinny them out. It worked. All 4 will now drop free and the followers move normally. The key here is going slowly and carefully, with many try-it-nows.
I sanded the top of one mag base to increase clearance to the bottom of the grip. Very little taken off - didn't want to create a gap. It worked again. That mag now seats much more easily. Tomorrow the other 3 will get the same treatment. Some cleaning, then back to the range to let my daughter-in-law try it out. It's a great fit for her smaller hands.
So there it is...off to a pretty good start.
Applying the wit and wisdom from the honchos on this site, the drill went something like this:
A field strip inspection. Everything looked normal.
A touch of Wilson grease on the slide rails followed by about 400 slide cycles by hand. About 50 dry fires with reset & return to battery checks.
Second field strip & inspection. Again, all is well.
The guide rod and barrel exterior were smoothed and polished a bit.
Serious cleaning with CLP and Powder Blast, including all 4 mags (I had a couple extra 8 rounders). A couple mags were pretty gooey inside.
Squeaky clean parts get lubed with combo of Wilson Ultra and grease. Plenty of info on where to put the slick stuff from Kahr and this site.
About 50 slide cycles and 20 dry fires to work the lube in. Slide and trigger both sound much better now.
To the range: roughly 200 rounds (115gr FMJ) through with no cycling problems at all. However, the mags are stubborn but will seat with a generous whack. This resulted in the slide releasing by itself several times. Some folks consider this a feature instead of a bug. A couple mag inserts resulted in the nose of the top round catching on the underside of the barrel ramp, nose diving and jamming. It's definitely a tight fit in there, so LOA of the cartridge and making sure the top round is fully backed into the mag are important. The gun was dead nuts accurate and easy to control...many happy groups.
Home again to address the mag drop and seating issues. The mags would not bind until contact with the catch, so I removed the catch and smoothed the edges on a fine wire wheel. One mag would drop free most of the time, so I eyeballed and calipered all of them to discover that the sticky ones were indeed slightly wider in the upper third, above the mad catch slot. All were treated to gentle taps with a soft hammer to skinny them out. It worked. All 4 will now drop free and the followers move normally. The key here is going slowly and carefully, with many try-it-nows.
I sanded the top of one mag base to increase clearance to the bottom of the grip. Very little taken off - didn't want to create a gap. It worked again. That mag now seats much more easily. Tomorrow the other 3 will get the same treatment. Some cleaning, then back to the range to let my daughter-in-law try it out. It's a great fit for her smaller hands.
So there it is...off to a pretty good start.