One guy's break-in and tweaks on a new TP9

[rsu11]

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.

[kwh]

Well written and well done!

[ripley16]

Wow. All I've ever done to a new gun is wipe it down, re-lube it and shoot. That said; my TP9 is my favorite of the eight Kahrs I've bought. Enjoy it, have fun.

[hardluk1]

Sounds like your ready for tuning issues with 1911 mags now !! hehe

I do like it when a pistol drops the slide on a new mag. Makes getting back on target a little quicker. If you had one mag that closed the slide ever time THAT would be my back up mag. Use the other ones that don't for range mags.

[rsu11]

Just finished sanding the remaining mag bases and fitting the mags. All snick into place with just mild pressure. I'm done for now, but the TP9's future is in the hands of my daughter-in-law. The slim grip fits her small hands very well. If she likes it at the range tomorrow, it will stay in stock form so she can train with it. She's interested in shooting IDPA eventually, but I'm thinking the TP9 is not the greatest IDPA pistol, requiring two mag changes on a full 18 round stage. If she stays with it, I expect her to go to a double stack with a small backstrap as she gains experience. When that happens, I may do a grip circumcision and turn it into a covert for carry. 7+1 with a four inch barrel and less than an inch in width makes for a nice carry piece.

[Slotback]

Your DIL should use it as a carry piece not a competition piece.

[Bill]

Wow, great report. Good work on the new pistol. Still, while I have grown to accept it, you have to wonder what other high end item costing $600 plus needs this much attention after the purchase? I really like my P380, and I have a trouble free PM40 but still, to have even this much buyer modification and tuning to a new product???

[rsu11]

Good point, Bill. While I'll admit to being a little anal about stuff like this, some of the mods were really necessary to make the pistol run right, or at least right for me - such as mags that seat easily and drop free. Kahrs have been criticized for this type of thing, including the 200 round break-in recommendation and using the slide lock to chamber the first round. Kahr has been up front about this, to their credit.

To me, the reason is that the Kahr design is on the fine edge of the envelope for making their pistols as compact as possible, yet still reliable in the various calibers. For example, the tinkering I did with the mags was probably no more than a few thousandths of an inch of difference in width, but made a big difference in how the gun operates. When tolerances are that tight, QC must be first rate or unhappy customers will storm the gates. I think Kahr's quality is excellent, but they've also given themselves a tall order by design, so I'm a bit more forgiving when tweaks like this are needed.

[Bill]

Well, there isn't a better .380. And as I said our PM40 has been flawless and a real joy. Not every one can be perfect and I know that here on the forum we hear about a disproportionate number of difficult guns, so I get it. Thanks rsu11 for your post. God stuff.

[jocko]

30 minutes of a pre-prep of your kahr will give u rewards that u can't put a price on. It is what it is, they are small ass guns, they are tight as hell, they are quality, they have some great attrtibutes that kahr never gets credit for. They are not ammo sensitve at all, They have the best trigger system on the market. Smoother than butter, looooong by design but again this is kahrs desing, certaihnly not a flaw. It is ur only satefy, for those who demand no safety. One of the simplest guns ever made,. sure some give issues, sure some even need some kahr adjustment to tghem, never good when it hgappens to you the owner but not many peoplke can reort that theuy have owned a car for x numbe rof years and never had to take it back for a piddly issue. It is what it is. What the kahr prep threads do for u is
#1, they certinly get you some pre-bang knowledge of how ur guns works etc. Just to take a new gun home and out of the bos to begin to fire it, to make makes zero sense. U have no clue what is still in thegun, left ovber from machine work that maybe should have been cleaned but was not, Eliminte the possables before thgat first BANG thing happens and 9 out of 10 times your first shoot will be af un one also..