My review of the Kahr CW380

[BubbasDually]

Thanks man

[BubbasDually]

Yeah man i couldn't believe it- He told me $20 a piece over the phone, but when i showed up to pick them up he said $20 would cover both. It was a good move on his part- I will use him forever

[TheLastDaze]

???

[kenm]

Unlike BubbasDually, my Kahr CW380 went bye-bye because it was plagued with battery failures whereas my LCP has fed, fired and ejected everything I've asked it to.

Sadly, I understand what you experienced. I was initially so excited about the Kahr 380 - its size, trigger feel, external look.
Until the time came to use it for its purpose.
I had problems from day one with this gun's non-performance.
I did all the advised pre-range prep before my first range trip.
At the range. it took 2 hours to get only a 100 rounds to fire - after stopping countless times due to the dreaded "click" and no "bang", among other issues.
The Range Master came to help and said, "Ah, it's that #!!# moonie gun. Apparently the owner and ceo of Kahr is the son of God, a so called reverend moonie of the moonie cult. This was news to me. Anyway, the range master struggled with it, trying 3 different major manufacturers' round-nosed ammo (beside the PMC and HPR I was using)

Finally, after two plus hours of frustration, I took out my trusted Glock 17 and put 30 rounds dead on target before leaving the range - just to get the bad P380 taste out of my system.

Went back a couple of days later (yes, cleaned & lubed the thing first, per this forum's Lube Chart)
This time it was almost all clicks. Another Range master came up and played around with it - no luck.

Took my new P380 back to the dealer. He played around with it for a day and I got a call the next day.
"The striker is marking the base of the shell, but not enough to ignite the primer every time" – Intermittent failure – 6 or 7 failures out of ten – this is more of a self-destruct gun rather than self defense.
The dealer has sent it back to Kahr.
Also while at the dealership, we noticed that the polymer frame had bits of polymer hanging off it when the slide was removed.
Anyway, I ordered a Glock 42 today and will be picking it up early next month.
What an utterly frustrating experience.

No "self defense" weapon, especially a daily concealed carry, should need this much molly-coddling (which most posters on this site seem to have to do).
My brother's Glock 42 and Springfield XDS (9mm) have been completely reliable from day one with round nosed ammo - most major manufacturers
Ah well, live and learn.
Glad you're happy with your LCP

[Busted Knuckle]

My lcp ate anything I fed it, was perfectly shaped with smooth edges, even the trigger smoothed up nicely. But even with a hogue grip it was a handful. Then Ruger came out with a stainless slide version with a tad higher bumps they call sights, so I started looking at those. Having a great experience with my cw9 and seeing at the time the cw380 was about the same price as a stainless lcp I bought a cw380. Minus fiocci ammo its been perfect. Shooting both side by side the cw feels like it could be full size, the lcp was still a handful, even my wife said the same thing. She could hardly stand 6 rounds with lcp yet could run through the better portion of a box with the cw. Now that we know what what the cw380 runs best through it I carry it regularly and sold the lcp.

[TheLastDaze]

with a 12# recoil spring in an lcp makes it another gun... bigtime, I've shot my cw and elsie side by side and they feel the same (recoil wise) other than the cw feeling a whole lot better in the hand, sights and trigger.....when duty calls for a 380, I carry the lcp....

[SlowBurn]

I'm mystified by the problems reported on the forum. My p380 has been flawless, as I expected after researching this category of semi autos and finding a consensus that Kahr was the best of class. I know back around 2010 there was a batch of problem frames, but that has long since been corrected. Its a design that has proved out for a long time now and the cw380 is the same design.

Maybe they sent out a batch with the wrong recoil springs. Other than that I can't understand the anecdotal problems.

[DavidR]

I would disagree that the design has proved out. I would argue that either the design is flawed or Kahr does not have the manufacturing capability to consistently turn out a product that functions as it should. It's anecdotal but Kahr's 380 failure rate is pretty high and in a lot of cases where people are happy with their Kahr, the owner had to do significant gunsmithing to make it run right.

After sending mine back to the factory I still have battery failures. Hornady Critical Defense is the only ammo that has consistently run well in my 380 but I think there are better choices in ammo.

My CW380 is a better shooter than my LCP but the LCP carries better (it feels smaller) and so far has been much more reliable.


Dave

[SlowBurn]

It's anecdotal but Kahr's 380 failure rate is pretty high and in a lot of cases where people are happy with their Kahr, the owner had to do significant gunsmithing to make it run right.
Dave

I'd be curious to know the actual failure rate. While I like Hornady for carry ammo, I've shot many varieties of FMJ simply because its been so hard to get 380 target ammo you had to grab what you could. All types of manufactured ammo run fine, even steel cased ammo like Wolf and Tula, except Fiocchi, which doesn't fit properly in the chamber. (I don't shoot reloads, but they might be problematic if they bulge or the load is light.)

This guy, testing more factory 380 ammo than any web reviewer I know, generally uses his Kahr P380 as the test weapon.
Pocket Guns and Gear Ammo Tests

I've noticed one constant among people who fixed their own problem - alteration or replacement of the recoil springs. I suspect a mix-up at the factory. My own anecdote is I bought replacement springs from Kahr after 1500 rounds and the first set did not test well. I got another new set and everything is fine. This makes me suspect that a batch of recoil springs, both installed in new P/CW 380s and sent out by mail order, were mismatched.

Of course if true that doesn't reflect well on Kahr, but its not a design or manufacturing problem. It might be a personnel problem rooted in demand outstripping the company's capacity and hurrying to hire, train etc. But I'm speculating now. All I can say is if true, a simple, easily correctable mix-up has caused some owners to despair and give up on a superior weapon like the Kahr, and that's a shame.

BTW I like the LCP too. But it's been known to actually blow up with overpowered out of spec ammo. It happened at a range I sometimes use and made the papers here. That's never happened with a Kahr 380 as far as I know. And the LCP makes 'smileys' on the nose of the bullet when chambering a round during the recoil cycle, which actually is a design defect common to the LCP and the P3AT.

[DavidR]

You may be right about the recoil springs as Kahr replaced mine. Before replacing, I had battery failures with both FMJ and hollow points. After replacing the springs, FMJ runs okay but flat nosed bullets or wide mouth hollow points like Federal Hydra Shok still result in battery failures. My CW380 may actually be as reliable now as most, with the right ammo.

Regarding the LCP, I am very careful to use only high quality factory ammo that does not exceed SAAMI pressures.


Dave