Faith Renewed: CW45

[tony k]

The CW45 I got last janaury was a problem child. On paper, it was everything I wanted in a CC hand gun, but it had every type of jam with no apparent reason.

First I thought I had a problem with the slide stop. Kahr sent me a new one gratis. Still had problems

Then I figured out that the front frame rails were short thanks to marcnstl. Kahr replaced the frame and that put a stop to all the random jams.

Got the gun back with the new frame and started having to futz with the slide stop spring. I got the slide top spring adjusted properly, then the darn trigger bar broke. This happened at about the 1200 round mark.

Went back to Kahr and they fixed it in about two weeks. Then it sat in the safe because I kinda lost faith in it.

Last weekend I put a hundred rounds reloads through it, then twenty rounds of hornady "zombie" ammo through it with no real problems except having to bump the mag to nudge it in to battery twice with the reloads.

Today I gave it a "torture test" of 300 rounds of 230 grain xtreme plated over 6.0 grains of unique, aka "flaming dirt." By the end of the session the front of the gun looked like it had a custom bronze fade finish because of the powder residue. Then I put another twenty rounds of hornady zombie ammo through it. NOT A SINGLE PROBLEM ALL DAY Not even a hint of an issue.

I finally trust this gun as much as my CM9, and I'm looking forward to using it for CC. Probably gonna use Hornady Critical Duty ammo since the bullet profile matches the bullet profile of the zombie ammo, which seems to function well even when the gun is pretty dirty and short on lube.

It finally seems to be living up to it's promise. I'm pretty pumped.

Just sharing.

[b4uqzme]

Very good. Thanks for making my night!

[Pointblank]

The upside of having to send in a pistol to Kahr is that in return you get a hand-fitted gun. I'm very happy with my P45 since I got it back.

[muggsy]

The more you shoot them the better they get.

[gb6491]

That's excellent tony k
My CW45 remains the favorite of the Kahrs I have.
Regards,
Greg

[kwh]

Glad to hear. My CW45 started having hardball bullets nosediving after about 700 rounds. Had been 100% before. Replaced recoil spring. Now 100% so far after 80 rounds. My favorite pistol when comparing how well I shoot it combined with ease of carry.

[timboy]

Its a shame that you had to go through all of the headaches and hassle but atleast they got it working for you.

[tony k]

I'm fairly certain that the only thing that was ever really wrong with this gun was the short frame rails. When they replace a frame, they literally only replace the frame. I think when they were swapping parts from the old frame to the new frame, they installed the slide stop spring too loosely. Regarding the broken trigger bar, i suspect that it was damaged at some point during the parts swap, or that it was installed incorrectly. Sure, this is all just speculation, but both problems emerged very quickly after the frame swap, and I am skeptical that it is just coicidence.

Sure. The whole thing was a hassle, but on the other hand, I learned a lot about what makes a Kahr tick. I pretty much tried every fix and tip suggested in the tech subforum, and in the process I think I've studied the Kahr design more closely than any firearm I own. I have a real appreciation for the design. Another positive is that while the CW45 was back at Kahr, I bought a CM9. That little pistol has been flawless since day one. It shoots well and is a perfect pocket carry gun.