First time shooting CW380 today, need help with analysis

[Robert1]

Took my brand new cw380 to the range today after field stripping it the other day, cleaning and re-lubing, working the slide a little, and leaving the slide open for a day or so.

First, I was extremely pleased with the accuracy and the feel of the pistol. For such a small gun the recoil was very minimal.

I began by putting 50 rounds of PMC through it six shots at a time and was even sling shotting the slide with no issues at first. About 5 or 6 magazines into it I had one issue on the 6th round where the trigger didn't reset. I didn't inspect it very closely so not sure if the slide just didn't fully close as I simply re-racked it to eject the round. The rest of the 50 had no other issues.

Next I put 100 rounds of WWB through it. On more then one occasion the gun got jammed after trying to slingshot the first round. I've heard WWB with the flat tips can be a little more finicky and not too concerned since my understanding slingshotting can have some issues until fully broken in. If it persists I can alway do the follower modification. However, I did have several occurrences where the slide did not move fully forward--it was left a few mm back from fully closed and I had to tap it forward to make the gun shoot. Not sure if this will work itself out or not.

Then I put another 50 rounds of PMC again through it. Again much better but had at least one occurrence of the the slide not going fully forward.

After the initial 200 rounds I tried 12 rounds each of Federal Hydra Shok and Hornady Custom XTP. First the Federal. The first magazine had no issues. The second magazine, after the first shot, same issue where the slide did not go fully into battery and required a tap forward to make the pistol function. Both magazines of the Hornady Custom shot without any issues.

In the end, the pistol was a pleasure to shoot but had some minimal reliability issues during the 200 round break in and one failure during the post 200 round with the hydra shok. Even though I had no issues with the custom XTP, the sample size was small and leaves me wondering can I trust this pistol. The common issue between all the ammo except the Custom was some number of occurrences of the slide to not move fully forward and close. What has other's experience been, does this seem pretty typical? Do I need to put a couple hundred rounds of defensive ammo through it to prove it's reliability?

[Bawanna]

If you have any more of the same ammo I'd do the plunk test. Lock the slide back or take the barrel out and just drop a loaded round into the chamber. I push on it a bit with a thumb or finger, then tip the barrel over so the chamber is down and see if the round falls out easily.
Might have been some slightly long rounds in there.

I don't recall if this is usually an issue with 380's, seems like more 9's but maybe so.

[Alfonse]

A good cleaning might help too after 200 rounds or so. See how it runs clean and lubed with your carry ammo. The plunk test is a good idea too.

[ulflyer]

I would suggest that the failure to go fully into battery is a result of the recoil spring, being new, is stiff, and recoils enough to eject the spent case, but may not have traveled totally back, thus didn't have sufficient forward thrust to obtain full battery. Probably this will work itself out after you've shot it more.

A second suggestion is do the follower mod, and if you have a dremel with a felt tip, polish the ramp and inside the chamber, especially the top.

[timboy]

The failure to return to battery seems to be common as of late,mine and several others have required a trip back to kahr to remedy the issue,mines seems to work fine now but another member was not so lucky.

[Robert1]

Timboy how frequent was yours doing it? It only happened about 4 to 5 times for me out of 225 rounds. So I'm hoping as flyer suggested it'll work itself out. If I send it back to Kahr I can see them firing a couple of test rounds and saying that there's no issue.

[yqtszhj]

A good cleaning might help too after 200 rounds or so. See how it runs clean and lubed with your carry ammo. The plunk test is a good idea too.

^^^^^^
This one first.

Dont worry about anything else till you get to clean it good, load it with the slide release, and try one more box of what shot best, sounds like pmc did best.

[timboy]

Mine was much worse,I would get failure to return nearly a full magazine at a time.
I would try a few of the suggestions others have given first and try it again,if its still not right then I would call kahr and go the return rout.

Timboy how frequent was yours doing it? It only happened about 4 to 5 times for me out of 225 rounds. So I'm hoping as flyer suggested it'll work itself out. If I send it back to Kahr I can see them firing a couple of test rounds and saying that there's no issue.

[marshal kane]

If you kept any of your spent cases, check them out for scour marks on the case walls. If you have marks, that's an indication that the interior feed lips of the magazines are rough and stripping the cartridge out of the magazine is using up the slide's energy to return to battery. I had the same problem as you did when breaking in my P9, and I traced it back to the magazines.

[Ikeo74]

Shooting 224 rounds with a new gun will cause Limp Wristing due to shooter fatigue. It's like trying to do 50 pushups the first time at the gym. Go for less shots (50 to 100) at the next range trip and you will not have the issues.