My CW45 has been finicky about ammo since I got it. Feeds ball ammo fine, but only likes a few kinds of JHP. The malfunctions are always Failures to Feed like this:
failure to feed XD.jpg
Note-this is a stock image from internet. I can't get my pics to turn out as good as Greg's
Been studying the case heads of spent casings and started to notice that the ejector gouges the forward edge of the ejector groove like this:
ejector mark example.jpg
Note-this is also a stock image that I stole from the internet. location of mark is the same, but in my CW 45 it's more of a sharp gouge.
I've always noticed that the extractor sits very deep in the slide, and does not act as a "loaded chamber indicator" as described in the manual (page 23-24, photo 14). This is what mine looks like:
KIMG0156.jpg
I've looked at other threads, and most people seem to dismiss this as normal variation in extractors. I'm skeptical about that.
When I put a case in the slide, I noticed that the extractor causes the case to tilt because it sits deeper and more forward than I think it should. The image below compares my CW45 (Left) to my CM9 (Right):
KIMG0179.jpg
As you can see, the CM9 extractor holds the case nice and flush to the breech face. In contrast, the CW45 extractor prevents the case from sitting flush against the breech face. When I force the case to sit flush against the breech, the front edge of the extractor gets cocked against the extractor groove.
Like I said, this CW45 has been a headache since day one. Had the short frame rail issue. Broken trigger bar. Most importantly, frequent failures to feed as shown in the first image. In contrast, my CM9 is BY FAR the most reliable handgun I own, and possibly the most reliable firearm I own.
All considered, I'm pretty confident that this extractor on the CW45 is causing the failure to feed problems. The question is how do I want to address it? Should I:
- get an RA and just send it back to Kahr? I've owned this gun for 12 months. Between the frame replacement and the broken trigger bar, it's already spent 3 of those months at the factory, which I'm tired of.
- try to rework the extractor on my own? Aside from polishing mag lips and reworking magazine followers, I have no experience with this kind of thing. Plus gun is still under warranty.
- ask Kahr to send me a new extractor, front and rear extractor pins, and extractor spring? If replacing those parts doesn't fix it, then maybe the extractor channel in the slide is out of spec, at which point I'll send it back to Kahr.
What say you, Oh Sage Denizens of Kahrtalk?