Kahr Firing Pins?

[New Guy With a Crack]

Hi guys, I'm a new member but I read a ton. Too much probably, on all forums. Anyways, I'm a bit concerned about the Kahr firing pins, not just the .380s, but the 9mms. It appears as though with too much dry firing people get broken firing pins on the 9mms. I've read quite a few posts on a variety of forums, including this one, and it appears to be a trend. Personally, I don't dry fire any of my firearms without a snap cap, regardless of what the manual says. By the way, I do realize dry firing is required for disassembly.

I fully realize and hope that I am wrong. I'm not trying to say I for sure have concluded anything.

So my question is this. How many of you dry fire your Kahr 9mms often and have not broken a firing pin? I'm not trying to start a thread about dry firing, but trying to get an idea of how robust the 9mm firing pins are with specific examples. I really appreciate any replies. Thanks in advance.

[Bills1873]

PM9, dry fired probably 300 times without snap cap. I'll probably do snap caps in the future.

[New Guy With a Crack]

Thanks man. Here's one of the threads I was referring to. http://www.thehighroad.org/archive/i.../t-346126.html

Besides that thread I've read things like this: "Kahr says it's safe to dry fire, but it's not, I broke my firing pin after dry firing multiple times (PM9)." And then there were a few threads on this forum in which the person broke a pin, and then wondered if his constant dry firing had anything to do with it. I've read stuff like this quite a few times. Again, only referring to the 9mms, as I realize the 380s are notorious for this so I'm not going to address that.

Here's another actual quote I found: "Had ONE problem when I tried out my first Kahr K9, though. I fired one magazine through it and then dry-fired a little and ended up breaking the firing pin."

Here's another that was found on this forum: "I went to shoot my PM9 today and couldn't because I believe the pin is broken." Later on in the thread he stated this: "I got my gun back last Tuesday the striker was replace. I shot it today with no issue. I just wonder if I dry fired to often. Anyway all is well."

Yet another: "I have both a PM9 and an MK9 and, personally, like the MK9 a lot better.
Last weekend I did a total strip-down of my MK9 and discovered that the striker is cracked and a lot of the plating has come off.
Curiosity prompted me to also strip down the PM9 and that striker is cracked in exactly the same place.
This got my attention because it seems that a BROKEN striker could really mess up my day.
I have somewhere in the vicinity of 600-800 rounds downrange on each pistol and probably 3-4 times that many dry-fires.
(Just can't get to the range very often)."

[OldFatGuy]

I just can't figure how you would break a firing pin dry firing a Kahr, or any other center fire for that matter. Maybe someone will enlighten us all and explain the mechanics.

[Alfonse]

Thanks man. Here's one of the threads I was referring to. http://www.thehighroad.org/archive/i.../t-346126.html

If you are doing a bunch of dry firing, a snap cap never hurts. That thread is from 2008. When I was making the striker for the .380, I looked at the other Kahr models as well. I really couldn't find it being a problem in the last 5 or more years. I don't know if changes were made, but the instances of it coming up as an issue mostly went away. At least, that's what it looked like to me. YMMV.

[Alfonse]

PM9, dry fired probably 300 times without snap cap. I'll probably do snap caps in the future.

Are you saying it broke, or has not broken?

[New Guy With a Crack]

Thanks Alfonse.

Here why I was concerned. I fully realize that if you google "Brand X and broken _____" you'll get a ton of responses. But with the Kahr 9mms it seemed anytime there was a broken pin, it was associated with dry firing. Furthermore, they always broke in the same spot, so it seemed like a trend to me rather than the fact that you will always get a lemon or a faulty part with any mass produced product.

[Alfonse]

Thanks Alfonse.

Here why I was concerned. I fully realize that if you google "Brand X and broken _____" you'll get a ton of responses. But with the Kahr 9mms it seemed anytime there was a broken pin, it was associated with dry firing. Furthermore, they always broke in the same spot, so it seemed like a trend to me rather than the fact that you will always get a lemon or a faulty part with any mass produced product.

They will pretty much always break at the weak point. I did searches on it too, and am pretty confident I couldn't sell many 9mm strikers. Dry firing does seem to exacerbate the possible issue, but as I said, it doesn't seem to be something that happens with anything recent. It would be fun to find an early 9mm and compare the striker to a new one and see if there is a difference. But, I think that would be mostly for academic curiosity since if it happened very often people would be on this forum talking about it. I can't remember one instance and Bawanna tells me I've been here 6 years or so.

[b4uqzme]

Yeah. The internet kinda sucks that way. If you Googled everything you probably wouldn't buy anything. Someone somewhere has had every possible problem. Also postings that are years old are many times hard to identify. My MK9 is 12 years old and I dry fire practice a lot...hundreds...maybe thousands of times...without snap caps. No broken striker yet. Please don't let that stop you.

Welcome.

[New Guy With a Crack]

Yeah. The internet kinda sucks that way. If you Googled everything you probably wouldn't buy anything. Someone somewhere has had every possible problem. Also postings that are years old are many times hard to identify. My MK9 is 12 years old and I dry fire practice a lot...hundreds...maybe thousands of times...without snap caps. No broken striker yet. Please don't let that stop you.

Welcome.

Thanks a lot, that's exactly the kind of information I was looking for. I already have a PM9, K9, and an MK9. They've been totally reliable and accurate, and I love the looks and all steel construction of the K9 and MK9. I shoot them more accurately than any other handgun I've shot, so I love Kahrs.

It could be that, as with any mass produced product, Kahr occasionally got a bad batch of strikers for the 9mms that were more prone to breakage. Although frankly, I don't trust the strikers on the 380s at all, as I think they are inherently flawed, but this topic is only about the 9mms.