Hi; I'm Joe, and I think this is my first post here. Last summer I got a 2015 K9, fired a few hundred rounds through it. Went pretty well. I encountered a couple of what I thought were failures to feed, and I just pulled back on the slide a bit to get going again - but more on this later.
Last month, I got a 2003 T9. This has horrible premature slide lock issues. I have the option to get a refund on this gun until next week, AND, the store has another, much newer T9 available. I test fired this newer gun - five rounds each through both magazines, and it functioned perfectly.
Yesterday, I talked to Kahr tech support about my gun. They seemed a bit terse and impatient. They insisted I inspect the contact between the slide lock lever and its spring with the slide on, so that I really couldn't see the contact, and discouraged me from removing the slide, which would allow me to see this easily. They had me order a new slide lock lever spring. It should arrive tomorrow.
After the unpleasant phone call, I removed the slide and saw that, yes, the spring is above the slide lock lever - but I think it was too far above it. At rest, it did not contact the slide lock lever - the lever could rattle up and down a bit. I was unable to bend the spring down. I have so far been unable to remove the existing spring - I could not pull it out of the frame, and I was afraid of breaking it off in the from. At this point, I'm confident that I've pretty much trashed that spring. Could anyone advise me on the removal and replacement of that spring?
In addition to these spring issues, I also noted that the top rounds in my magazines were being moved far forward. Simply chambering a round was enough to move the next round forward - it is not necessary to fire the gun. Same problems with two different FMJ "range" cartridges. The newer T9 at the store did not allow the top rounds to go forward. I was not able to inspect the slide lock lever spring on this newer gun.
Now I'm wondering if my K9 was really failing to fire, or if it was premature lock-back that I was fixing by pulling the slide back. I'm on my way back to the range today to shoot the K9. I understand that the K9 has a completely different slide lock lever and spring. But:
1). If my K9 is locking back prematurely, I'm inclined to get a refund on my T9, and walk away from Kahr.
2). If my K9 is not locking back prematurely, I'm inclined to get a refund on my T9, and buy the newer, functioning T9.
I guess what I'm saying is I'm afraid to get into a rabbit whole, trying to fix my current T9. I don't have confidence in either the trouble shooting/parts swapping tech support, and I don't have confidence that Kahr would get it right if I sent them the gun. I've done a bunch of reading about premature slide lock, and it sounds like some people achieve success, and some people don't.
I'd love to have both my guns run well - I really like them, and am fascinated by the feel of their operating systems. But I don't want to take on a new hobby of diagnosis and repair. As I implied earlier, I need to make my decisions quickly.
Sorry to dump a problem on everyone with my first post - but I could very much use anyone's help. What do you folks think?