P380 better recoil spring

[Funflyer]

After reading about all the recoil spring issues owners have had, and my P380 finally starting to have too many light primer strikes at less than 450 rounds, I thought it was time to look for a better spring option. I recalled reading on the forum about someone using the spring from their Sig P938 and since I was going to replace the one in my Kimber Micro 9 (same as P938) with north of 1000 rounds through it, I thought I'd give the old one a try in the Kahr.

Since the flat spring has a smaller ID, and compresses to a slightly shorter length than the stock Kahr springs, I decided to make a new guide rod to correct the differences. The results turned out much better than expected. The new(old) spring has about 3/4 to 1 pound more pressure when in battery than the stock springs, and pretty much the same pressure when fully compressed. It was hard to get an exact reading on the trigger gauge since it only goes to 10 pounds on the scale, but both spring setups exceeded 10 pounds+ at the same(ish) point of slide retraction. The big difference is that the single flat spring is so much smoother and the pressure is much more linear throughout it's entire travel. For those wondering, the new spring takes a bit more finesse to install but isn't too bad once done a few times.

Only fired 60 rounds so far with the new spring, but all went bang on the first trigger pull. With the stock springs I was starting to see one light strike every couple of mags.

[Bawanna]

Nice, I've always been partial to them flat springs myself.

[DJK11]

NICE! I never liked the two spring setup in the p380. Toooo much spring binding with both rubbing together. Looks like I need to order up some flat wires for the 380 and 1911. My CZ P-01 has an OEM flat wire and the slide action is much smoother and quieter than the other CZs. Did you turn down an existing SS rod or fab a new one?

[dustnchips]

Nice fix. I have put many thousands of rounds through a CW380 with no problem. I only have a couple thousand through my P380, but still no problems. You may have just gotten a bad set of springs to start with. Is the slide any harder to hand rack? One spring to go wrong sounds much better than two.

[Funflyer]

Nice fix. I have put many thousands of rounds through a CW380 with no problem. I only have a couple thousand through my P380, but still no problems. You may have just gotten a bad set of springs to start with. Is the slide any harder to hand rack? One spring to go wrong sounds much better than two.

The slide is no harder to retract, and pressure increases gradually unlike the originals. The originals were very weak/soggy as it came out of battery, then got much tighter as both springs started to compress more. With as many problems as the original springs have given owners, along with the high price point of their guns, Kahr should include an extra set in the box, especially since half the life of the substandard recoil springs is used up with the required break-in.

[dustnchips]

It would be better if Kahr just changed to the flat spring instead of including extra springs. Was there any more felt recoil? A hard thing to judge, but what is your opinion.

[Funflyer]

It would be better if Kahr just changed to the flat spring instead of including extra springs. Was there any more felt recoil? A hard thing to judge, but what is your opinion.

Felt recoil difference, if any, is negligible.