Kahr CW380 adventures (and requests for help) with "Mini Savage"

[SavageFunk]

This is a thread to help me keep track of my Kahr stuff and in the process maybe help others...I am a newb to this seemingly temperamental little gun and appreciate the help available on this board.

I'm working on a couple of issues with my Kahr CW380 aka “mini savage” which started not locking back recently. After a little work (including the pre shooting tips here) it’s been running great for 500 plus rounds, up until now. Today I adjusted/removed/toyed with the slide lock and the slide lock spring screw and also cleaned and lubed the little beast. Went to the range to test it, worked as advertised for 4 mags then stopped locking back so I removed the slide lock and tinkered with the spring and gently tried to tighten the screw. It would be totally like me to tighten it too tight and crack the frame, so I’m totally paranoid about doing this, but it’s probably a given that it will happen. After putting it back together it ran fine again for 4 mags, so there’s something going on there. I am primarily suspicious about the groove I’m seeing in the ledge where the tail of the slide stop spring sits, it’s not clear to me if that groove is supposed to be there and I’m wondering if the spring has worn that groove into it and hence is not working properly. It’s almost impossible to find a picture at the correct angle to see if on a new slide stop there is a groove or not. Unfortunately Kahr is out of a replacement slide stop for me to buy and test….maybe it’s just the spring which I have on order.

Secondarily I’m also working on verifying if my extractor has been naturally worn enough to feed more types of ammo than when I first got it. I’m considering sanding the extractor down but havent tested other ammo in a while. To date I’ve found that magtech ammo works best for mini savage so that’s my go to first choice but I want more options with this insane ammo shortage. I did take a look at the front edge of the extractor that the youtube guy suggests modifying and mine is looking kinda similar to his end product with the desired rounded edge. I also realized that the Kahrtalk forum fix for the extractor/feeding issue is sanding is in a different location (the round lug) than the youtube guy, but both apparently end up with the same result - more room for the cartridge to feed without getting hung up.

I’m not sure what mini savage’s extractor looked like when I first got him but it was having terrible feeding problems….but those also improved after I replaced the recoil springs and got a new 6 round factory Mag and pounded a chunk (500 or so rounds) of my 401k through it.

So, the end result of my “try a different ammo” test today is that the S&B ammo actually fed pretty dang well with only one stovepipe, so with that result I will hold off on filing any additional extractor parts and just test a few other types of ammo instead. I wish that I would have brought my notorious fiocchi ammo to test but alas it was forgotten (probably thankfully) at home.

The alternate ammo feeding is secondary, I’m hoping to solve this not locking back problem asap since that situation makes mini savage way less fun to hangout with….. so any additional pointers would be appreciated.
SavageFunk

[topgun1953]

Greetings! Regarding the extractor, look at this: http://www.kahrtalk.com/showthread.p...ain-Old-vs-New Notice the difference in length of the rear pin. You can easily file down the length of the rear pin to decrease the extractor tension. I don't think we know when Kahr made this change so you may already have the shortened one. They're cheap enough though if you file too short. Shoot left handed and see if you still have lock back issues. At least that will eliminate accidental user error as the problem.

[SavageFunk]

Greetings! Regarding the extractor, look at this: http://www.kahrtalk.com/showthread.p...ain-Old-vs-New Notice the difference in length of the rear pin. You can easily file down the length of the rear pin to decrease the extractor tension. I don't think we know when Kahr made this change so you may already have the shortened one. They're cheap enough though if you file too short. Shoot left handed and see if you still have lock back issues. At least that will eliminate accidental user error as the problem.

Thanks for the info I'll check it out!