slide lock not

[mtnshooter]

About 400 rds through my PM9. Using several different full power ammo the slide fails to lock to rear after last round. This is more problematic if I want to throw in a new mag as one is not suppose to rack a new round, only drop the slide on a new mag. This requires the extra motion of locking the slide to rear manually and then releasing on a new mag. Could someone help solve the slide lock problem and tell me why you aren't suppose to "rack" a new round?

I interchange this gun at times with a G19 and want to keep the process as similar as possible. If memory serves me the last time I was at the range I was getting the slide lock after last round. Thanks.

[TucsonMTB]

Have you tried just racking the slide as you would on your other pistol? Many people never bother to lock back the slide just to load a magazine. That's just for newbies who haven't mastered racking a slide.

Yeah, YMMV, but it always works for me. ;)

[gb6491]

... If memory serves me the last time I was at the range I was getting the slide lock after last round. Thanks.
Any changes since then (dissembled the magazine, changed your grip, etc.)?


Could someone help solve the slide lock problem and tell me why you aren't suppose to "rack" a new round?
Personally, I think the manual was changed because folks weren't executing the sling shot method to chamber a round correctly. That lead to complaints that they can't get the gun to chamber a round. The slide stop method minimizes/eliminates the poor technique.
Regards,
Greg

[jocko]

SHOULDN'T NEED IT BUT i THINK i WOULD REPLACE THE RECOL ASSEMBL. THAT SEEMS MANY TIMES TO SOLVE ALL

In order tonot maybe have to pay for it, call kahr and ask for jay or eion , tellthem u onlyhave 400 ronds thorugh it and it is not locking open on the last round. they might just send u a new recoil assembley along with what I think you might need also is a new slide lock springhy


I will tellyou what my PM9 did about 3 weeks ago. with over 31,000 rounds through it, it has never faile dto lock open. Well that session it wouldnotlock open. I had a new slide stop spring at home, so I installed it using GB6491 photo tutorial and it is now perfectr, so somehow I must have bent thatlittle spring enough to make it not work. It lookedok but evidentely it was not. I tend to think the slide lock spring is the culprit.

Kahr will work with you on this I would think. saves sending it back..

[BuckeyeBlast]

What type of ammo?

With an empty mag inserted, if you manually pull the slide completely rearward, does it lock open then?

While it'd be nice if our Kahrs were reliable w/ any type of ammo (as they should be), unfortunately they're often not. You may need a slightly hotter load to be pushing the slide completely rearward.

If the slide does lock open when you manually pull the slide back w/ an empty mag, try the ammo. If not, check your mag to make sure that you didn't lose the metal follower insert and/or try a different mag.

[O'Dell]

What BB said - will it lock open if you pull the slide to the rear aggressively with an empty mag? I took my new PM9 to the range a week or two ago and the slide would not lock about 80% of the time. I was using WWB and Federal bulk ammo. When I switched to HST's the problem went away. Mine would lock if I pulled the slide back, so I guessed it was weak ammo. On the 2nd trip it started working with the bulk ammo too, but I had made a point to run the gun very wet.

If that's not the case with yours, then Jocko is probably right about a recoil assy or spring.

[mtnshooter]

Thanks for the helpful comments! When I rack the slide with an empty mag it will stay back. When I rack it with a loaded magazine it will chamber a round and go to battery - that all seems normal. It just seems to be when I fire the last round. I tried Gold Dot +P 124 gr, Blazer non-reloadable 115 gr, and PMC Bronze 115 gr. I know for certain that previously it would lock open on the last round with the PMC and Gold Dots.

[jocko]

wwb should work with ease. that is allI shoot in my PM9 and K9, never a faulure, plenty of power to lock open. My guess if it doesnt lock open with wwb then something else is wrong. My guess recoil spring and or slide lock spring. It is all about timing with these semi's. If one can manually l;ock open that is not an indication of alot IMO as you ar enow workng the slide probably 10X slower than whenthe boom thing happens.

[BuckeyeBlast]

wwb should work with ease. that is allI shoot in my PM9 and K9, never a faulure, plenty of power to lock open. My guess if it doesnt lock open with wwb then something else is wrong. My guess recoil spring and or slide lock spring. It is all about timing with these semi's. If one can manually l;ock open that is not an indication of alot IMO as you ar enow workng the slide probably 10X slower than whenthe boom thing happens.

Correct. It only indicates whether or not the mag follower is engaging the slide stop lever properly.

[jocko]

normally the mag follower is never an issue whether it is addressing that slide lever, I am just doing some guess work but if one can manually lock open the slide with an empty magazinein thegun, then we know the follower is OK so a few things can be preventing that from happening when the "boom"
thing happens. #1 recoil springs. #2 slide lock lever spring is out of whack #3 weak magazine springs. I don't know of any american made weak ammo that willnot work a slide lock if allthings are equal and doing what they are desinged to do also. If I owned a PM9 or K9 I would definitely get some 5% more strength magazine springs from wolffs, they work great and they should help to move that magazine follower up faster on that last round when normally a spring is at its weakest. Again one needs to eliminate all the possables. I think if it was my gun I would go with the new recoil spring assembly along with the 5% more power mag spirngs, last resort woulds be the slide lock lever spring..

[RonM]

My new PM9 has failed to lock back 8 out of the first 10 mags. In that first 50 rounds it also had 2 miss feeds and one fail to fully eject. I am looking forward to the next 50.