Kahr CW 380 one year later/Reliability issues

Hello everyone I've been meaning to post and introduce myself. I have now been carrying a CW 380 for just a little over a year as my EDC. prior to this firearm my carry pistol was a Glock, I decided to get something smaller but wanted to keep the Striker fired pistol style that I like. Being that Glock made their 42 a bit on the large size The CW 380 seemed like the perfect answer to my needs. I did see before buying it that there were certain little finicky things here and thereas I know a lot of the 380s have being so little ( my Lcp runs almost flawless). I guess that's where I get to my point, it feels like just about everything that I seen go wrong on these forums has happened with this gun. That being said it is beautifully manufactured with some of the finest internals I've seen. I had the Bowing of the polymer frame at the bottom and when I looked online it seemed that was fairly common. I also had quite a difficult time with feeding rounds even though I was using the slide release again I saw that that was fairly common on here specially with certain ammunitions. Then one day at the range as I'm shooting I noticed my trigger pin was walking out And does so every two mags, again I turn to the forms and saw that somebody had that problem and ended up having to file the pin down because it was too short and not locking.honestly a lot of these things I could live with but what killed it for me was I lost my trust in the kahr for my EDC. Mostly because of the feeding issue/ reliability . I would like to say I don't mean to bash the gun just would like to put on my experience and hear something from others as well. Like I said the gun was beautifully made and I'd like to possibly buy some others in the future but at this time I had to trade it due to all of the finicky issues.would love to hear others' experiences with reliability even with other models as I did at one point have my eye on the 9 mm. Really hated to get rid of this beautiful little gun but reliability is king with carry would love to hear others' experiences with reliability even with other models as I did at one point have my eye on the 9 mm.I would also add that I didn't have the best experience with their customer service department. Look forward to hearing from everyone

Thought I was picking up an echo or had a problem with my eyes towards the end there but I see you duplicated yourself more than once. I feel better knowing that I'm ok or at least so so.

Sorry to hear of your issues. I see no mention of a return to Kahr to address the issues.

The 380's in the early days were very problematic. Must less so now days but probably still more in the 380's than the others.

Still if one is fond of the 380 Kahr will make it right. It's worth it even if it takes several trips.

I do understand the lack of confidence completely.

Yea, I would have worked with them more but once you're confident it's gone it's gone. Mine wasn't that old of a CW 380 it was the tungsten addition that they put out. Really was a great shooting pistol and amazing trigger for it size, just way too many problems to excuse at that point. Sorry about the duplicate sometimes I use Siri and it does that.

I had the trigger pin walk out on a new PM9. A call to Kahr customer service, they sent me a shipping label and back it went. They replaced the frame and all is well. Since then the PM9 has been flawless, and frighteningly accurate.

Sorry to hear about your issues. I would contact Khar to get you taken care of . I've had my CW380 for about a year or more. Only issue I had was the trigger pin walk. I fixed it myself. My brother in law would always have FTFs but I proved to him that they were due to his soft wrists lol.

Get the CM9 if you want what you were expecting from the CW380, and you want a 9mm. It has a much better track record from what I hear, and it is very small for a 9mm. I would get one, but I have too many guns at the moment. It's smaller than the Glock 43 or Shield.

I understand your feelings. I had a CW380 and actually really liked it, it was reliable, well made, had a great trigger, and is the most comfortable .380 pocket gun I've held. That said, I still got rid of it and went back to the LCP. The reason is my brother also has a CW380 and his has reset issues. The inside of his slide also looks like it was made by a drunk (tons of machine marks) compared to mine which is very nicely manufactured.

His is on its second trip back to Kahr for repair, the first time they didn't even address the problem. I'm handling the communication/shipping for the repair and have not been impressed with Kahr's service. They're polite, but sending a gun in for a specific issue and the armorer doing a bunch of unrelated fluff work instead left a bad taste in my mouth. Between seeing how messed up his CW380 was and previous experience with their service (through Magnum Research, which is Kahr owned), and all the reports of poor quality and customer service on the internet and in the community, I've lost confidence in the company themselves. Even though mine works now, I have this nagging feeling that something will eventually go wrong and I'll have to deal with Kahr's warranty service again.

My brother lost all faith in his CW380 and is going to sell it when it comes back even if it's fixed, but he still likes and trusts the design, so I gave him my working pistol in exchange for a new LCP. I really want to trust Kahr products but you're right, there's nothing you can do once you start distrusting a gun.

I understand your concerns. after a year with my CW380 I traded it in and purchased a Kimber Micro 380. I know the Kimber is a more expensive gun but you get what you pay for. The difference is night and day. I say if you are not happy buy something else.

There is so much to like about the .380 Kahrs. They're tiny, they're light as a feather, and they look like they're made like a Swiss watch. They're also unbelievably accurate for such tiny pistols and are very easy to shoot for prolonged periods with no discomfort, unlike a lot of other micro-.380s on the market. Unfortunately though they are very poorly designed otherwise, as they are so touch-and-go regarding reliability. How a person can buy one and have zero issues while the guy who buys the next one in the display case gets an unreliable POS is completely ridiculous. For these guns to run reliably everything has to be balanced just right, from the weight of the springs to the smoothness of the components to the magazines to the actual ammo used to the day of the week. If anything is wrong, from a weak recoil or striker spring to a burr on some component or a part that is .001" out of tolerance they stop cold. There seems to be no margin for error in the design; either everything is perfectly balanced and the gun works or they're not and it doesn't. Kahr really needs to look hard at their design, fix the flaws and come out with a Gen II pistol that actually runs all the time even if it's not being tickled behind the ear.

I've had similar issues with one of my 3 CT380s. Many of the parts are interchangeable between the CW380 and the CT380 so they may have what I believe is a defect in the CT380 and probably also applies to the CW380. Below is what I sent Kahr on the subject just today.

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Upon inserting a magazine with the striker *reset* then loading a round by racking the slide the striker will be resent by catching on the cocking cam before the next round is loaded by the slide going forward. If at any time a semi-auto firearm has to be cocked or in this case the striker reset before a round can go in the chamber then the firearm has a serious design flaw. Any such firearm should be able to have a magazine inserted and loaded whether or not the hammer or striker is cocked or reset. Racking the slide or firing a round should automatically set the striker or firing pin to the rear once the hammer or striker is reset, in this case by the cocking cam. When you rack the CT380 with the striker forward it will (or should) retract the striker with a click as soon as the cocking cam engages and before the slide moves more than half way forward to load the next round. Any delay in the cocking cam catching the striker before the round being loaded moves more than half way up the breach face will cause such a jam. As a matter of fact I’ve noticed with the 3^rd CT380TU I have here that the striker does not reset until the slide moves forward about half way into battery and very close to where the rim of the round being loaded would be on its movement up the breach face while being chambered.

That is something that Kahr engineers need to take a look at.

RECOMMENDATION: Since the striker being forward is catching the rim of the round being loaded causing a jam both when initially loading and **several times while firing** a magazine, the Kahr engineers need to look at when the cocking cam engages the striker. The cocking cam engagement with the striker needs to occur *earlier* to retract the striker well before the rim of the round being loaded moves up the breach face on its way into the chamber. A possible solution could be adding a slight amount of additional material to the striker and cocking cam contact points. That would engage and reset the striker earlier during the slide’s movement forward into battery.  That would also improve the trigger by slightly shorting the trigger stroke. Of course there isn’t a lot of room between the slide and the frame in the cocking cam and striker area so such a solution may take more to accomplish than just my simple explanation.

In the pictures below is my son's CT380 with a pencil holding it open that did *not jam* during our 200 round break-in range session. Although you can see that even though the slide had been fully retracted and the striker reset, the striker still stays protrude for far too long while the slide is loading the follow-on round. What is a mystery is that this the CT380 that fired over 200 rounds with very few difficulties.

The other picture is a picture of an actual jam *while firing* my daughter's CT380TU that continuously failed to go into battery with the round being loaded hanging up on the protruding striker. That CT380 is presently at Kahr for service. Both firearms were firing the same 100gr .380 ammunition that I have used very often in the past while giving CCW classes. Ammunition used in both CT380s even were coming out of the same boxes. It is some of the best .380 reloads I have ever tried and performs absolutely equal to the same firm's (Freedom Munitions) new ammunition.

http://www.kahrtalk.com/attachment.p...id=14548&stc=1http://www.kahrtalk.com/attachment.p...id=14549&stc=1

Unfortunately, I have had some of the same issues with the CW380 that I purchased well over a year ago. Fail to feed, fail to eject and stove piping. Fired over 500 rounds of just about every kind of ammo and sent it back to KAHR twice but the issues continued. I have no confidence in the firearm to perform in an emergency situation. It's sad because I love the size and everything about it. It's a joy to shoot when it works properly. I have CC a Taurus 9MM
Slim Series for years and wanted something that was smaller/lighter to CC. I'm thinking maybe the Kimber Micro 380. We'll see I'm doing much more research this time around.

I've been lucky I guess. Carrying these for couple of decades now with minimal problems. I shoot them quite a bit so eventually things come up, but so far only after years of hard use, and then Kahr has always been able to make it right. The worst problem turned out to be a frame that failed on a p380 I bought used and shot for years before the trouble started. The problem was very subtle so they tried everything els first before finally realizing the real issue. They then replaced the frame and it was fine thereafter.
So I carry mine with confidence. I have several, so I have one to carry if one has to go in to Kahr for any reason. Its been probably 5 years since that was last necessary.

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Originally Posted by John1959

Unfortunately, I have had some of the same issues with the CW380 that I purchased well over a year ago. Fail to feed, fail to eject and stove piping. Fired over 500 rounds of just about every kind of ammo and sent it back to KAHR twice but the issues continued. I have no confidence in the firearm to perform in an emergency situation. It's sad because I love the size and everything about it. It's a joy to shoot when it works properly. I have CC a Taurus 9MM
Slim Series for years and wanted something that was smaller/lighter to CC. I'm thinking maybe the Kimber Micro 380. We'll see I'm doing much more research this time around.

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The Kahr 380s are generally notorious for being unreliable. Kimber's semiautos don't have a great reputation either. Do your homework BEFORE and not after you make your purchase, which I'm glad you are doing this time around. I'd suggest a Ruger LCP or the newer higher capacity Ruger LCP Max. The latter, LCP Max, isn't too far off from being the same size as the CW380, but it's lighter and has twice the capacity. Ruger also has better customer service than Taurus, Kimber, and Kahr. The Kel Tec P-3AT aka Ruger LCP has been a popular, reliable, well vetted design that predates the Kahr 380s.

I EDC and pocket carry a Springfield Hellcat or J-frame sized revolvers. The Hellcat, SIG P365, J-frames, and Kahr PM9 sized guns are popular pocket sized 9mm's. That said and if you're looking for something smaller in 380ACP, my recommendation is the Ruger LCP Max or S&W Bodyguard 2.0. Both are small, thin, and lightweight (~11oz). Other than that, a used SIG P239 if you want 1911 style 380.

I would keep sending it back until it was fixed or they wouldn't take it anymore. How in good conscience could you ever sell it to someone else. Trade value zero. The wife likes her LCP II. Very accurate for its size. Decent prices, but not a firearm for a lot of shooting. I consider them "throw away" guns. Good for a few thousand rounds maybe. Probably isn't much else lighter at 11 oz.

I'm not sure I've heard of anyone shooting their LCP until frame, slide, or barrel failure or cracking. I'm sure it may have happened, but not at a rate compared to how many have sold over the last two+ decades. Either way, Ruger would probably replace it free of charge if someone was that unlucky. The 10 & 12 (+1) Ruger Max is 10.6oz and the new S&W Bodyguard 2.0 10 & 12 (+1) is 9.8oz. Both options are also very affordable with a MSRP that's less than the Kahr CW380. They should retail online in the mid to lower $300s....

I have heard of some frame cracking issues on the LCP's. It wouldn't stop me from purchasing one. Got the wife's for under $200.

I carried my original LCP almost every day from 2008 until a couple of years ago when it was replaced with the LCP Max.

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Originally Posted by 187911

I'm not sure I've heard of anyone shooting their LCP until frame, slide, or barrel failure or cracking. I'm sure it may have happened, but not at a rate compared to how many have sold over the last two+ decades. Either way, Ruger would probably replace it free of charge if someone was that unlucky. The 10 & 12 (+1) Ruger Max is 10.6oz and the new S&W Bodyguard 2.0 10 & 12 (+1) is 9.8oz. Both options are also very affordable with a MSRP that's less than the Kahr CW380. They should retail online in the mid to lower $300s....

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I have had many cracks, rail spits, etc. But I spent years shooting them heavily. In fact Ruger said they were cutting me off. That said, not many will report issues simply because most people shoot them very little. The Kahr and the Pico will run and run with thousands of rounds. The LCP will however run very well with reliability if you do not plan to shoot much. Recently bought another one for another "Truck gun". I paid about $200. I have two now. Have owned many.