Kahr P9 FTE -every single round-

[sttaffy]

I bought this gun used, with an estimated (by the PO) 200-300 rounds through it, supposedly failure free. I've taken it to the range three times so far:

The first time it ran flawlessly until I switched ammo (remington UMC - Blazer Brass) and it started having FTE's every so often. thought it was the ammo. Maybe put about 75 rounds through. I cleaned it before and after.

Second time it had FTE's all over the place, I thought I might be limp wristing the crap out of it but I assure you I had a death grip. Mixed ammo, only 2 mags or so through.

This third time at the range today it ended up having an FTE almost every single round! WTF could cause this? The case is partially extracted, bumped up by the little ramp in the left hand side of the frame, but not enough to clear the slide. When the slide tries to chamber another round the case gets caught on the top of the barrel.

i took the extractor out, no obvious signs of trauma.

I like this gun, a lot, other than the fact that it is a piece of crap. This was to be my primary carry gun.

Any ideas? I bought it used from King's Shooters Supply in Southampton - I guess I'll call and see if they have any sort of return policy for broken guns. My first instinct is to fix it if it is something I can do and make it 100%. otherwise I'd want to return it, sell it, or deal with Kahr customer service, and in that order.

Any help is appreciated!!!!!

Some pictures:

1. round in chamber, chamber loaded indicator out a lil' bit


2, 3, 4. Three views of a spent case lodged, this is how it looks every time I fire the pistol:




5. The slide by itself with the extractor visible:


6. A composite - two views of a piece of brass held by the extractor to show how loose it is, and how much play is present.

[synergy]

Does the ejector in the frame look normal?

[ffoltz]

If it was me, I'd have someone else shoot the gun. Same results - Then it's not me. Then I would try a more powerful round, maybe +P round. If that works OK your recoil spring maybe to strong for your practice ammo. Also I would try to run it wet with lube to see if that helped.
Hope this works out.

[crakkajakka15]

Have someone else shoot the gun...you may be limp wristing the gun and not know it other wise contact Kahr and they will make it right

[smoke-wagon]

have you tried manually cycling through magazines with the empty shells maybe? that would eliminate the possibility of limp wristing i would think. do you know if possibly the PO replaced the guide rod to a heavier one? that slide felt very heavy compared to other auto's i've shot. personally i think it's due to the pistol being a slim single stack 9mm and being too small for your hands to get a full grip (i was at the range w/ staffy today btw and witnessed the failures first hand). but hey when's the next time your heading up to king's? i've been wanting to check that place out myself.

[nhughesmd]

There are a number of reasons why guns fail to eject. You have already looked at the extractor, which seams to grab the rim of the shell and pull it back. Your problem could be a spring issue. Either a overly heavy guide rod spring not allowing a long enough window of opportunity for the shell to eject, or weak magazine spring not pushing up hard enough from one round to the next. Did you happen to notice if this problem happened more with one magazine than the other?

My best guess is that you have a broken ejector. From the pics it appears that the extractor is holding the rim of the shell and pulling it back. Makes me believe that the guide rod spring and extractor are working properly. It also looks like the spent shell is consistantly forced in an upward position, making me believe that it is not the magazine spring. What strikes me is that the shell is not moved out of alignment to the right. Can you take any pics of your ejector so that we can take a look?

Hope this helps,
nhughesmd

[andrewjs18]

My guns loved the blazer brass. hope you get your gun situated because blazer ammo is probably the cheapest thing to shoot right now besides reloads.

[Tony Fly]

If the recoil spring is to heavy it might be cycling to fast and not giving the shell enough time to clear the slide.

I think you can buy a lighter spring for it, but I'm not totally sure.

[sttaffy]

I am going back to king's shooter's supply tomorrow AM to see if they have any luck with it, or what their return policy is. I bought it Nine days ago, cleaned it 3x, shot about 75 rds and at least half of them FTE'd (the last 3 magazines I shot only 1 casing popped feebly free from the slide), and I feel a little ripped off. Hopefully they'll make it right.

As for limp wristing, I have very strong wrists :P I had a serious, two handed, pushing-and-pulling as hard as I can grip on the thing and it had no effect. I don't know what the standard definition of limp-wristing is, I assume it is a less rigid wrist softening the recoil enough that the spring can't do it's job, right? The slide doesn't go back and forth with enough force? I really don't think it is this, and the failures were replicated by smoke-wagon (who, btw, has a sweet AR and was kind enough to let me shoot some .22 through it).

The piston does have a substantial SS guide rod that I am not sure is stock. I am thinking this is not the problem, because the gun fired fine the first few rounds then rapidly deteriorated to the point where I don't feel safe firing it anymore, not knowing why it's so screwed.

Here are some pics - there are two places that show wear, I think. Where the extractor rests on the extractor rod, and a little rough edge in the picture. I don't think either could cause the total-crap extraction, but I'm no gunsmith or engineer!!!










Also, I found a bunch of scratches on the breech face (at least that's what I think it's called) underneath the extractor area. There are a lot of them, and they are rough when you run your fingernail across them. Could this be the culprit?

[sttaffy]

by request, some pictures of the ejector: