Anyone in the South OC area have a 9mm finishing reamer I can borrow?

[Eugic92]

Hey guys, I purchased a Kahr CW9 off another Calgunner as “new, never fired” and when I went to shoot it, it wouldn’t even chamber a round. After some inspection, I found that the chamber wasn’t finished properly and there is a step in the chamber near the rifling that’s is preventing the lip of the shell to move forward and fully seat. It’s definitely a manufacturing issue, but Kahr hasn’t responded to my attempt to contact them via their web site since Oct 2nd.

I don’t want to spend $90 on a new reamer to fix this manufacturing issue that Kahr should be fixing, but I’m sick of waiting and figured I’d see if anyone on here can help me out. We can even meet up at a gun store parking lot and do the work there. I can pay for your time as long as it’s reasonable, or trade the service/borrowing for a glock mag or some accessory. We can work it out. Let me know.

Thanks in advance!

[ar15barrels]

Both of these places will rent you a reamer:
https://4drentals.com/
https://www.reamerrentals.com/

[smoothy8500]

Hmmm, can see the ad in the sales section: Reamer for sale, fairly new, only dropped once, may/may not have been turned the wrong direction. Guaranteed to be sharp in some spots. Yeah, you will have better luck renting from the reamer rentals. I have used 4D in the past and was satisfied with the reamer.

[Pofoo]

I've delt with Kahr waranty service in the past and found them very accomodating.
I would try calling them. Always better to actually talk to a person.
https://www.kahr.com/services/

[Eugic92]

Thanks everyone for the helpful responses. I’m going to try contacting Kahr again via phone (didn’t realize they had a contact number listed) and see if they can give me a status update on my RMA request. Hopefully that call will be fruitful. I still can’t justify spending $50 on a one time rental, when I can pay $30-$40 more and be able to put the tool in my toolbox. Even if I may never need it again, at least it’s mine. Maybe one day someone will be asking to borrow one and I have it to lend out! =)

[ar15barrels]

Originally Posted by Eugic92

Thanks everyone for the helpful responses. I’m going to try contacting Kahr again via phone (didn’t realize they had a contact number listed) and see if they can give me a status update on my RMA request. Hopefully that call will be fruitful. I still can’t justify spending $50 on a one time rental, when I can pay $30-$40 more and be able to put the tool in my toolbox. Even if I may never need it again, at least it’s mine. Maybe one day someone will be asking to borrow one and I have it to lend out! =)

You can also buy a used one on ebay, use it and then sell it on ebay for almost the same that you paid for it.
Chamber reamers are commodity items when purchased at the used commodity price.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/133503540972

[Eugic92]

I may end up going this route, or even buy a new one. Just got off the phone with Kahr and was told my CW9 was deemed “non-warranty” since I purchased it used and they don’t know if the previous owner broke it. They said they can still take a look at it and if it is indeed a manufacturing defect, I’d only be responsible for the shipping cost to them, they’ll handle all costs of the replacement and shipping back to me. If it turns out it was caused by the previous owner, I’m looking at around $200 for parts and labor on a $300 gun.... at that point I’d ask for it to be returned and then would ultimately be spending the cost of shipping it to them, plus the cost of a reamer to do the work myself... ahh the dilemma!! One thing is for sure, the next time I purchase a second hand gun, I’ll be adding go/no-go gauges to my kit.

Originally Posted by ar15barrels

You can also buy a used one on ebay, use it and then sell it on ebay for almost the same that you paid for it.
Chamber reamers are commodity items when purchased at the used commodity price.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/133503540972

[G-forceJunkie]

I can't imaging that pistol was not test fired before it left the factory, and nobody has ever been able to put a live round in it. Are you sure its not something like the mouth of a case seperated and is stuck in the chamber?

[Eugic92]

I figured it should have been test fired before leaving the factory as well. If so, I can’t imagine what the previous owner could have done to make material appear in the form of what appears to be a perfectly concentric step.

I do recall now that when I disassembled the gun, I saw a lot of flakes of brass inside, as if the slide was forcefully pressed into battery and the unfinished “step” in the chamber was removing material from the brass case.

I’ll take another look under a microscope tomorrow to see if it’s separated casing or not, but I took a pic and attached it here for others to see what I’m talking about.

Originally Posted by G-forceJunkie

I can't imaging that pistol was not test fired before it left the factory, and nobody has ever been able to put a live round in it. Are you sure its not something like the mouth of a case seperated and is stuck in the chamber?

[ar15barrels]

Originally Posted by Eugic92

I figured it should have been test fired before leaving the factory as well. If so, I can’t imagine what the previous owner could have done to make material appear in the form of what appears to be a perfectly concentric step.

I do recall now that when I disassembled the gun, I saw a lot of flakes of brass inside, as if the slide was forcefully pressed into battery and the unfinished “step” in the chamber was removing material from the brass case.

I’ll take another look under a microscope tomorrow to see if it’s separated casing or not, but I took a pic and attached it here for others to see what I’m talking about.

There's nothing wrong in the chamber photo.
That "unfinished step" is the headspacing feature of a 9mm chamber.
The case mouth headspaces (stops) against that step.

Have you even headspace gauged the gun?
That's what Kahr is going to do and then tell you its fine.

If you are trying to shoot some longer bullets that are not seating into the barrel fully and causing the case to stick out too far, that's an ammo problem, not a gun problem.

[Eugic92]

Originally Posted by ar15barrels

There's nothing wrong in the chamber photo.
That "unfinished step" is the headspacing feature of a 9mm chamber.
The case mouth headspaces (stops) against that step.

Have you even headspace gauged the gun?
That's what Kahr is going to do and then tell you its fine.

If you are trying to shoot some longer bullets that are not seating into the barrel fully and causing the case to stick out too far, that's an ammo problem, not a gun problem.

I did try several brands and models of ammunition and all of them had the same problem (Winchester, Federal, both ball and hollowpoint).

According to SAAMI, the case should be 0.754 to 0.744 inches in length. Using that as a guide, I used a digital caliper and measured from the end of the barrel hood to the "unfinished step" and the headspace step. What I found was that though the distance between the end of the barrel hood to the headspace step was within tolerance (0.7535"), the distance between the end of the barrel hood to the "unfinished step" measured 0.715", which is much shorter than SAAMI tolerances allow. That "unfinished step" is keeping the case mouth from reaching the headspace step. Hope my terminologies are understandable and/or make sense.

I checked a Glock barrel and it doesn't have this superfluous second step, so I think it's not supposed to be there.

I took another picture with better lighting and added some text to help explain what I'm seeing. It's as if the finishing pass on the lathe didn't reach the correct depth.

[ar15barrels]

The first photo didn't really show the step you are describing but it's more visible in the 2nd.
I also see what looks like a bunch of lead buildup on the main headspacing shoulder now.

The rear of the Hood is NOT the headspacing reference point because the hood can have an unknown gap between the breech and the end of the hood.
That's why pistol headspacing checks are done with the barrel installed into the slide.

The real test is still headspace gauges.

[G-forceJunkie]

Sounds like someone fired some .380 in it and leaded/copper fowled the shoulder where the 9mm is supposed to go if the chamber is truley short

[Eugic92]

Originally Posted by ar15barrels

The first photo didn't really show the step you are describing but it's more visible in the 2nd.
I also see what looks like a bunch of lead buildup on the main headspacing shoulder now.

The rear of the Hood is NOT the headspacing reference point because the hood can have an unknown gap between the breech and the end of the hood.
That's why pistol headspacing checks are done with the barrel installed into the slide.

The real test is still headspace gauges.

Ahh yes you’re absolutely right! I forgot to take that into consideration as I’ve fitted oversized 1911 barrels and always made sure the gap between hood and breech was minimal. Of course production pistols wouldn’t be that precise. I don’t have any headspace gauges and want to keep this investigation as cheap as possible since the pistol is so inexpensive and not worth the added cost. I’ll measure that gap with some feeler gauges and add to my previous measurements. I just need to have enough information to convince myself with as little doubt as possible that this is a manufacturing issue before I send it back to Kahr.

[ar15barrels]

Originally Posted by Eugic92

Ahh yes you’re absolutely right! I forgot to take that into consideration as I’ve fitted oversized 1911 barrels and always made sure the gap between hood and breech was minimal. Of course production pistols wouldn’t be that precise. I don’t have any headspace gauges and want to keep this investigation as cheap as possible since the pistol is so inexpensive and not worth the added cost. I’ll measure that gap with some feeler gauges and add to my previous measurements. I just need to have enough information to convince myself with as little doubt as possible that this is a manufacturing issue before I send it back to Kahr.

If you actually GAUGE the gun with a Go Gauge and it fails, then you have something definite to tell Kahr that they can repeat on their workbench.
At that point, you can send them the barrel and slide and let them replace the barrel.
Depending on what the gap at the hood turns out to be, the gun might actually fail a no-go gauge on the proper headspace shoulder after a reamer was pushed into the chamber to blend the little shoulder to the big shoulder.
Once you put a reamer in the barrel, Kahr is not going to warranty it.
For that reason, I would not push a reamer into the barrel unless you are very confident of all your measurements.

[G-forceJunkie]

For the record, I pulled my K9 out of the safe. The hood to end of the chamber is .754. Barrel hood to slide is under .003" Your step puts the chamber over 1/32 of an inch short, no way a test fired pistol left the factory that way. My Kahr came with the fired cases with the pistol. Have you tried to push/pull on it with a metal scribe or dental pick? If its soft like brass or lead is should be easy to poke with a pointed scribe. I its hardened steel of a mis machined barrel, that should be obvious as well. I bet if you sharpened a brass punch and started scraping, it would come out.

[ar15barrels]

Originally Posted by G-forceJunkie

For the record, I pulled my K9 out of the safe. The hood to end of the chamber is .754. Barrel hood to slide is under .003" Your step puts the chamber over 1/32 of an inch short, no way a test fired pistol left the factory that way. My Kahr came with the fired cases with the pistol. Have you tried to push/pull on it with a metal scribe or dental pick? If its soft like brass or lead is should be easy to poke with a pointed scribe. I its hardened steel of a mis machined barrel, that should be obvious as well. I bet if you sharpened a brass punch and started scraping, it would come out.

It's a "feature"!
He's got the perfect barrel to reload 9x18 cases with standard 9mm bullets.