Kahr K40 + Winchester white box = 2 piece barrel

[rkt88edmo]

I agree - pretty poor service on their part. This looks like a metallurgy failure of the barrel.

[donbing]

kahr recall

They had a recall on the PM9 pistols a few years ago. Here's some of the info I found from one of the other forums.

Dear Kahr Arms Customer,

Kahr's PM9 is one of our most reliable products for the concealed carry market. Nevertheless, in Kahr's pursuit towards continuous improvement, we are calling for the return of certain PM9 barrels for even greater reliability and safety.

Kahr Arms is asking all Kahr customers to return the barrels only from certain serial numbers of the Kahr PM9 3" barrel Polymer frame 9mm pistols in order to repair or replace barrels that were found to not properly feed some brands of hollow point ammunition, which under certain circumstances may be unsafe to the user.

If you possess a Kahr PM9 3" barrel model within the range of serial numbers noted below, please return the barrel only with a tag indicating the serial number of the gun. Barrels received will be repaired or replaced and shipped back within 7 business days.

Please return the barrel and your name and address to:

Kahr Arms
130 Goddard Memorial Drive
Worcester, MA 01603
Attn: Dorothy Herold

Thank you for cooperating with us in our pursuit of continuous improvement. We apologize in advance for any inconvenience this may cause you.
If you have any questions or comments regarding this notice, please do not hesitate to contact David Konn, Director of Dealer Development at 561-656-1288.

[Glock22Fan]

And they have the nerve to say "Why buy a Block when you can buy a Kahr?"

Here's why, folks.

[hawk1]

How do you spell their name? K A H R. I have one more on my Do not buy list of firearms. Thanks for the heads up...

If that is their response to your problem, I want nothing to do with them.

[saki302]

I would email them and refer them to this forum and this post in particular. MANY folks on here will NEVER buy a Kahr unless they make it right with you.

I had a similiar problem with my MK9 a number of years ago (it was an Asian guy I spoke with initially- no racism here, as I'm Asian). After a nasty posting on rec.guns (newsgroup), their LE sales manager contacted me, and made it right. I suggest you move up the food chain and let them know your issue is being watched attentively by others.

I lost the contact info on their LE sales guy, but more recently, I had an issue with the slide release on a P9. I dealt with a 'Dottie' there and had good results- give her a try:
Dottie Herold
Customer Care Manager
Kahr Arms/SMI-MA
130 Goddard Memorial Drive
Worcester MA 01603
508-795-3919, Ext. 331
dherold@Saeilo.com

-Dave

[Fjold]

Called customer service, was on hold about 20 minutes.

Told the guy the same thing I told ya'll. He says:

"Well you can either order a barrel or send the gun to us. It'll cost shipping plus an hour's labor for us to check it out and test fire it, then of course the cost of the barrel.

Since it's a used gun there's no warranty on it or anything. You can do the same inspection that we're going to do, so if you don't see anything obvious like cracks in the frame or anything like that it could save you some money if you just order a barrel. Maybe you could find a local dealer or gunsmith to take a look at it."

When I mentioned the primer strike was kind of funny and I was shooting Winchester white-box ammo he said "Hmmm..."

Then he said "If you have pictures of something that looks out of place you can send them to us to take a look at. It's up to you and whatever it is that you want to do; either send it to us or save some money and just order a new barrel. Let us know..."

So, I guess I'll just send the pics in and see if I get a response before I drop the $140 on a new barrel. At least I have an excuse to buy a new gun now...

I would tell them that because of the obvious failure of the barrel that you wouldn't feel safe with another barrel supplied by them. And in the mean time you are going to post these pictures and what happened on every gun website that you can find.

I don't think that the "Moonies" will really care though.

[QuarterBoreGunner]

Good lord! That sucks!

And I have an personal interest in this; I have a K40 from right around that era as well. Don't shoot it that much, but dammit it was on my CCW for awhile.

Nick5811 - If you don't mind, could you PM me a partial serial number from your gun? I'd like to see how close it is to mine.

Oh and that's garbage customer service in my opinion.

[HighValleyRanch]

They're going to "test fire" it and then install a new barrel?
An hour to look at a failed barrel?
Seems like phone tech hype to me!!!
I'd request a film of them test firing through the broken barrel, ha!

Put me on the list of folks not willing to do business with Kahr, unless they do right by you. Don't they realize the POWER OF THE INTERNET???
I would make it clear to them, and send them copies of just the thread here how everyone feels they are treating you.

[Nick5811]

First, let me say I never intended this to be a Kahr bashing post of any sort.

When I saw that the barrel broke, I was happy that I wasn't hurt in any way.

I wasn't sure what to think at first, I mean, who knows how many rounds have been through that barrel? Then I saw how it broke, and I remembered that the barrels are supposed to be "machined from a solid billet of proprietary steel". I thought "hmm, that's an awful clean break".

But who knows...maybe the metal was inferior, maybe the barrel was cracked before and I just didn't see it, maybe I got a "hot" box of factory ammunition from Winchester... In any case, I never expected them to send me a free barrel or anything. I posted this thread because I've never experienced anything like this before and I didn't know what to expect.

I was half expecting you guys to call me an idiot for putting it together wrong or something.

I bought the gun because a lot of guys I work with were like "oh man, if I wasn't married/broke/paying child support I'd buy that gun. Those things are great back up guns, really reliable". I was recently single and acting out so I bought it on impulse.

It was accurate and I loved the smooth trigger pull. I paid $375 for it, so to put $8 into a new recoil spring and $140 into a new barrel isn't a big deal to me....if I can be assured that this is a one-time freak occurrence caused by over use of the firearm or a hot load. I'm afraid to put any of these rounds through my Glock until I know for sure.



The SN for those interested is DB08xx which according to another forum lists the gun as being from 1998.

I'll keep you all updated on the status of the customer service.

[dfletcher]

I may be way off, but my first impression was that the barrel is press fit into that "whatever you call the square block of steel" rear end. Can anyone speak to whether the barrel is one solid block of steel or two separate blocks of steel press fit?

[superhondaz50]

I tend to stay away from WWB nowadays. Most of it is Serbian made, It's dirty and poorly manufactured. This one's out of my 9mm AR. This has also happened to a few different handguns I own, multiple times. I ended up just burying the remainder if this batch of WWB I had in the Mohave desert. Stay clear of the stuff if you can and buy some better ammo.

[JTROKS]

I have never been a fan of two-piece barrels. It's one of those, "I have a friend" story. Back in the mid 90s, I've seen a Springfield Armory 1911 that a friend owned that had the barrel coming apart, we were lucky we noticed it after it started malfunctioning, from 100% reliable to down right miserable. SA replaced the barrel after it was sent in and they even gave him two extra mags and some other goodies.

jtroks

[eaglemike]

Yupper, we had a couple of local guys have trouble with the 2-piece SA barrels. One piece mo' bettuh....

I hope they treat you right. It's a faulty barrel.....

all the best,

Mike

[saki302]

You should NOT have to buy a new barrel- that failure is not due to springs or ammo.

I have well over 15,000 rounds (fired by me) in my police trade-in Glock 19 (unknown round count by ex NYPD owner), and the barrel works fine. Round count is also not an excuse for barrel failure. It is also highly unlikely it has more than a couple thousand rounds through it- and that's on the high side for most.

-Dave

[Nick5811]

According to the website http://www.kahr.com/KA-2A.html the barrels are made of one piece of high quality steel.

Is this maybe something new?