Jammed Kahr CW45

[OneFreeTexan]

On my new to me Kahr CW45, the slide has jammed with a cartridge in the chamber. I can only move the slide back about 1/4”. The mag is out, At a loss here.
My only idea is to try to wiggle the cartridge with a wood dowel, but not sure if that is the best idea.

I appreciate any help.

 

[Steve in Allentown]

Position the pistol so that it is horizontal across your body as opposed to pointing it straight out away from you.

Grip the slide solidly with your off hand.

Using the palm of your strong hand smack the back of the grip hard. Repeat as necessary.

 

[Siggy-06]

Is the extractor on the rim of the cartridge? You could put the front of the front sight blade against a flat surface and drive the frame downwards, tactical rack style. Thats assuming your front sight is steel.

 

[HighValleyRanch]

Mine got jammer real good before all my fixes. I pushed the slide back as far as possible and used the rod off my chronograph to pry out the live cartridge. It did pop out.

I guess you might have missed my post on the other thread that you just got a new CW45 and to look out for the cartridge getting stuck while trying to eject a live round.
Quote from the other thread:

Also see if you have any problems ejecting live rounds from the chamber. The clearance on the barrel hood and ejection port are so tight that they are notorious for catch the round diagnolly betweet the extractor and barrel hood. If you drop the mag first, this may not happen as much because with a loader mag, it's going to push the unfired rount right into that jam. Polishing the corners of the hood can help this problem.

A known problem with the Kahr 45s but fixeable.
Here from the Kahr forums:
http://www.kahrtalk.com/showthread.php?10123-P45-wont-extract-unfired-round

Depending on the overall length of the ammo, and the bullet shape configuration, this can be a problem or not. It really gets stuck with the tapered hollowpoints versus the round FMJ, because of the angle of the bullet nose. On the FMJ, my Kahr P45 can tolerate an OAL of up to 1.24, but with the XTP's and others, I have to keep them to 1.21 plus or minus a few thousands.

I took my barrel out, used a dremel and lightly rounded all the sharp edges on the hood. Make SURE that you drop the magazine first before eject a live round as the magazine will help push the live cartridge into a diagnol jam position. Just the fact of life with such small tolerances.

Any problems on feeding, extracting spent cases or light strikes on primers?
After a few fixes, mine is running 100 percent now.
If you need, I have a few more tips.

Thats assuming your front sight is steel.

I would not do that, they are MIM and can easily break. I tried removing my front sight and the blade broke, and you could see the porous grain. But you could do the same with the corner of the slide.

 

[OneFreeTexan]

Tried Steve in Allentown’s suggestion first. Put on leather gloves, got a good grip and whacked the grip 3 or 4 times and it came loose. The cartridge dropped free so I didn’t have a chance to see where it hung up,,,so I will try other ammo. It was FMJ Hollow Point, no problem my Ruger P90 likes that ammo.

thank you all for your suggestions...It was so fast and so easy,,,,thanks again.

 

[HighValleyRanch]

Typically, the Kahr 45 "live round jam" is going to look like in this photo from that thread on the forums. As you rack the slide back, the extractor will pull on the right side of the case rim. As the shell casing comes back and hits the ejector, the ejector will push the the left side of the rear of the case pointing the nose of the live round up and out at an angle.

If you did not do a hard sharp rack, or the slide does not go far back enough at the right moment, or the magazine is in the pistol pushing up on the ejecting round, or the OAL of the round is too long, the bullet will always get hung up on the right side of the barrel hood as in the photo. Once it gets wedged, then the recoil spring, the edge of the hood digging into the jacket or bullet, the long OAL round is going to get stuck tightly in that angle.

Just because that ammo worked in another pistol means NOTHING as far as it working in the Kahr.

You can see in the photo that the front edge of the hollowpoint bullet is getting stuck on the edge of the right side of the barrel hood. FMJ being more rounded have less tendency to catch, but again, they can.

 

[Steve in Allentown]

On my new to me Kahr CW45 . . .

Did you buy it new or did it have a previous owner?

. . . the slide has jammed with a cartridge in the chamber.

One very simple diagnostic test to try to identify the cause is to perform the plunk test.

1. Remove the barrel
2. Hold the barrel muzzle down
3. Drop a factory round into the chamber
4. You should hear a distinctive sound when the brass case mouth impacts the steel chamber ledge. The cartridge should freely drop out of the chamber.

That's the simple version of the plunk test. I add an additional step.

• While pushing the chambered round as hard as you can forward, twist it. It should rotate freely. If it doesn't, either the bullet is engaging the rifling or the case is being pinched by the chamber. If either of these is occurring, the cartridge will not freely drop out of the chamber. You'll need to pry it out. When you pull the cartridge out of the chamber look for evidence of rifling marks on the bullet.

If the barrel fails the plunk test, contact Kahr, describe the results of the plunk test, and ask if they'll run a finish reamer through the barrel to open the chamber a touch and to lengthen the leade (free bore).

I'm not familiar with Kahr's warranty service. They may not cover firearms that you did not purchase new. If this is the case, I suspect they'll be more than happy to charge you a few bucks to perform this simple service.

 

[HighValleyRanch]

^^^^^Good pickup.
Round is jammed in the chamber is different than what I described.
I automatically assumed he was trying to eject a live round.

This is the second known problem with the Kahr P45 series. Since the CW45 has a different barrel than the P45 Lothar Walter barrel, I can only speak from my own exeriences with a very tight chamber.

I was having problems with various ammo not passing the plunk test. I was shooting various ammo fine, but when I used some Buffaobore, it jammed into the chamber so tight that I could not move the slide. Had to ram the front of the slide against my wood barn door to finally eject it. Did a plunk test and only have the boxes of BB passed the test. The others sat back past the hood.
After that, I always did plunk test on my ammo to see what would work. Hornady critical defense did not pass, and quite a few other brands. All of these worked fine in my 1911 and glocks.

I did a bunch of research and found out that the Walther barrels were known to be very tight, and had a sharp shoulder for the case and no free bore. Since any bullet contact with the rifling can cause malfunctions, the OAL of the cartridge and the bullet style can be a problem, i.e. lead SWC's with a shoulder can be a problem.

I finally decided to send the barrel to a guy on the Kahr forums who specialized in reaming the chamber, throating and free bore so that one could use any ammo with the Kahr barrels. He had to open the chamber from .451 to .452, gave it some freebore, and throated and polished and now it runs like a charm.

I went back and plunk tested all the various ammo that did not pass the test before, and now they all drop in smoothly without any binding. Well worth the 65.00 for the work.

 

[Armybrat]

Sounds like you have had a good resolution.

 

[Paul105]

HVR said "I was having problems with various ammo not passing the plunk test. I was shooting various ammo fine, but when I used some Buffaobore, it jammed into the chamber so tight that I could not move the slide. Had to ram the front of the slide against my wood barn door to finally eject it. Did a plunk test and only have the boxes of BB passed the test. The others sat back past the hood."

There's a member DougGuy on the cast bullet forum that will throat your CW45 barrel. The Kahr CW45 has a very short abrupt leade causing the jamming problem in question with certain bullet profiles/ammunition -- I had mine throated and no more problems.

Of course, doing the plunk test will separate unfriendly ammo.

Paul

 

[mrt949]

O.A.L .Is a bit long .Dosen't take much

 

[HighValleyRanch]

Yeah, that's who I had do my chamber. Good quality work and fast turn around.