No major issues with my CW380. I'm breaking it in on steel cased Monarch and haven't cleaned it at all, straight out of the box.
Yes there are those who think a gun should be perfect and shoot anything jammed down the magazine, yet when experienced shooters who carry for self protection are asked, they all say "break it in 500 rounds. " Kahr just asks for 200.
When Rohrbaugh came out with their pocket gun, they only recommended one - 1 - specific load as the ONLY one that would work reliably. When we read of gun owners shooting new Kahr's the complaint is that the gun would have issues and we have to pry out of them what they were shooting. For the most part it was cheap budget ammo - not full power defensive loads. Well, the same issue exists with AR15 and is generally recognized there. Shoot cheap junk ammo and you get malfunctions. There's an upside to that - you get to practice drills on malfunctions. After all, it's self inflicted, make the best of it.
It's a known issue that the smaller the gun the smaller the performance envelope and the tighter the constraints on what ammo works. Ask any compact 1911 carrier about it. It's SOP on 4" or shorter 1911's to expect that you have to shoot a variety of ammo to find what will work - many won't be reliable. It's just a basic fact of guns.
The problem is that there are new shooters constantly coming in, and many are inexperienced and have a consumer view about how products should work. If it doesn't meet their expectations - which most of the time are unfounded and uneducated - then the gun is at fault. And we all know The Customer Is Always Right, hmm? Raised in an environment where all they have to do is complain and stomp their foot, they think that's all it takes to make it work better. No different than those who pump cheap unleaded in their $55,000 trunk and then wonder why they get misfire codes. Owners manual is right there - specifies the type fuel by octane grade.
We get the same thing with a lot of new gun owners, nice gun cheap junk ammo complain complain complain. I deliberately am doing that, and guess what?
Very few post up about how great the gun works, but make a complaint and it goes to ten others as human nature is to grouse around about it. Yes we get posts about "My new XXX gun is crap!" when the reality is that given enough of the right ammo and knowing how to properly grip the gun, most of the issues go away.
Kahrs are a lot better than some of the more popular sellers, and no worse. You get what you pay for. In fact, if you watch to see what the masses are buying right now, go out and do the opposite - get a Kahr and enjoy it. You aren't buying from a 50 year or older maker dependent on government contracts, you are buying from a maker entirely dependent on doing well with a difficult customer base, and they haven't gone out of business yet. Most do before their 10th year, Kahr is doing something right and has been all along. They certainly aren't coming up with the Gun of the Month or trying to market boutique shooters. They are reliable and seem to lack some other makers problems. R51 anyone? Caracal? Right.
