New CW9, One Round, Broken Striker

Greetings,

Purchased a new CW9 a couple of weeks ago; today was its first trip out. 124Gr Winchester Silvertips loaded up. First round off without a problem; no subsequent rounds would fire. Disassembled the gun, pulled the striker and the first 1/8th of an inch was broken off.

Even the best can have occasional problems, I know.

Gun's going back to Kahr for replacement and checkout of course, but curious if others have had this happen. First time for me on any pistol, much less a new one fresh out of the box.

An update on this that may be of interest.

First, talked to Kahr CS and had great success - customer service was fantastic. Was able to have them ship out a new striker which I received today, saving me (and them) the hassle (and cost) of having to ship the slide or entire weapon back, and wait for its return. a HUGE +1 for them.

However, I noticed something different about the two strikers. The broken one clearly had parting lines and what looked like mold injection spots on it, whereas the replacement had none, with clearly machined surfaces, and was also noticeably heavier.

I'm wondering if the original one was MIM, whereas the replacement was not.

When I was making the decision between the P9 and the CW9, all I could find out about the differences were:

- the CW9 had laser engraving instead of roll marking on the slide
- the slide on the P9 had some extra machining to remove weight from the slide that the CW9 did not
- the CW9 front sight was staked on where the P9 was dovetailed
- the slide stop on the CW9 was MIM, where the P9 was not
- only one magazine was shipped with the CW9

All in all, these differences weren't enough for me to justify paying an additional $150 but had I known the striker may have been MIM I would have went for the P9, because although I have nothing against MIM in general, I don't think it belongs on fire control parts on a carry weapon, especially a striker or firing pin.

Does this square with anyone else's experience? Or am I mistaken on the construction of the original striker?

Am extremely happy with the pistol overall, and with Kahr's customer service - it won't be the last Kahr I purchase.

I just looked at my CW9 I cant see it as a MIM part. It looks machined to me.

I love the gun. Good luck have fun glad it is fixed and Kahr stood behing their weapon.

RCG

Glad you got taken care of. I can honestly say that I have read about Kahrs on many forums for years, and have never heard about a broken striker before. Did you do any dry-firing without snap caps?

I have a 10 year old K40 and a 2 year old CW40, and have never, ever, had a problem with either of them except when I once put the recoil spring in backwards in the K40. Not possible in some pistols, but can be done in the Kahrs and can lead to a bound up pistol.

I carry my 2 often, and have complete confidence in them.