Fluff 'n' Buff Report

[Catbird]

(I know that some of you have already done this.)

Since my new PM9 was still dirty from yesterday's shooting session, I set aside time this morning to give it a thorough cleaning followed by a bit of polishing using Flitz and my Dremel w/ felt wheel.

I polished the feedramp till mirror-bright followed by just a bit of polishing the chamber (<--I don't usually polish the chamber).

Here's the important/surprising part:
I thoroughly polished the top and sides of the barrel hood to a mirror-bright finish. It really made a substantial improvement when hand cycling the slide. The slight dragging sensation of the barrel hood riding the inside of the slide was completely eliminated.

I'm definitely going to repeat the process on my P40 tomorrow. :)

[Michigun]

Yup, a little polishing can only help things out!

Here is what I polish (with Flitz, Dremel & felt wheel) on all my Kahrs right away: (For my polymer Kahrs I remove any excess plastic too.)

* The whole barrel top to bottom, from its feed ramp to its muzzle (I keep away from the very end/crown though)
* The “spinning section” on the slide stop lever
* The barrel-hole opening in the slide where the barrel rubs

I then “detail strip” the upper & polish:

* The whole extractor
* All parts in the extractor channel
* The whole striker/firing pin
* The whole striker/firing pin safety
* The striker/firing pin spring & plunger
* Anything else I may have forgot in there

Before I reassemble the upper I polish:

* The breach face starting at the top & continue polishing all the way down & around hitting the “pick up rail” as well on the underside

[29 toter]

I just bought a a PM9 and noticed that while the machining on the slide was great, there are some parts that could be a little more finished (feed ramp). I have never polished a feed ramp before and am concerned about damaging this new gun. However, I have a dremel with some felt bits and some flitz. If I take it slow do you see any harm in my trying to make the feed ramp a little less rough. Any pointers would help. Thank you.

[TNRonin]

Flitz is great in that it won't take the metal off. You won't hurt anything polishing. Try it w/o the flitz first and see how it goes. I was at the shop yesterday and did some cleaning when I drifted the rear sight. I didn't have any Flitz so I just used buffer disk. It did a really good job on its own. HTH

[29 toter]

A Dremel with a felt tip bit and some Flitz works wonders. Feed ramp is looking good.

[Dandapani]

I polished the barrel as recommended, cleaned, oiled, then installed it and then shot it with HS 124 and GD 124 (normal pressure).

Before the barrel buff job, I shot the 6+1 carry ammo (HS) with no failures whatsoever.

After the little buff job, I had a bunch of weird failures the first couple of magazines. Magazine dropped out, FTF nose dive second round, fail to lock open after last round, FTE stove pipe. Yikes! I was very upset to say the least. I put more rounds through it, about 20 before it started to settle down and work as expected. The only failures were in the first 200 rounds were two fail to battery.

Gonna shoot a bunch more ball through it this weekend for additional break in, test some more premium JHP (will try 147 grn instead of 124) and will post on any changes in this thread.

[Dandapani]

Originally posted by dmobrien2001
Gonna shoot a bunch more ball through it this weekend for additional break in, test some more premium JHP (will try 147 grn instead of 124) and will post on any changes in this thread.

I shot 100 rounds of ball, gun was hot and dry by round 98 in which it failed to go into battery. Slight tap on back of slide and good to go for that round and the next two.

Cleaned and lubed with Tetra Gun Grease in the appropriate spots (rubbed with q-tip until no longer "visible") and shot couple dozen rounds of premium JHP no problem.

So, whatever happened after the small buff job, cleared up. I used a little Mothers Metal polish and mostly dry Dremel felt wheel and did clean the barrel well afterwords. Dunno, but it's all better now.