Kel Tec P40

[anygunanywhere]

What ammo are you using?

My P40 would only feed the last round with CorBon Powerball in the 130 gr load.

You have to learn to shoot that thing without limpwristing. I found that a one handed grip or two handed with light pressure from the support hand worked best. Keep the shooting hand in alignment with the forearm.

Eric, I have two P40s and plan on selling them in the future once I am back on my feet. I need to fund a firearm purchase and mine are safe queens. One is blue and one is chrome. They are P40s, not converted P11s. I think I have 3 magazines for each one, I will have to check.

Anygunanywhere

[nedmoore]

I was using the white box winchester and monarch. I think the problem is that the magazine rests slightly below the feed ramp. I can push up on the base of the magazine, it has about a 1/4-1/8" gap if that makes any sense. I think I need to try another magazine as I only have one. Any recommendations on a magazine?

[flintknapper]

I was using the white box winchester and monarch. I think the problem is that the magazine rests slightly below the feed ramp. I can push up on the base of the magazine, it has about a 1/4-1/8" gap if that makes any sense. I think I need to try another magazine as I only have one. Any recommendations on a magazine?

http://www.ktog.org/reviews-p40.htm

When the P-40 Conversion Kit came out, the idea was to use the P-11 9mm magazine with the 40 S&W round. Some people had feed problems with the kit using the P-11 9mm magazine and the S&W 6906 and 5906 9mm magazines. The problems were usually failure to feed with the round's nose jamming into the bottom of the feed ramp . Generally we shrugged this off as startup problems with the 40 kit/round and worked trying to tweek the problems away with polishing feed ramps/magazine parts and cleaning/lubing mag parts.

2. When the P-40 GUN came out it had mags labeled P-40 but they were really in the configuration of the P-11 9mm mag in the lip area. Again the nose jam into the feed ramp problems were common with these P-40 mags and continued with S&W 6906 and 5906 9mm mags.

3. It was eventually recognized by Kel-Tec that the 40 S&W round was not coming up out of the mag soon enough to give a good feed into the chamber, thus causing the round to jam into the feed ramp. The solution to this problem was to provide a crescent shaped cutout in the P-40 mag lips so the 40 S&W round would pop up out of the mag sooner during feed. This cutout is located at the point where the mag lips turn from an upward slope coming from the front of the mag to a downward slope going toward the rear of the mag. This cutout modification generally cured the jam into the feed ramp but caused other problems for some folks in the form of the last round being left in the mag or jamming nose up into the barrel hood.

4. It was then determined by Kel-Tec that the dimension of the cutout was critical to good feeding. If the cutout was too large, it could cause the last round left in mag/nose up jam problem being seen in some P-40s. Some earlier P-40 mags with the cutout were found to have a problem with the cutout being too large. The solution was to ensure the cutout did not extend too far along the downward sloping lip toward the rear of the mag. You can probably tell if you have a BAD mag by measuring (with calipers) the distance from the back of the mag along the lip to where the cutout starts. If the dimension is much less than 0.445", say in the order of 0.422", then the mag is suspect, particularly if you are having the last round stay in the mag or jam nose up.

5. At about the time the Kel-Tec lip cutout mod came along, some of us recognized that certain S&W 40 factory mags had a similar lip cutout. Experimentation showed that the S&W Factory Stainless 4013 TSW and the S&W Factory Stainless 4006 mags were reliable feeders in the P-40. The 4013 TSW is like a 6906 9mm mag but only holds 9 rds of 40 S&W. The 4006 is like a 5906 9mm mag. The 4006 comes in an eleven round preban config; post ban is ten rds.

6. Bottom line is you need Kel-Tec P-40 mags with cutout lips of the proper config or S&W factory 4013 TSW or S&W factory 4006 mags to ensure reliable feed in a P-40.

[nedmoore]

Thanks Flint, I did some polishing of the feed ramp and ordered a couple of S&W magazines. Hopefully this will help.

[lunchbox]

Thanks Flint, I did some polishing of the feed ramp and ordered a couple of S&W magazines. Hopefully this will help.

you may have won the battle but you have lost the war