Our pals at gunwebsites.com save the crucial bit for last: this sucker fires .40 S&W. That’s got to be one “snappy” little gun. TTAG’s calling Kahr for a T&E (Testing and Evaluation) weapon as part of our [just invented] mighty mouse gun review series.
I had a PM9 & I would not take it to a rock fight. It would only shoot ball ammo. Anything else tied it knots, with constant failures to return to battery. I sent it back to Khar & it still would not return to battery. I ended up smashing it with a boulder as I could not sell or trade it with a clear conscience. Worst pistol I’ve ever owned. They are an expensive POS. For the money, go get two Ruger LCRs. Hell, even a caveman’s club will serve you better.
Don–I have a first generation P9, which I traded a SIG P239 for. The SIG was a flawless performer, and the Kahr has been every bit its equal.
I’ve put thousands of rounds through it, everything from range ammo reloads to el cheapo Wolf, to Glasers, Cor-Bon, and my carry load, 115 gr. Silvertips. I’ve never had a malfunction.
Everybody can get a lemon, but in my experience Kahr is just as good as the other major manufacturers. Of course, I bought mine when they weren’t ridiculously expensive. Now I think they’re too expensive.
I’ve owned a PM9 for several years now, my daily carry. I have well over 2500 rounds through it and it is on it’s 2nd recoil spring (recommended round count before preventative replacement is 1200-1500, changed mine at 2000). In that time, I’ve had zero FTF, FTE, FTL. I did follow the 200 round break in period with regard to chambering a round with slide release only. After this period, slingshoting the slide became easier and smoother. I now have very smooth and crisp racks with personal protection hollow points, which are obviously more difficult to chamber up any ramp design. I starting inquiring about the recoil spring when the slide seemed to start hesitating to come fully into battery but, bottom line, zero failures of any kind and working on 3000 rounds. I trust it with my and my family’s life daily.
I had the PM40 with stainless slide and night sights for about 10 months. Slide would lock back in the middle of a magazine (every 10 rounds on average), slide wouldn’t lock back at the end of a magazine (occasionally), the rearward motion of the barrel would cause the feed ramp to contact the follower, so the followers would break at between 50-100 rounds, at one point the magazine itself came apart at the seam from being hammered by the feed ramp. Kahr CS people were very nice, I sent the gun in to the factory twice, both times it came back working worse than before in terms of slide lockback. They put a nick in the edge of the slide the first time, and also sent it back with a bent slide return spring (sloppy reassembly, I assume). The second time they replaced the frame, which necessitated another FFL fee to get it back. I resorted to do-it-yourself gunsmithing, got it running well except for the breaking of followers, which even the huge divot they cut into the feed ramp didn’t fix, and sold it. An expensive gun, which I put a LOT of expensive ammo through trying to establish its reliability. At that point, even if they offered me a new gun it would be another $40 for the FFL fee, and start all over again. I judged I would just be throwing good money after bad, so time to cut my losses, and needless to say I’ll never be owning a Kahr again. I realize not everyone has had problems with their Kahr, but once you’ve experienced something like this, you start to question their engineering. Back to my cheap little Ruger LCP, which has never malfunctioned. Thinking about the Sig P290RS next.
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