I took my new Kahr for a drive yesterday...hehehe

[J. MacDonald]

It's a Kahr Arms P9 9mm with a 3" barrel, polymer frame, glock like operation and a stainless slide. Mine also has tritium night sights.

It seems to do pretty well for such a tiny pistola with only a 3" barrel. The grip was comfortable and the recoil was very managable. Much better than I expected from such a small pistol with a major caliber round. I was shooting 115 gr. PMC & Mag-Tech factory rounds. It's rated for 9mm +P and I'm curious to try some Cor-Bons in it.

While the trigger pull is a little longer than I expected, perhaps the longest of any pistol I've ever fired, the pull was very linear with just a bit of stacking near the release point. This is still no SA 1911 trigger with a glass rod break, but seems preferable to the Glock trigger IMHO.

The gun reliably fired every round fed it (only 100 so far). The only flaw I found so far was that after emptying the first magazine, if the second magazine was inserted with any vigor (tap, rap, er...what's that drill?) the slide would automatically pop forward and go into battery. When it exihibited this behavior, it always stripped and chambered the top round in the new magazine and functioned reliably while shooting. I think the slide stop is not engaging fully, and the manual does say to put at least 200 rounds through the gun to break it in. If this syndrome continues after 200-300 rounds, I'll send the gun back to have the slide stop fitted. It seems kind of cool from a tactical viewpoint, but is techincally a malfunction, so it needs to be corrected.

Anyway, the attached pic is the first four mags at 5 yards (15 feet). I seem to be pulling to the left a bit. Time will tell if it's me or the sights (Trijicon) needing adjustment. The groups open up a bit at 8 yards (25 ft.) but are still mostly in the 10 ring!

I like it.

jmx

 

[Bruise Lee]

So they finally approved these babies for sale in the People's Republic of Kalifornia!?! Kewl!

I've been lusting after one of these for awhile. I've read that the metal framed micro Kahrs are significantly more reliable than the polymer framed ones, so I'm glad to hear your is working well.

Any more details you could give about reliability, accuracy, general impressions is greatly appreciated. Is it really that much smaller than, say a mini Glock 27? How heavy is the trigger pull?

Also, what kind of rounds did you use? All FMJ? Any JHP's or +P?

What did you pay for it?

Bruise

 

[fracmeister]

The "problem" of the slide moving forward after you put in a new magazine with some force isn't unique to your Kahr. Essentially all of the Glocks do that. I sort of consider it a feature.. hey, why have to use your thumb?

 

[J. MacDonald]

Bruise: I didn't get the Micro Kahr, but they are available here as well. It didn't seem to add much over th eP9 I did get as you really have to use the mag extention to make the grip comfortable on the PM9 (micro version) and at that point, it's not much more compact than the P9, just about a half inch of barrel and slide. So far I've only run 115gr. FMJ through it. Outside of the slide release, so far no function problems. If you look at the pic I posted, you can see that it groups around 3"-4" at 5-8 yards so far. I'm sure that with some further practice, I can tighten that up a bit.

Regarding the Glock comparison, the grip is slightly longer than a mini Glock, but the Kahr is much less blocky and is overall much thinner. I think it would be less likely to print if carried concealed than the mini Glocks. I certainly could have had a mini Glock for less than I paid for the Kahr and I spent many months contemplating that issue. Besides the mini Glocks being thicker and clunky, the grip is really short. I was concerned about control and weapon retention with both the mini Glock and the micro Kahrs, that's why I got the P9. The trigger feels much better than my Glock 21 or the 19s & 23s that I've shot. It's different in that there's a longer take up, but overall it feels better than a Glock trigger to me. I'd guess it's around 7-8lbs trigger pull, but gery smooth. Long like a standard DA pull, but lighter than any normal DA I've shot.

I had a hard time finding anywhere that had these locally, and if it's not in stock, it's hard to grind a deal. This means that I paid near retail (something I NEVER do). The gun was $660.00 plus Tax and DROS fees. That included the P9 with two stainless 7 round magazines and factory Trijicon night sites. It's more than I've ever paid for a pistol, but I don't regret it. It's a full power (+P rated although not tried yet) 7&1 9mm that actually fits comfortably in the front pocket of a pair of Khakis and doesn't look any more threatening than the Sony PDA I carry in my other front pocket. All my research indicates that the early polymer Kahrs had some fit and finish issues, but that the later production units are just as well built and reliable as the metal framed ones.

Frac: I've never had a Glock release the slide like that. I've had a model 21 for over 10 years and have a bunch of friends with other Glocks. Never heard about that from any of them. I doubt they'd see such widespread LE deployment if that were the case. While it is sort of cool, and certainly speeds up a relead by a little bit, it's not 100% predictable and if it doesn't fix itself during break in, I'll send it in to have the slide release fitted better so that it locks the slide back reliably.

So far, I'm a happy camper and this seems like one sweet little gun.

jmx

 

[SIFU1A]

have put about 500 rounds thru my P9 now (fed HS, rem GS, speer gold dot +p, fed 9BP-LE +P+, rem +P+,WW ranger 127 SXT +P+, and blazer) with out any jams. am very happy with it. its MUCH easier to carry than a glock 26/27/33, so easy to carry i dont ever carry my kel tec 32 anymore, just the P9 24/7.

only con is the slide release lever bit the heck outta my thumb, i dremeled it down smooth and no more probs. well, and the co. is owned by the moonies, LMFAO, that is weird, imho.

imho the kahr is an excellent gun, very reliable/good accuracy, in fact much more accurate than i thought it would be.

great gun, also have aP40 covert w/the A-O sites, havent shot that one much yet though......


greg

 

[Bruise Lee]

Originally posted by jmxcpter

Frac: I've never had a Glock release the slide like that. I've had a model 21 for over 10 years and have a bunch of friends with other Glocks. Never heard about that from any of them. I doubt they'd see such widespread LE deployment if that were the case. While it is sort of cool, and certainly speeds up a relead by a little bit, it's not 100% predictable and if it doesn't fix itself during break in, I'll send it in to have the slide release fitted better so that it locks the slide back reliably.

I'd have to agree with this. I've personally owned 4 Glocks, and have probably shot at least 20 others, and I've never had a single one go into battery after inserting a mag.

There is one pistol I know of that was actually designed to do exactly that though. It was the H&K 4, an interesting gun H&K used to make that was convertible to different calibers.

Bruise

 

[fracmeister]

Dang, that is good to know. All three of mine do it, but only the 34 (with the longest slide) does it practically every time. I don't guess I am planning to get it fixed though. All of my Glock time is at the range (to date ) so it doesn't seem like it is doing any harm. Thanks for the correction.