My New Kahr CM9: First thoughts

[swoop]

You may want to try putting the rear sight white dot just below the front sight white dot. That should raise the projectile, but remember that these single dot sights, and the Kahr trigger take some getting used to.

 

[audi goodness]

I put another 100 rounds through it for the final break in process. It shot pretty well with the exception of a few failure to feeds. I was using 9mm Winchester white box 115 grain. 1 failure to feed was during a 7 round burst and the others were when loading the 1st round. I think the slide wasn't shutting hard enough during the first round to the chamber. I found that sling-shotting it worked the best. I'm going to put another 100 rounds again this weekend. I'll see if it continues to have this issue. I need to get another mag or 2 though. It got annoying reloading every 7 rounds. Haha.

 

[Joe Link]

Nice buy! I carry a PM9 on a regular basis.

 

[870dukr]

I recently received the CW9 as a gift, and have found a things that make shooting it more enjoyable. First of all, I am a big fan of improving grip on my small guns...wait, I do it on all my guns. Instead of buying Talon grips, I bought skateboard grip tape for $5 at my local skate shop, and made my own custom grip. What a difference. I found that cleaning the grip with alcohol and warming the grip tape with a heat gun made the adhesive perfect. Just a thought. The other thing was hearing a review on the CW9 in which they mentioned that Kahr recommends use of the slide release to chamber the first round. I haven't personally read that, but I suppose if it's helpful it doesn't matter so much if it's hearsay.

 

[wombat]

+1 with 870 ...

Agree - "slingshot' the slide for that first round load.
If the failures continue to annoy, switch out the brand of ammo ... maybe Remington UMC 115gr.
Inspect the mag, lips, etc.

Or disassemble, clean, inspect and lube the C!

Thought about self-defense ammo yet?

 

[SynapticSilence]

I had a PM40 and had the same experience of it shooting low. Through subsequent DA trigger pistols, though, I finally figured out it was me, not the guns.

Perfecting a smooth DA trigger pull after shooting crisp breaking SA triggers is an adjustment. One thing is that it's a natural thing to do to tighten up your entire hand as you pull the trigger through to it's breaking point. That puts the tiniest bit of pressure on the grip which then deflects the barrel downward just at the point the fun fires and, bingo, the round goes low.

I watched a guy with an instructor last week doing just that. The instructor wasn't seeing it because he was behind him. I was two lanes to the right of him and could clearly see the little downward deflection right at detonation. He was shooting 10s within a few more magazines once I pointed it out and the instructor took my position and saw it, too and corrected it for him.

I also just happened to have bought a CM9 yesterday and put the second 100 rounds through it today. So far not a single malfunction or glitch. Great little CCW weapons in my book.

 

[SynapticSilence]

A couple of other things. Kahr clearly says in the manual to use the slide stop/release to chamber the first round instead of slingshotting it. There just isn't a lot of leeway in such a small, tight, highly spring pistol to generate the velocity to strip a round off the mag and chamber it reliably. They also clearly acknowledge the issue of not being able to use the slide stop to drop the slide on an empty mag and recommend dropping the mag and then closing the slide.

 

[audi goodness]

Yea I read that recommendation from khar to use the slide stop to chamber the first round and 98% of the time it works. However I haven't had a feed issue yet with slingshotting. I'm still practicing with the whole DAO thing and accuracy. I'm going to be practicing this weekend. Hopefully, I can get it down.

 

[deen_ad]

As I remember Kahr recommends only a couple brands/types of ammo too. Using ammo not on their list will cause feeding problems.

I've got to admit I shoot my KelTec P-40 with the .40 or .357 SIG barrel better then a Kahr 9.

 

[SynapticSilence]

I'm really, really trying not to be a smart *** here. But with the type of unique double action, patented, cammed trigger on the Kahrs, what you're shooting is more like a revolve than a semi-auto. If you're not absolutely paying attention and tightening your hand up to pull the trigger, rather than just using your trigger finger to press the trigger through, you'll exert just enough downward deflection on the gun to make it appear to shoot low. As for the barrel sitting low in the hole at the front of the frame, that's because on a browning-type locking breech barrel, there has to be enough room at the top of that exit for the barrel to cam upward when the slide retracts. Lock the slide back and you'll see that the barrel cants upward several degrees. This is part of what makes the gun work properly. If that room at the top wasn't there, the barrel would be impacting the frame over and over again at the top of the frame hole and peening the frame into oblivion. Give the gun a chance and see if changing your mechanics won't work to correct the problem. I have a CM9 that looks exactly like yours in terms of the barrel configuration and it shoots to point of aim at 50 feet like a champ. Just my two cents. I also shoot reloads, cheap ammo, and anything I can find out of my CM9 and it runs without a flaw, 300 plus rounds now without a glitch.

 

[audi goodness]

Yea I just shot it again today. I'm getting use to that DAO. I've never shot a revolver before so I wouldn't have known that it's similar. But yea it's a great gun. No misfeeds today with Winchester white box. Ran flawless.

 

[SynapticSilence]

Another thing. My CM9 shoots to point-of-aim, not six o'clock. If you're using a six o'clock line up, that's another reason it could seem to be hitting low. Every gun I have now shoots to point-of-aim. Wasn't always that way.

 

[explorerimports]

Took the gun to the range for the first time today. Man does this thing shoot low. At 25ft it shot about 6inches below where i was aiming. I was wondering if anyone can confirm this for me, but there is a noticeable gap between the barrel and the slide. Pics below. Maybe this is why its shooting too low.

<broken link removed>
<broken link removed> by Iceman04503, on Flickr

Can be your trigger pull , dry fire on something really close as pulling trigger you might see gun dipping. adjust when finger is on trigger move to center of pad or when it stops the diving.

 

[audi goodness]

I think I'm starting to get the hang of the DAO with the kahr. Just definitely takes practice. 1st pic is at about 7-8 yards controlled and slow and 2 mags. The 2nd picture is rapid fire dump with 4 mags at 7-8 yards.

*edit: wish I can share pics but the uploader won't upload my pics from some reason