I recently purchased one of these beauties. I absolutely love the gun. My wife's S&W 637 is getting a trigger job done in anticipation of one of her tactical defense classes, so we were without a small gun for CCW. I had the P45 on layaway and was about halfway through paying for it. She suprised me when she took in her Smith and picked up the Kahr on the way home. I was ecstatic and immediately went and purchased 250 FMJ practice rounds and a 20 rd box of Hydras.
I was really anxious to get the break-in period over with so I could carry this baby so I went down to the local range and went to town. I was very impressed. I am more accurate with this firearm than any other handgun I own save for my FN FiveseveN. The felt recoil was much less than my full sized FNP40 and the Kahr was actually my first .45. I didn't experience FTF with any of the hydra-shocks but did have several FMJ misfires throughout the break in period. After the first 12 shots (the Hydras) I loaded up some generic FMJ (can't remember the name of the box) ammo and had a round fail to seat properly on the 5th round. I also experienced that on a few rounds, the striker hit but didn't fire on the first 150 rounds. I also experienced one stovepipe during this time. Rounds 150-200 were CCI Blazer, the aluminum, non-reloadable type. I experienced the same problems with this ammo, but with less frequency, and no stovepiping. The last 50 rounds were some of the same generic brass FMJ as the first 150 and only had one FTF, the striker hitting the round and it not firing. On all of the ammo that experienced this problem, I refeeded into the mag and it worked the second time around. Admittedly a couple times I limp wristed the gun when my hands started to get tired.
I absolutely love how accurate and soft shooting this gun is, but I hope the last 50 rounds were an indication as to how well the gun will preform in the future. I will have to put another 100 or so into the gun to be sure. So far I love it.
I do have a couple concerns with this gun other than the misfires. I loved the trigger feel overall but it does have sharp edges. Also, with the grip, I was most comfortable shooting with the trigger sitting in the pocket at the joint between the first and second segment of my index finger. Placing the tip of the finger on the trigger caused the gun to jar a little loose in my hands upon firing. At first firing this way (with the trigger on the "joint") was great, but after 150 rounds it really became a problem. With this placement, my joint would strike the bottom of the trigger guard with the recoil and was starting to blister my finger. The same thing happened when I switched to firing from my weak hand. I'm thinking theres some dehorning or something to the trigger to fix this but wouldnt know where to start, as well as not wanting to "ruin" the trigger if it went wrong.
Also, the rest of my handguns other than the Smith snubby all have at least 14 round mags, so you dont reload that often. With the 6 rounders the Kahr has, my thumbs became extremely raw from stuffing 260ish rounds throughout the range session. My last gripe is in the rough edges on the slide serrations and the aggressive checkering. I'm thinking of getting a Hogue slip-on grip for it like my Five-seveN and am contemplating getting the edges smoothed some on the slide serrations.
I mean this to be my primary concealed carry weapon and in this capacity it does terrific. It's a little heavier than the Smith Airweight but carries more rounds (6+1) and with a much more potent caliber. I can also say at this point, I am much more accurate with the Kahr, but it doesn't get the cool laser grips my wife's snubby came with. I can bear without since it's so accurate and easy to shoot. Size wise, it's smaller in somewhat in overall height than the revolver (which I wear almost always in my pocket) but the slide makes the overall demensions a bit bigger than the revolver. For now I have a cheap, open IWB Clip-on Uncle Mike's holster and it works beautifully. I can even have it clipped on right near the fly and the slim profile of the gun doesn't even cause me to print. I LOVE the dimensions of this gun.
I have to admit I was scared at first of how it would recoil, with so much power comming from such a small gun, but the low bore axis and some of the other Kahr features make this an amazing gun. I have no fear of it "accidently" going off becuase of the long trigger pull and can reasonably expect to be able to hit anything with this weapon within a CCW range situation. I do hope though that the gun proves to be as reliable as some claim after the break-in period is over. I will have to go again this weekend and put at least another 100 rounds to make my final call on its reliability. I would suggest anyone get a nice shooting glove though if you plan on shooting alot of rounds through this in one sitting.
Sorry for the long post!
