Kahr compact 9mms (K9 etc): likes, dislikes?

From 1999 to 2009 I had an E9, a now discontinued "economy" version with rougher finish and plastic sights. This was an excellent gun. It seems to fit everyone's hands ranging from petite women to burly guys with bear paws and balances and points perfectly. The trigger pull does have a long stroke, but it is light, has even pressure all the way through (no rotating a cylinder or camming a hammer up over center) and the final "break" is a bit of a surprise. After a little "getting used to" period you can do very good work with this trigger. I never had any cycling problems with it, but the front sight did fall off and the ejection port was lowered to stop the occasional "brass to face" ejection. One thing that is a nuisance is that the magazine doesn't hold the top round very tightly and it will inch forward and hang up when reloading.

Kahr factory 'Nite Sights', no replacements available?

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What brand sights are in your Kahrs? Trijicon will relamp them.

OOPS.

saltydog452 said:

My Kahr K9 was made in '96. The P9 a few years later.

The factory dovetail cut has changed since then.

K9 front sight globe has disapeared. Rear sight globes are waay dim. Kahr offers no replacements.

P9 AO globes are still in place, but dim. Neither the AO company(vendor/supplyer) and Kahr(their customer) have sight sets compatable with the 'old style' dovetails. No replacements available.

There was an approx 200.00 additional expense of adding the Tritium sight sets to the purchase price. Now there are no replacement sets available.

Thats a 200.00 planned obselence incentive from Kahr/AO.

Rant over.

sd.

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Check with Dawson Precison. They list old style and new style cuts on their web site.

Post 27 and 29.

Didn't know the sights could be re-lamped in their original housing. Thanks.

Dawson Precision, like EGW, makes good stuff. It never occured to me to think of them as an alternative source for old or new night sight sets for a Kahr handgun. Thanks.

salty.

Smooth Triggers, hit and miss quality.

I have a CM9 and a CW45. Purchased the CW45 in January 2014, and the CM9 in March 2014. Both are well past 1000 rounds.

CW45 problems when I first got it:
Failure to feed
Failure to go in to battery
Light primer strikes
nosedive jams

It turned out that most of these problems were related to the fact that the frame rails were too short. kahr replaced the frame, and all those problems went away. I got it back, shot a few hundred rounds through it, then the trigger broke. It's now back at kahr again. At this point I consider it a lemon. I don't trust it for CC, which sucks because I like the way it shoots including the trigger.

CM9 problems:
NONE. It is my EDC.

Like the OP, I am a lefty and more experienced with rifles. Nothing about the design is a problem as a lefty.

I'll probably end up buying an MK9 or a K9 someday. I probably wouldn't buy another Kahr in .45.

A P9 with a Crimson Trace laser is my daily carry gun. It has been very reliable and continues to be very accurate.

P9 AO globes are still in place, but dim. Neither the AO company(vendor/supplyer) and Kahr(their customer) have sight sets compatable with the 'old style' dovetails. No replacements available.

There was an approx 200.00 additional expense of adding the Tritium sight sets to the purchase price. Now there are no replacement sets available.

Thats a 200.00 planned obselence incentive from Kahr/AO.

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There are plenty of night sights available.

Directly on Kahr's website, you can order an XS Big Dot for $120.00.
Here are old style Mepro for $80.00 also direct from Kahr.
And you can even get just a front sight replacement if you want. It's all of 30 bucks.

Used to carry Kahrs (PM9, P9, MK9, K9.) Switched over to a Walther PPS because I liked the trigger better. Also picked up a Sig 290 recently; it reminds me a lot of the MK9 (similar size, weight and trigger feel.)

Kahrs are great guns. If you like the feel of the trigger, you'll love the K9.

Thanks Ben

What I said regarding the replacement tritium sights were what I was told verbally a/o via keybard by Kahr a/o the AO company.

If in-stock supplies have changed, I wasn't aware.

Thanks for the update.

salty

I've had the same K9 I bought new in 1998 and I've yet to have a malfunction. It's my first choice as a slim, accurate, reliable handgun. As mentioned earlier, most of the problems noted have been with the polymer frames; the steel ones appear to have fewer complaints. I haven't seen many complaints lately, but I don't know if that's because it isn't the newest flavor of the day or whether Kahr has figured the situation out and they're reliable.

Let me comment on the "long trigger" I've seen mentioned. That applies to the amount of distance you have to actually pull the trigger, not the length of reach from the back strap of the grip, which is actually quite short at 2.43 inches. It's trigger pull was designed to emulate a revolver, not a Glock.

I can only speak wrt the stainless Kahrs. I have a T9, two K9s and an MK9.

They have all been trouble free. I carry the MK9 and shoot it about as well as the K9s and almost as well as the T9.

I prefer the Elite trigger but have to admit it really doesn't help my groups all that much when compared to the "original" trigger.

As mentioned earlier the magazines are a bit problematic; they tend to shed rounds; they have a rather flimsy feel to them and I don't think they age all that well.

Based upon the stories I've heard over the past several years concerning their customer service these will have to be the last Kahrs that I ever buy which is too bad. Just too many bad stories out there to ignore... and too many other companies with excellent reputations. Way to go Kahr!

Jaywalker said:

As mentioned earlier, most of the problems noted have been with the polymer frames; the steel ones appear to have fewer complaints.

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That bears out my experience. A PM9 I purchased in 2006 was lucky to fire three consecutive shots at first, requiring a barrel and recoil spring to fix. At least that did fix it.

I carried Kahr's for a long time and my experience was great with the steel models. The poly models I owned all had the slide lock quirk, which does not work well for a lefty.

rodinal220 said:

Minor note,the chambers may be a wee bit tight and do not like crappy ammo.Never had problems with factory type ammo but some dubious reloaded training ammo was foisted on my agency at the time and sometimes would not chamber.

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I also purchased my K9 in the 90's. There was no stainless option at the time so I opted for electroless nickel (which I love). This was back before the redesign with the reinforced frames.
I had the exact experience with the tight chamber issue. I actually sent my K9 back to Kahr Arms for this reason after experiencing some feed AND extraction issues. Kahr sent the K9 back with a polished feed ramp and chamber, but requested I not use "garbage ammunition" in the K9 due to the tight tolerances of the K9.
It turns out I was using American Ammunition (not to be confused with American Eagle), factory reloaded ammunition that apparently wasn't resized.

I've put many rounds through the K9 since then and it's proven quite reliable and very accurate. Most factory ammunition was Georgia Arms +P and +P+. This pistol is still as tight as it ever was. It was my primary carry for about a decade until being usurped by polymer pistols of higher magazine capacity (M&P40c and XDM 3.8 .45acp) that I shoot just as well. I still feel the K9 is an excellent option for carry or home defense. There's no way I'm selling my K9 and every time I pick it up, I get the urge to carry it again; it fits my hand like it was custom made for me.

I don't have any experience with the polymer frame models, but my experience with the steel frame K9 has been awesome.

Here's my K9 ('96 manufacture) along with a UC9 and M&P40c:

what do you mean by "slide lock quirk," skt239? Hand bumps the slide lock while firing? Just curious...

Snowdog said:

I also purchased my K9 in the 90's....I was using American Ammunition (not to be confused with American Eagle)...

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I remember buying that crap back around that time. Nothing but problems.

Tony k: what do you mean by "slide lock quirk," skt239? Hand bumps the slide lock while firing? Just curious...

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Maybe he means the prescribed method for charging the pistol. Kahr says not to pull the slide back and release in order to feed a round from the magazine. They prefer to start with the slide locked back on a full magazine, then the slide release used to release the slide to load the chamber.

IMHO Kahr series of 9x19 guns have a lot going for them as carry guns. That shouldn't be too big of a surprise as they were purpose built to be CCW guns. In fact Kahr was somewhat ahead of the curve in building a small single stack 9x19 expressly for CCW. If it were to be an only gun I'd take a K9 over the others. The cons of slightly larger and heavier are off set in shoot-ability for me vis-a-vis the CW/P 9. The K9 sized guns hit the sweet spot in concealability versus shootability. When a gun gets much smaller I find it looses a bit more than I like in terms of how well I can shoot and operate the gun.

Now while Kahr was ahead of the curve the buying public has bought in and thus so have other manufactures. I have Kahrs and I don't see a need to replace them, however, were I starting from scratch I think there is a high probability I would get a PPS or shield over a Kahr.

For a very small carry gun the CM/PM 9 is the smallest practical 9x19 I've come across. Now someone will stomp there feet and point out the the R9 is smaller. Sure it is, however, I don't find it very practical. Anyone who thinks I'm up in the night I'd invite to go to the range with a shot timer to shoot any number of standardized drills. Some guns just give far to much in an effort to be small. Its a gun not a talisman and there is a certain performance level I don't like to dip below.

Jaywalker said:

Maybe he means the prescribed method for charging the pistol. Kahr says not to pull the slide back and release in order to feed a round from the magazine. They prefer to start with the slide locked back on a full magazine, then the slide release used to release the slide to load the chamber.

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I don't do this on either of my Kahrs. I don't know how necessary it is.

Cokeman said:

I don't do this on either of my Kahrs. I don't know how necessary it is.

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You have to do it that way on my P9 for a reliable feed .

One can power stroke a Kahr (at least all 8 I've used). However, lots of people do it wrong and ride the slide home. If you ride the Kahr it wont work. If you power stroke proper it will work (and if you think about the mechanics of the pistol and the slide closing that only makes sense.) Using the slide stop eliminates the chance for user error.

red rick said:

You have to do it that way on my P9 for a reliable feed .

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Yours is broken.

First, I gotta say that I've never fired a Kahr. On the other hand, in shopping around, I've found that I really like the feel of them - they fit my hand well, handle well and they point well.

What eventually moved me away from the Kahr (at least the ones I handled), is the slide release. I was shopping for a small pistol for the wife and thought a Kahr may be just perfect for her needs... then I talked with one of the better counter guys about his experience with Kahrs. He showed me that every single Kahr under his counter had extremely hard to press slide releases. I guessed that it would have been very difficult for the wife to either pull the slide back, or drop it with the slide release. In point of fact, it was even difficult for me to drop the slide via the slide lock lever.

Now if you guys with Kahrs can say that's not an issue, that's cool. I really like most every other aspect of them. The only other troubling thing for me is the stories about how they need a few hundred rounds through them before they operate well. I don't like that.

Kahrs have powerful recoil springs and are very hard for the ladies to rack the slide if they don't have a lot of strength. Women need to try working the slide before choosing a Kahr. It can be a deal breaker. A Kahr can also help them build strength until it's not a problem.

The 200 round thing is not a big deal. One of mine had to break in, the other didn't.