Kahr: Stripping down and getting clean?

[Amadeus]

Okay Kahr owners. I have a question. A friend of mine is getting ready to buy her first gun. Kahr has caught her attention. I'm not sure which model, but I believe she wants one of the compacts.

How hard are Kahrs to field strip and reassemble? How many steps is it from locked and loaded to stripped and ready for a basic cleaning?

Are we talking about lots of little flying parts and extra tools? Or this an easy gun to clean and maintain?

Thanks.

 

[Greybeard]

Owner of an older K-9 and PM9. It will be important to get an owners manual and follow disassembly/reassembly instructions to the letter. Most difficult part is getting slide lock pin in and out. Commonly a little tough the first time. Beyond that, no big deal. For some models, Kahr does provide/offer a little orange widget for inserting in chamber to hold slide back in specific position needed to tap out slide lock pin.

 

[Marko Kloos]

The Kahrs are easy to field-strip. You retract the slide so the mark on slide and frame line up, push the slide stop out, pull the trigger to decock the gun, and pull the slide off the frame. The slide stop is tight during the first few field-strippings, but it will loosen up after a while.

 

[WhoKnowsWho]

When I first got my K40 Covert, removing the slide stop pin was a pain. I had to hold the slide in the right spot and have my wife hit it out with a plastic hammer. But after a couple times, it started coming out a lot easier... and it was supposedly a used gun, maybe they never took it apart. Other than that, it is extremely simple. Small, good trigger, feels good.

 

[Rx7Boricua]

Make sure she's able to actually rack the slide before buying one. My MK40 currently has 120rnds through it, and my girlfriend has quite a fun time trying to rack the slide.

Field stripping is simple, as stated above.

 

[James Bondrock]

IMO, the Kahr is a great womens' gun, except for the field stripping part. It takes a fair amount of dexterity and hand strength to hold the slide in the proper position while against the pressure of the recoil spring, particularly while reinserting the slide stop through the frame and barrel lug holes. If not held level, the barrel tends to slip out of position, too. Because of my work which requires much manual labor, I have the necessary strength, but many women may not. In today's litigious times, I am surprised that they put out a design that absolutely requires that you pull the trigger before releasing the slide from the frame. (For the record, I have no problem with this; it is just an observation.) One of these days someone (in fact, they probably have already) is going to leave a round in the chamber and have an "unloaded gun/gun cleaning" accident. You can't say the manual doesn't warn you, however.

 

[RM]

I had the same problem getting the slide stop out of my Kahr K9. What I did was try inserting some different diameter wood dowell rods, etc. in the breach to hold the slide open to the right point. After trying a few things, I found an oversized plastic pen which when inserted down the breach would hold the slide open to just the right spot to remove the slide stop.

 

[denfoote]

Kahr manuals on line

Here you go!
This should help you out quite a bit!!

Kahr Manuals on line

On the left side, scroll down till you find "downloads" The manuals are there!! I think they are in PDF format, though.

 

[MoNsTeR]

They are simple, but difficult. The actual procedure is quite uncomplicated, but requires a lot of force to be exerted.

 

[CatsDieNow]

Yup, what everyone above said. I am small, female and have a MK9 and it takes me some effort to load magazines, to pull the slide back and to lock it. It 's a little more difficult to pull the slide back to a notch and then wiggle the pin out.

But...I can do it. I like my little Kahr.

 

[ScottS]

Great guns, Kahrs. I have a P9 as my carry piece, and it's great.

Two pieces of advice: 1) I went to Home Depot and bought a section of 2" dowel. I cut/trimmed it until it's just the perfect size. Now, I rack the slide, drop the dowel piece in, and it holds the slide at just the right point. The slide stop slips right out. Drilled a hole in it, and tied it to a pistol cleaning rod in my kit. 2) I like striker-fired guns; I have two (XD and P9). But, you/she need(s) to realize that if you try to strip the gun while loaded, you will fire a round. No two ways about it. You have to pull the trigger--satisfying all the internal safeties--to move the slide forward. Forget to unload your 1911/Sig/BHP when you strip it, and you're unsafe. Forget to unload your Kahr, and you guarantee an AD. You almost can't pick up a paper these days without reading about some cop capping a round into his leg while cleaning his Glock. I think about that every time I strip my XD or P9. Yes, yes, I know, we should always unload before stripping a firearm. But mistakes happen, and especially to rookies. Make this mistake with a non-striker-fired weapon, and at least bullets aren't flying.

My .02, and overpriced at that.

Scott

 

[Amadeus]

I was not aware that one must pull the trigger as a part of the take-down process. That's....um....alarming.

 

[Partisan Ranger]

As others have covered, breaking down a Kahr is easy, but getting that pin out the first time is a son of a biscuit.

Ready for a laugher? The Kahr manual says to 'tap' the pin out.

Uh, yeah. I eventually had to 'tap' mine out using this technque:

1. Pick up Craftsman hammer.
2. Pick up 2-3" bolt.
3. Place protective cloth over k-9.
4. Place bolt end on pin.
5. Whack the bejesus out of pin.
6. After pin is partially dislodged, place small screwdriver in pin hole.
7. Whack the bejesus out of pin again to fully dislodge pin.

After that, it's cake. And getting the pin back in is no problem.

Regarding pulling trigger to break down a Kahr: Not unusual. You have to do the same with my Glock 27.

 

[oldman]

Knocking out the slide stop pin gets easy after the first few times, but it still won't get to the point where it will push out easy like a 1911. I just use the thick end of a widget (a plastic tool that some 1911 users may know about) to tap out the Kahr's slide stop pin. It's about 6inches long and about 1/4inches thick but is tapered to a flat at one end. Slight tap and that's it, either it flies out or you can pull it out the rest of the way. No sweat. I've a K-9 and a K-40, but the 40 is my favorite.

 

[BamBam-31]

Mine's easy to take apart as well. The first 2-3 times, the slide lock was tight, but I never needed tools. Now, I line up the marks with my right hand and jiggle out the slide stop with my left. No problemo.

To line up marks one-handed: Place pistol on palm of right hand, muzzle pointed to left. Wrap thumb around backstrap, other four fingers up around slide. Use thumb to push frame while other fingers firmly hold slide. Voila! (Might be slightly difficult if fingers/hands are weak.)

I wouldn't sweat the pulling of the trigger, either. Step 1 in firearm disassembly is to always make sure firearm is unloaded, eh?